Oklahoma Postgame Quotes

Nov. 12, 2007

Head Coach Jeff Capel
Opening comment:
"I'm happy we won. We have to be better. We made some shots. It's still not the energy that I desire and still not the execution that we need to display when we get to good teams this year. We'll get to play against two good teams in New York (on Thursday and Friday). It's still not the intensity on the defensive end that we need. We're still making careless mistakes and turnovers. We have a long way to go, and it's kind of being masked a little bit maybe as far as looking at the stat sheets."

On playing better:
"I know we're going to have to get better. I certainly know that we have to start the game better. We have to have more intensity, energy and focus throughout the game. We can't play in spurts. We played in spurts last year and we were 6-10 in conference play and 16-15 overall because (of that). We have to get past playing in spurts. We have to play with a sense of urgency all of the time. Those are things we have to do. If we do that, our defense will be better."

On OU's upcoming tough schedule:
"It's a great positive for us and it's an incredible opportunity. That's the way I look at our schedule. Some people might say you over-schedule, but I look at it as a schedule of opportunity. As a player, you should want that. As a player, you should want to compete against the best. The really good ones love to compete. I have always said this: the really good players, the really good teams, they fall in love with the process of what it takes to become really good. And that's where we have to get better."

Senior Center Longar Longar
On tonight's game:
"Coach told us that we needed to come out and take care of business tonight because we have a big game coming up against Memphis. Alcorn State is a good team and they came out ready to play. I had the opportunity to have a good game tonight because the guards found Blake, Taylor and myself. I give all the credit to the guards; they played excellent and gave us big men the chance to score. We can use this game to get better and prepare for something bigger."

On Memphis:
"We need to get back on transition defense. That is an area were we have been struggling. Tomorrow we need to get back in the gym and correct our mistakes because Memphis is one of the, if not the most, talented team in the country and it will be a very big test for our team. We have an opportunity to better ourselves if we choose to."

Freshman Forward Blake Griffin
On the team's victory:
"We did a little bit better at the beginning of the game but still did not get going the way we wanted to and need to. We still did not play very good defense. We need to come out and play with more energy and a sense of urgency. That is something that Coach tells us every game. After a while we buckled down on defense and played well, but we have to do a better job."

On team improvements that need to be made:
"We need to play with more energy, knock down shots, rebound and play better defense. To beat a team like Memphis you have to do all of those things. We know that we can do those things the way that the coaches teach us, we just need to do it more consistently. Memphis is extremely talented and we need to play our best basketball on Thursday."

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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