Feb. 17, 2007

Recap |  Box Score |  Notes

Cal head coach Ben Braun

On getting his 200th career win today:

"As I've always said, it's never about me. It's about this team and these fans. It's great to get wins in this arena."

On the team's effort:
"I'm real proud of our team's effort. We got down early and battled back. That's the way it's been going lately, and I told our team we don't want to put ourselves in that position."

On the extra time being put on the clock at the end of regulation:
"It's unfortunate to have a clock error in our own building. But I believe you have to be fair and just. And I think they (officials) were fair and made the right call at the end. In those types of situations, you never want to foul the shooter, especially when he is in the act of shooting. He (Angelo Tsagarakis) hit one of the toughest three-pointers I've seen."

On the overtime period:
"You really have to give our kids a lot of credit. You have two hungry teams out there trying to get a win. But our team came right out and scored immediately. It was good for us to play ahead in overtime."

On Patrick Christopher's play today:
"I was real proud of his effort today. He really stepped up for us on the defensive end. We were short-handed down the stretch, and I thought every rebound he had was a key rebound. I really commend his defensive performance. He also did a great job offensively, splitting their zone and being able to penetrate."

On adjustments the team made at halftime:
"The first half, we weren't really attacking inside, passing or dribbling. I told our guys we've got to be more aggressive, and we were by moving the ball, spreading the floor and attacking the post. We got the ball to the rim a lot more in that second half."

On Theo Robertson's play today:
"He did a great job for us defensively, as well, when we needed to get stops. (Sasa) Cuic struggled against Theo. A top-notch performance by Theo tonight. His defense really impressed me; he saved the day for the Bears."

On playing without Ryan Anderson down the stretch:
"Give Oregon State credit, they went to their big guy down low and got Ryan in foul trouble. But our team answered the call. For our team to survive down the stretch without Ryan was huge. All of our guys played big. We really had to battle with courage to get this win, and we did."

On next week's games at UCLA and USC:
"This is probably going to be one of our toughest challenges all season. We have a chance to play two really good, nationally-ranked teams. But I told our guys anything can happen. This is a great chance for us to knock off two nationally-ranked teams, which helps our chances to make it to the postseason."

Cal Players

Freshman Patrick Christopher

On the cause of his recent improvement:

"Just my teammates and coaches leaving messages and showing their confidence in me. My coaches telling me to be confident and aggressive. Remembering basketball is fun."

On how not playing as much early in the season helped:
"Sometimes there is an advantage to being on the bench. You see how (your opponents) play and adjust."

Sophomore Theo Robertson

On beating both Oregon and Oregon State:

"If we play hard and play together, we can do well. That is something we needed for this game. It's been a struggle of being consistent and playing a complete game. We've had good halves, but you need to play for all 40 minutes. This week was good for us getting on the right track."

Senior Ayinde Ubaka

On Cal's goal for the rest of the season:

"The ultimate goal is to win the NCAA Tournament. We are just taking it one game at a time. We always thought we could do this. Any competitive athlete finds it offensive being counted out when we lose a few players."