Nov. 19, 2006

Recap |  Box Score

Ohio Head Coach Tim O'Shea
Opening statement:
When Sonny (Troutman) and Leon (Williams) don't necessarily have their best day and we still get a win, I'm pretty happy about that. I'm excited to see the bench developing and that's what I was hoping for, to start two games at home and get two wins before we go on the road. I thought Yale gave us a good test today and we had enough in us to pull out a win.

On defense helping offense:
I think you kill your momentum when you miss a lot of free throws sometimes, and we missed so many free throws right off the bat, it's demoralizing. The crowd, everybody, you can feel it in the building when you consistently get to the free throw line and you can't cash in. It's two games in a row we missed a lot of points on the free throw line but that's going to happen. The fact of the matter is, we still did enough good things to win the game. They gave us nice test at the end, we had to hold our composure. I'm real pleased with the bench, the play Stephen King to come in and hit those two threes in the second half, and Kenneth van Kempen.

On Kenneth van Kempen:
Nobody is more surprised than I am by his progress because the guy that showed up in September and the guy playing for us now are two different people. He came with a great attitude, but he's gotten himself much more athletic through weight training and practicing everyday, and he works so hard. He's just gotten so much better. I've never seen a guy improve at the rate he has improved at and hopefully he can keep it up.

On van Kempen's shooting range:
That's the European in him, the big man who can shoot, that's a trait of most of your big European players. The thing I think that makes him a little but unusual is that his focus on the defensive end is so good. He's moving his feet, he's very active, he plays with a lot of energy. Again, he gave us a huge lift. A year ago, when Leon (Williams) had a bad night, an off night, we would struggle big time because we depended on him so much. But tonight you saw Leon, he was okay, and Kenneth was able to pick up the slack. I really don't expect him to score like this every night, but maybe he will, I don't know.

On Stephen King:
You should expect to see Stephen King all year with the way he's played. He's obviously proven he has a lot of confidence in himself. He gets in the game, he doesn't hesitate when he's open to take shots and that's what you're looking for. He's been terrific two games in a row and I think he's going to be a part of what we do all year long.

On Yale:
They did what they had to do on the road, which is they got off to a quick start. Part of it was we shot ourselves in the foot by not making any free throws. They had a nice run. In the second half, we were close to breaking it out a few times, and they threw in some tough shots. They're a good team. I saw a lot of good signs out there in that some of our better players can not their best night and we can still get a win against a good, solid team.

On the scoring runs by both teams:
That's basketball, it's a game of runs, and they had some runs on us to get back in it. James (Jones) has a good team, he's got size, they're very physical, they have a very good guard in 22. They always play a tough non-conference schedule. I coached at Yale for two years and one of the hardest things is the majority of your non-conference games are against scholarship programs. They should do well in the Ivy League.

On contributions from the bench:
I think our bench is showing some signs of life. The biggest thing is the guys have to accept their roles. You only got 200 minutes to distribute over the course of the ball game and not everyone is going to get to play as much as they would like, and they have to accept it and be there for the team.

On utilizing Stephen King:
King is a better option against zone. Whitney (Davis) was playing great and Sonny (Troutman) is just one of those guys you go with, he's a playmaker for us. If they were going to stay in that zone, I needed to have King on the floor.

Ohio sophomore Jerome Tillman
On Ohio's slow start:
Last game we came out a little flat, and this game we did come out a little flat early on. We just picked up our defense intensity because when you get deflections, get your hands on loose balls, get quality rebounds, and start a fast break, that gets us motivated and gets it up to the fast-paced tempo we like.

On Ohio's defensive effort:
Toward the end of the first half we started being more aggressive on the defensive end and getting a lot of steals and turnovers. We went on a big run. We try to pride ourselves on defense, being aggressive, because we know we have the athletes to do it.

On Ohio's frontcourt:
Kenneth (van Kempen), Matt (Annen), Leon (Williams), and I always work hard everyday try to get better because we feel we're the backbone of the team. So we get going, the guards get going, it's a domino effect.

On Ohio taking the lead just before the half:
It was huge because we tried to get a little momentum in there, then they'd hit a big shot and it's kind of go down a little but once we started getting those steals, it got me hyped and brought everybody up.

Ohio freshman Kenneth van Kempen
On his contributions:
I want to come out every time and work hard to help the team out. That's what I try to do is see what I can do to get the team to win a game. I just try to become a little better every week, step higher to see where we come every game.

On his three-pointers:
I'm working on it, try to get that in my game too. I'm trying to shoot a lot of threes at practice. I think the audience that cheers real loud gave me an energy shot, gave me some adrenaline, and that was nice.

On the role he expected to fill this year:
I just came in and tried to become better every week and I want to see what I can contribute every game. He (Coach O'Shea) gives me the time right now and that's nice. I didn't really expect that, and I just came in to work hard and see what happens.

Yale Head Coach James Jones
On game:
I thought we got off to a real good start. Our kids played hard and we had a good effort tonight. I thought there was a lull in the first half where we got going a little faster than we like to play, and then we made some mistakes that got them back in the basketball game. I thought we were pretty much in control until that point and I got them some confidence going into the second half.

On not evening it up in the second half:
We had a couple opportunities; we ended up not finishing when we had opportunities. We had defensive rebounds and we ended up losing that and we ended up fouling them a lot, they ended up going to the free throw line and being able to put points on the board from the free throw line, where that really helped their offense. They made 21 points on the free throw line, where we made five and that's not a good recipe for success.

On coaching in The Convo again:
It's a little different being on that bench than being on the other bench. You have the hometown fans with you, and that's obviously a great thing. This is a great town, I love this place. I was sad to leave. I had recruited a couple kids in Brandon Hunter and Steve Esterkamp and I didn't get a chance to coach them. Larry Hunter is a great man and I really enjoyed working for him for two years and wanted to come back and spend some time in town and get to see some folks that I haven't see in quite some time.

On their first road game of the year:
Most of our games will be on the road from year in to year out; this year actually we have more home games then we've ever had in my eight-year tenure at Yale. For the most part, this is something that we're used to doing. We're going to get on a bus and go to Dayton and play them on Tuesday, where my sport information director went to school, so I'm sure we're going to have a nice, friendly crowd just like we had here tonight, rooting for the Bulldogs to get a W.