(Photo: Jason Fairchild, 247Sports)
EUGENE, Ore. — After spending the last week across the country in Pennsylvania and Ohio, Kelly Graves says his team is happy to be back in their own beds.
It will be an extended home stay for the Ducks, who will host Purdue on Wednesday, Iowa on Sunday and then Indiana on Jan. 24. For the Ducks to break their two-season NCAA Tournament drought, this stretch must go to plan, and it will start against a Purdue team, Graves warns, should not be overlooked.
“You can’t look at their record,” he told reporters on Tuesday afternoon. “They’re a lot better than that record. I think they’re really solid. They’ve got inside players who can play. They’ve got outside [players]. They’ve got playmakers. They can penetrate. They’re shooting the ball like crazy.”
Purdue is 0-5 in Big Ten play. All five losses have come to teams currently ranked in the the top 25. Their other four losses this season have come to South Carolina, Notre Dame, Kentucky and Middle Tennessee State, meaning eight of nine defeats this season have been to ranked teams, including losses to the top three ranked teams.
“We’ve tried to impress upon the team today that don’t look at their record,” Graves said. “These guys can play. I’m not sure our record might not be much different if we had that same competition, and vice-versa. I’m expecting a tough game. We’re going to have to play well.”
Purdue has not been competitive in its defeats though. Those eight ranked losses have come by an average of 27.6 points per game, including four straight defeats by 18 points or more in conference play.
The Boilermakers are led by senior guard Destini Lombard, who averages a team-high 12.3 points per game, and senior forward Reagan Bass, who is second in scoring (10.4) and first in rebounding (6.0).
Graves also discussed a variety of other topics during his 10 minutes speaking the press.
Below is a collection of other notable quotes.
On Katie Fiso’s availability after her grandfather’s passing:
“Katie will be back tomorrow. I’m not sure we’ll be able to play her. I think she’s doing fine. We were texting this morning. It’s a tough blow for a kid to in a one-month period lose two people unexpectedly that are very close to you. We always wish her the best. We felt it was probably better that we were on the road and she was with her teammates when she heard that. That becomes your second family and I know they really took it hard, and I think played inspired because of it.”
On what they took from the second half in Columbus:
“Just the fight. We had an opportunity to get it closer late. I told the team these guys are going to get tight if we get it within a two-possession game. We had a few opportunities to do that and missed some good looks. I liked our fight, and we cleaned up everything. They’re forcing like 25 turnovers per game. We only turned it over two times in the second half. That was the reason we were able to score and kind of play our game. There was a lot of positives, but just again a really bad second quarter, where we didn’t block out and turned it over.”
On his message to fans turning out for these three home games:
“I think we play a pretty good brand of basketball, and we’re winning. We’re 10-1 at home. I’d like to think the fans would like to come out, and they’d be seeing sometimes who’ve probably never been here in Iowa, Indiana and Purdue. Those are schools you hear about a lot, but that don’t play here. Hopefully our marketing team is doing a great job. I get it. People are a little bit gun shy. We haven’t been quite as good, so they’re still testing the waters so to speak. But we need them here. We need this to be a real home court advantage because we see it the other way. We have to make four really long trips to the other side of the country. They only have to make one. If they play us and Washington, they don’t have to play the LAs. We want to make this difficult for teams.”
On Phillipina Kyei’s increased workload (10.0 points and 7.3 rebounds per game in 25.3 minutes per game over last four games):
“We need it. We really need it. We’re a different team when Philly is a presence… She makes a huge difference. I thought for the first time in a while, she had an impact defensively, she was a force defensively. Sometimes, that’s not been the case. The Wisconsin game here she was that way and the second half against Ohio State. We need Philly to continue to be a force for us. That changes who we are.”
On if he likes utilizing 11 or 12 players per game:
“Nope. It’s never fun. In a lot of cases, kids just aren’t separating. That’s what happens. How many different leading scorers have we had? It’s got to be five or six. You just never know. It makes the continuity difficult sometimes.”
