Video: Charles Callison and Ike Iroegbu
IKE IROEGBU
(What went wrong at the end of the first half?)
Coach had a good game plan. He gave us things that we needed to do and for a while we were doing that pretty well. When you've got a team like Arizona, if you slip up once, twice, three times, they come back and they'll hit four 3s on you. That separated it and we weren't able to bounce back.
(What was the game plan?)
Double off some of their guards to help the bigs. Stay on (Gabe) York, because he's a really good shooter. We did that and then their guards started getting hot. That's what good players do. So we just didn't fire back as they were making shots. They just did a good job. They're a really good team.
(Were their big men a factor?)
Arizona always has good bigs. So we knew that coming into the game that our bigs were going to have to match up with their bigs. Our bigs did the best they could. Arizona's a really good team. For the past few years they've had a lot of pros who have been big men. So our bigs are going to learn from this and get better, and get better for next game.
(How much did environment affect the game?)
I felt like we did a good job, for a while. (Robert Franks), for him being a freshman his first time out here, I think he did a really good job of controlling himself and staying poised. But when you make a couple mistakes, and Arizona gets a couple dunks on their home court, their crowd gets crazy. It's sold out every game. I think the crowd had a huge effect on the game, as they do all their games. But you come in to play a team like Arizona, you can't have a mistake, because their team is going to feed off it.
CHARLES CALLISON
(What were you doing well and what changed?)
We were just making the guards have the game and trapping the bigs, because they're so physical down there. Once we got away from that, that's when they had their run and it got away from us.
(How do you get past a loss like this?)
We've just got to put it behind us and get better from it.
(Was dealing with the crowd a big adjustment for you?)
Yeah. It was basically just a mental thing for me, staying poised, because I knew the crowd was going to get into it and I knew the team was going to feed off the environment. We just had to stay poised throughout the whole game, and we couldn't do that, and we just broke down mentally. And it got away from us.
