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CBS SPORTS CLASSICDecember 22, 2018Chris HoltmannKaleb WessonCJ JacksonLas Vegas, Nevada Ohio State 80, UCLA 66 COACH CHRIS HOLTMANN: Really proud of the effort of our guys, particularly the second half, I thought UCLA's length bothered us. I know, I give them credit, I think they played a hard game the other night on the road, and we thought that we would see zone but. I'm not sure we thought we would see that much. But give our guys credit, they responded well. I thought UCLA, they were difficult to attack in that zone because of their length and their size. We certainly wish them well moving forward, but these guys were instrumental in our second half. Q. What were you able to do in the second half to better attack the zone and then have success? KALEB WESSON: Is that for all of us? Can you repeat the question, please? Q. In the second half, you had much better success against the zone, what did you do to attack it? KALEB WESSON: I felt our off-ball movement, just being able to get the ball in the middle of the floor and then just everybody moving off of that really helped find open shots. C.J. JACKSON: Kaleb pretty much said it. Guys were making a lot were making the pass -- in the first half, we were kind of letting the zone push us back to halfcourt. At halftime, adjustment, Coach told us to press up more on the line closer and we were able to find Kaleb in the middle and he was able to make good plays. Q. C.J., you person any in the second half, you had 20 or 22. When you get rolling, what does that feel like, and how does help the team? C.J. JACKSON: Biggest thing was my teammates, they were looking out for me. I started hitting a couple of shots, got an easy floater in the beginning. When I was struggling in the first half, all the coaches and players stayed on me and said keep shooting, and that's how they are in practice when you're struggling. They tell you to keep going because they have seen the success out of each player. It's always easy to play for guys like that. KALEB WESSON: We know we want him to keep shooting. If he misses three in a row, we want him to shoot the fourth one. He's a great shooter and we like to find him when he's open. Q. C.J., you seem to have a knack, like if you're struggling for 30 minutes, usually the last ten are good. What does it take to put that in the back of your mind and start making plays when the team needs you? C.J. JACKSON: The biggest thing you is want to affect the game in some type of way, whether it's rebounding, defensively, anything. First half, I was struggling with my turnovers, a couple defensive assignments I missed. So in the second half, I just had to change my mindset and the defense -- I focused on defense more and I was able to knock down a couple shots. Q. Kaleb, with C.J. struggling the first half, you were able to -- I think ten points and a handful of rebounds. Complementing each other seems to be big for you guys. How are you able to do that and then carry that over to help him get going in the second half? KALEB WESSON: I think about it as playing inside-out. It helps C.J. get open shots. As well as I can keep it up and pick up the game, I feel like he gets my teammates open shots, and I feel like that helps my team a lot. Q. Kaleb, how much were you focused on trying to wear them down physically? Looked like you really made an effort, especially early. They obviously had length and size, but you seemed to go at them from a physical standpoint. KALEB WESSON: Yeah, that's what we tried to do for 40 minutes, I feel just occupying them, getting in their legs, trying to wear them down was a big key. Q. For both players. You guys are at this point going into your holiday 11-1, best start for Ohio State in probably five years or more. Just your thoughts about where you are at right now, you have one more game left non-conference before you get into the big part of your schedule, the Big Ten. Your thoughts; are you guys pleased -- I know there's been ups and downs, but overall, 11-1 is a pretty good start. KALEB WESSON: Happy but not satisfied. We still have a lot of work to do. We have to work on our defense and staying in for 40 minutes, from the tip to the final buzzer I feel like. C.J. JACKSON: Yeah, it's always a good thing, just when you're winning, that you can't really complain too much. But like Kaleb said, I feel like we have a long way to go. The coaches know that we are not at our best and like I said, December is not when you want to be at your best. It's a long season. We have to finish this last part of our first non-conference part of the season right against high point. Q. Kaleb, size was a big factor in this one, going against their guys in the paint, what challenge was that for you? How was that a challenge and how did you overcome it? KALEB WESSON: It made me work on my lower body more, trying to get in their legs and weed out space for myself for rebounding and finding angles for my teammates to find me. Q. I know you have a long way to go here, but you have these four sort of non-conference games and your team got three of them and you got three that weren't in your own building. Do you take inventory of that, knowing you have a lot still to play but what these three could mean for you guys moving forward? COACH CHRIS HOLTMANN: Yeah, Syracuse, couldn't get that one at home, that's for sure. Yeah, listen, we wanted to -- last year, we did not do a great job in non-conference games that are going to be evaluated at the end of the year by the NCAA Tournament selection committee. That was something we were trying to be a little more aware of, but you know, I doubt we're going 15-3 in the Big Ten this year. So to have a non-conference where we could pick up some wins that are important was good, but more than anything, you know, we have to keep growing and getting better. Q. The zone obviously gave you some problems which you seemed to solve as the game went on. What was the key in your eyes to doing that and you had 26 assists on 28 field goals. Pretty good. COACH CHRIS HOLTMANN: Yeah, I think it was -- you know, we were a little bit passive early in the zone. I think that hurt us early with probably the first four or five possessions, and you know, I've obviously got to do a better job of making sure that our guys are more aggressive and attacking in the zone. Their length bothered us. I think their first two possessions, they had two steals off of C.J.'s passes. I just thought we were more aggressive. We drove them a little bit more in the zone and we posted and moved it a little bit quicker, which was instrumental for us. I thought we had really open 3s for the bulk of the game. We just didn't make them all. Q. What happened today that was better against UCLA than Syracuse and did that game pre prepare you for today's game? COACH CHRIS HOLTMANN: We were okay nearly attacking their zone. I thought we did some good things in that particular game sense Syracuse. Our defense struggled in that game. That was probably the most significant. But you know, they are different zones, and how they play, both have terrific size. You know, there's some intricacies that make Syracuse's zone a little bit different because it's been their base defense for however long Boeheim's been there. Q. We talked to you the other day that length and size was a big thing. What made Kaleb able to overcome that? We've seen that before against Purdue last year and whatnot. Why was he able to go against bigger guys and have success? COACH CHRIS HOLTMANN: We felt like he can could take advantage of his size. And he's really good at stealing. He's really good at catching. When you're evaluating big kids, those are two things that are important. He's got terrific hands. His width is improving, but we felt like he could get deep seal touches, deep post touches, against them. And we've been fairly effective all year at getting him some deep post touches. He just didn't quite finish them against Syracuse. Q. You're not going to get 20 1/2 every night from C.J. but when he gets rolling, what does that do for this team and your offense? COACH CHRIS HOLTMANN: I was really proud of him because I thought he was struggling a little bit early and I thought he had a stretch there that kind of broke the game open in the second half when we moved him off the ball. I thought Keyshawn, having ten assists and zero turnovers might have been as instrumental as anything because he can see things in the zone, and he's really good. That's why I couldn't take him out, because he's really good at attacking zones, driving gaps and finding right -- finding the right guys. So moving C.J. off the ball helped us. Q. What's the value in neutral court, national televised big games, events like this for you in the schedule. COACH CHRIS HOLTMANN: We love it. We love this event. I've said that. We have not -- oh, we've struggled in this event; I think they were maybe 1-3 coming into it. So to be able to get a win is important. We love the event. It's really well done. It's obviously three other basketball schools, three schools that have a tradition that's really unparalleled, so for us to kind of align ourselves in an event like that's great. Q. How do you handle C.J. throughout a game like this? He's had other games where he's had stretches where he just looks a little lost but then all of the sudden -- is he a guy you just have to have patience with? COACH CHRIS HOLTMANN: He just wants to do well and he intends to do well. He didn't always make great decisions. He drove it in there two-deep, but I like how aggressive he was late, and we just tried to stay positive with him as much as possible. I think with him, when you know you have a guy that all he cares about is his team win, I think you can give him a little bit of latitude it took to make mistakes. Q. You said you doubt you go 15-3 in the Big Ten this year. What do you think would be a good record in the league? COACH CHRIS HOLTMANN: I mean, it's fantastic. I have not watched all the teams, but I've never been a part of a league that is this deep in good from top to bottom. I've been part of this great leagues but never one quite like this. So I'd hate to speculate. I think Michigan State was 16-2 last year. If someone goes through this league this year, 16-2, they can certainly cut down the nets. Q. You said you didn't necessarily like the defense against Syracuse, but maybe some of that defense tied into the offensive struggles. Tonight that wasn't the case. You weren't hitting shots but the defense didn't seem to waiver. Why do you think you guys were able to handle that challenge in that way? COACH CHRIS HOLTMANN: Yeah, my only disagreement would be I couldn't stand our defense in the first ten minutes. I thought it was atrocious. I thought it was really bad. Now, we responded the last 30 minutes. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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