March 19, 2006

Georgetown Head Coach John Thompson, III

"We beat a very, very good team today. We have a group of guys, I guess, that decided they want to keep playing, and so we're still playing."

Do you agree with your players that size was not a big factor in this game?
"I think that if you look at [Terence] Dials' performance and their interior players' performance, I think they did pretty well also. Yes, our guys did a good job. If you look at Jeff Green's line, it's pretty good. They're use to playing against size. I'm not sure. I think our post players did a very good job."

What does it mean for Georgetown University basketball to be back in the Sweet 16?
"I think we'll wait until the season's over to see what all this means. We're hopefully not done. It was important for us to be in a position to make the Big East tournament this year. We're in a league, an unforgiving league, where any slip-ups, you might not make the Big East tournament. We're fortunate to be in a position to participate in the NCAA tournament. We finished one weekend, and we're fortunate to move on. At the end of the year, we'll digest everything and see what this means to Georgetown."

Were you more impressed with offensive or defensive effort?
"They [Ohio State] are a terrific team. They're a terrific offensive team. I said this yesterday, you focus on [Terence] Dials because he's so good because you can't stop him. When you put all your energy there, they surround him with four terrific shooters. Actually, we wanted to just focus to limit the three's. He's [Ja'Kel Foster] a guy that can go off. He's a guy that can get hot. I thought for the most part, though, our defense was pretty good knowing what they were trying to accomplish and making adjustments. To come out in the second half, they made some good adjustments to start off. They got like six or eight points in a row, and then we figured that out and stopped that. What was more impressive? I thought our offense was pretty good for the most part all night. We'll see. I'm not sure."

Is this more special with your Dad being here to enjoy it with you?
"Is he here?" [John Thompson, II, from the back, "Right here."] "Yes. It is."

Did you do anything different on Ja'Kel Foster after his three three-pointers in the second half?
"We told our guys, `Don't leave him.' He's been in a shooting slump, but he's a terrific shooter. We told them, `Don't listen to the radio. Don't listen to the television when they say the guy is in a shooting slump because with our luck he's going to come out of it against us.' And he did. So, we just reminded him that this guy is one of the best shooters in the country, and I think after that they did a pretty good job."

What did you say in the huddle when Ohio State cut the lead to six?
"Just to relax and play. There were a lot of little adjustments we made. Our confidence is pretty good. We've been in some dogfights. We've been in some tough games through the year. We've been there. Our team, I think, did a very good job of tuning out the crowd. I think coming through the Big East, you get used to doing that because you play in some difficult environments. Just relax and focus on what we have to do, what we have to defensively, what we have to do offensively. Make sure on the offensive end, we didn't become stagnant. Making sure on the offensive end we didn't start to stand around and just look at the clock. That we continued to play and continued to turn it over. After the guys settled down a little bit, we got a couple of stops, and we got a couple of easy baskets on the other end."

Is it difficult when you have the crowd against you and playing a pressure-packed situation to have the players continue to be patient in that style of offense?
"When we want them to be patient, we will be patient. When we don't want them to be patient, we won't be patient. Our guys have a pretty good understanding and know what we need to do to win. So, no it's not. Some nights it is. Some nights it isn't. We've been in difficult situations, but we try not to think about the crowd."

Was this as good as Roy Hibbert has played in his career?
"I'm not sure about the numbers, but because of the stage that it's on and because it is this time of the year, yes. He has had some other very good games against quality opponents. But it's March, and you're playing for a lot more than you were earlier in the year. So, was this his biggest game? Yes, without a doubt. Probably say the same thing about Jeff [Green]. Might say the same thing about Ashanti [Cook]. Just because of the timing. You work all year to get here. You work all year to put yourself in a position to win now. So was that his biggest game? Yes. No doubt."

Georgetown Student-Athlete Quotes

Senior Guard Ashanti Cook

Do you feel like your team's height was an advantage over Ohio State
"We weren't really thinking about our height as an advantage, pretty much we were just going to play team defense and not worry about our height or anything and wanted to grind it out."

On whether this was Roy's best overall game against a quality opponent
"This is one of Roy's best games against a quality opponent but he has been playing great for us all season. I just hope he continues to play the same way, aggressive and just dominate in the paint like he's been doing all year."

On marking Ohio State Guard J.J. Sullinger, how as able to slow him down
"JJ Sullinger is a very good player. He's long and athletic and coaches say he is a driver first, so I played him into his off hand and played his moves well. Offensively, I just made sure he was guarding people so he couldn't help down on Roy and helped out my teammates pretty much, I just tried to keep him occupied."

On what they did to stop Je'Kel Foster and his good first half shooting
"Coach had mentioned to us that he was in slump and he did hit three three-pointers. [Coach] said they were going to make a run, but for the most part I think we withstood it and we just had to stay home on him pretty much. We would help on same-side drives and stayed a lot closer to him because he can go off and bring the team back."

Sophomore Center Roy Hibbert

Do you feel like your team's height was an advantage over Ohio State
"I was trying to make sure I get rebounds. Dials is a good rebounder and really physical in the post. I just had to make sure I would hang on him down low and I used my height to an advantage but I also used a little bit of my speed (Jokingly)."

Was this your best performance of the year in rebounding as a team?
"I do think that was the best rebounding performance of the year because we did it as a collective effort. Jonathan Wallace went in there for a rebound, I believe Ashanti (Cook) went in there for a rebound, Jeff (Green) grabbed really big rebounds for us, DJ, and I got rebounds so it's a emphasis every game for us to get big rebounds."

Talk about the atmosphere since the crowd was very much in Ohio State's favor
"We came in here knowing they were only an hour from this campus and we knew there would be a large fan base here. But we've played in atmospheres with the whole crowd against us so we had to do our best. So we just came in here, played and our seniors really led us"

On their emotions today and how they seemed to celebrate more in their victory against Duke
"We know we have a lot more games to win, so we celebrated on the court and got it out of our system. We celebrated in the locker room, but we came off the court with poise."