Postgame Quotes - Memphis 77, OU 65 - University of Oklahoma

Oklahoma Head Coach Jeff Capel

Opening comment:

"I'd like to congratulate Memphis. I thought they played really well, did some good things. They do a really good job of keeping the floor spaced out and driving the basketball. For how athletic they are and how good they are off the bounce, they're a very unselfish team. You don't see a lot of forced shots and guys understand their roles.

"I thought our guys did some good things. I thought we fought, continued to battle. We had some chances to chip away at about the 4-minute timeout when the lead was 10. But just too many turnovers, we didn't execute as well. You have to give credit to them. Their pressure really took us out of a lot of things we like to do.

"It was a good test for our team. Obviously we're disappointed with the result and we're looking forward to what lies ahead, playing against a good Georgia Tech or Purdue team."

On if the heat was a factor:

"Sure. The floor was slick, we fell a lot. I mean that's not the reason we lost the game. We lost the game because they were better than us at this point. But it does play a factor. We're not a deep team. Memphis is a deep team and has more bodies than we do. So it did play a factor but it wasn't the reason we lost."

On the problems Memphis' full-court pressure caused OU:

"It cost us a lot. We turned it over and didn't handle it well. We didn't attack it. That's one of the things we talked about coming in. We wanted to attack it -- try to get layups, try to get dunks, try to get easy shots. We didn't do that.

"They just come at you in waves. They're long and athletic and bring bodies off the bench. But I thought the main thing was their offensive penetration. They usually have four guys on the floor who can dribble, pass and shoot. They do a great job of spacing and they were constantly beating us on initial penetration, getting to the basket, creating easy opportunities for their teammates."

On how he thought freshman guard Tony Crocker performed:

"I don't think you got to see a lot of what he can really do because of foul trouble. Tony's a really good player and I thought this was the type of game he could really impact because of his athleticism. He's probably our most athletic perimeter player. You were able to see some things but he was in foul trouble. Hopefully what this showed all of our first-year guys is that our competition level went up. We played against one of the top 15 teams in the country and it showed us how much more work we have to do. We've been telling our team that, but when you average margin of victory is 40 sometimes its hard for them to believe it.

"We have to understand how hard we have to work, how hard we have to play, the value of each possession. And you learn that by how hard you practice. Tony Crocker is one of our hardest practice players so that's how I know he's going to be good. These two guys sitting beside me (Michael Neal and Taylor Griffin) are two of our best practice players. It's no trick. There's a reason why these two guys played well (today). It's because they practice that way and practice at a high level."

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Postgame Quotes - Memphis 77, OU 65

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