Oklahoma Postgame Quotes

Nov. 29, 2007

Head Coach Jeff Capel
On guard Austin Johnson, who played with strep throat:
"A really, really gutsy performance by him. We didn't know if he was going to play. He didn't practice on Tuesday, did just a little bit yesterday. He was throwing up and tried to gut through it yesterday. He did a great job for us out here tonight. I really appreciate what he did for us, working for us and giving everything he had. You could see that he was out of it at times, but he fought through the whole game and showed a toughness that we need all our guys to have."

On if focusing on USC's offensive weaponry took too much out of OU's offensive attack:
"No, not at all, because we had offensive struggles to start the game. We actually got better offensively in the second half. So I don't think that had anything to do with it. We just had to make shots. They weren't guarding some of our guys. We talked to our guys coming into the game that that's probably what (USC) was going to do. We saw them do it against Southern Illinois. They didn't guard (perimeter) guys and just sat down on top of the post -- had a guy behind, had a guy in front. And they did that. We have to have some guys who can step up and make some shots for us.

"It was kind of a tale of two halves. In the second half we made shots but didn't defend. They shot almost 60 percent. No team has shot over 40 percent against us and they shot 59 percent in the second half. We scored the ball better and started making some shots that put us in position to get back in the game, but we didn't get stops. We have to be able to put two halves together, put 40 minutes together to beat a good team."

On USC guard O.J. Mayo's slow start and strong finish:
"I've always said really good players have amnesia. He doesn't worry that he's missed shots. He has the confidence that he's going to run off points. I thought we did a great job. I thought David Godbold and Tony Crocker did, and the rest of our guys were pretty good (against Mayo). Crock worked his butt off on him. He really acceptetd the challenge and I thought David did, too, when he was on him.

"Like I said coming in, you're not going to stop a guy like Mayo. He's going to get points because he's going to get shots. He has a total green light and he's incredibly talented. But he scored 18 points on 19 shots. You can't ask for better than that. We hold (Daniel) Hackett and (Taj) Gibson to six points combined. Those are their second- and third-leading scorers. But we couldn't do anything with (Davon) Jefferson. Dwight Lewis had 11 points. Some of their guys came off the bench and impacted the game with hustle and rebounds and things like that. We talked for three days about focus, about concentration. We didn't do a good job of that as a group for 40 minutes."

USC Head Coach Tim Floyd:

On the crowd:
"The crowd was outstanding tonight. We needed it when they started to close it in the second half."

On USC's improved play:
"We continuing to do a few things well. We're making more free throws than the other team is attempting. We're continuing to defend and keeping teams at 35% or below. And we're rebounding better."

"We played through adversity with Taj getting in foul trouble early. We got good bench play."

"I liked our commitment on the defensive end. We did a great job on Griffin, not allowing him touches."

On the physical nature of the contest:
"We got banged up tonight. Hackett got kicked in the calf. Angelo took a knee to his knee. Kasey was under the weather. Hopefully, we'll regroup for Sunday."

On USC freshman O.J. Mayo:
"O.J. let the game come to him. He's a great talent. Lewis was very steady again. I'm really pleased with Davon. We've made strides from a year ago when we couldn't play without Taj."

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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