Nov. 24, 2007
On the impact of Jerome Randle's return to action against the Aztecs:
Obviously he's a big key for us. Not only does he put pressure defensively on the ball, he does so many things from the standpoint of tempo. He gives you defensive tempo starting with pressure on the ball. In the second half, we held them to 28 percent, and Jerome had a lot to do with that.
On Cal's reduction of turnovers in the second half, committing only four after 12 in the first half:
I thought our team did better. Nikola [Knezevic] did better handling the ball, Eric [Vierneisel] down the stretch of the game, handling the ball, and Patrick [Christopher] - we've got guys who work awfully hard on the ball-handling, but give San Diego State credit. They are an extremely tough and competitive team. They're going to give some teams fits.
On the team's staying focused to snap out of an ineffective first half:
The way we did close the first half, our guys knew we were capable of playing much better in the second half. But it had to be going out and getting it done against a quality basketball team.
On the final six minutes of the game, when Cal outscored SDSU, 11-3, to break a 66-all tie:
There is no quit in our team. Our guys didn't quit. I know we were down the first half and a lot of teams would have gone away, but our team didn't. I know were all disappointed in our efficiency. But I noticed that our team, when the game was on the line, our guys stepped up. Guys weren't afraid to make shots and take charges. DeVon [Hardin] and Ryan [Anderson], huge games. To get 14 and 13 rebounds, that's a pretty good one-two punch, and they made some tremendous rebounds, not to mention altered some shots, and I thought defensively that was the name of the game. We've now played three games and held our opponents under 40 percent [shooting]. That's pretty good.
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