Quotable: Arizona cruises past WSU
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FROM PULLMAN -- As usual, we have some additional quotes to pass along after Washington State lost, 79-65, to Arizona on Saturday at Beasley Coliseum. See the video for the full postgame media sessions. Read on.
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KEN BONE
(On Mike Ladd's fouls) "That makes it hard. That really hurt us the first half."
(On not starting Ladd in the second half) "Didn’t want him to get his fourth within the first two, three four five minutes of the second half. A lot of times kids might tell you, 'no I’m fine, I’m fine,' (but) sometimes kids are in a position where they get a second foul."
(What challenges does Arizona present?) "How much time do you have right now?"
"You saw a a lot of guys that will be in the NBA. They’re young. (Solomon) Hill’s not young, but you saw he’s pretty good too. There’s a lot of challenges because they’re really good in the paint, really good 3-point shooting team, they’re strong, athletic, they drive the ball well. There’s a reason why they’re eighth in the country."
(On guarding Hill better after he made six 3s) "I think the second half we did a better job. He didn’t score in the second half and I thought we paid a lot more attention to him. To his credit he didn’t force the issue too much, played as a good team player but I thought our guys did a better job on him the second half. … A lot of the credit just goes to him. He’s a great basketball player."
(On Royce Woolridge continuing to stay aggressive) "It’s something that we’ve been trying to get him to do all year long. We feel like he’s probably as good as anybody else on our team as far as getting into the lane, and you need someone to be able to do that because usually in that situation the defense collapses, and now if you pass it out to guys you get pretty good looks. That's one of the reasons they (Arizona) shot it so well in the first half from the 3-point line."
(On making changes going forward) "We’re going to keep trying to get better at what we’ve been doing. I would feel different if we’ve been getting blown out. This might be the most lopsided loss we’ve had out of the seven."