Oklahoma Postgame Quotes

Nov. 8, 2007

Head Coach Jeff Capel
On the effectiveness of Austin Johnson running the point:
"A.J. (Austin Johnson) has done some really good things for us. He had a tough matchup with (Manny) Quezada. Manny is a really confident player and is your typical Washington D.C. point guard - that's where he's from. He is really confident, has the total green light. I thought A.J. did a solid job on him and on offense Johnson had seven assists and zero turnovers. I thought he did a good job of running our offense."

On the team playing with emotion:
"Personally, it's really good to see A.J. play with some emotion and passion. I thought he did that tonight and our guys fed off that. That is one thing we need from whoever is playing point guard. You need that guy to have emotion and have a lot of passion, and A.J. really did that tonight. "

On the team improving throughout the game on offense:
"I thought early (Tony) Crocker was trying to make plays happen instead of letting the play happen. I thought that's where the turnovers in the first half came from, trying to drive into people where there was a lot of traffic. I thought he did a better job of settling down in the second half and picking spots. He was very diverse, and he's going to be a guy that scores for us. All of our guys need to understand where our strength is, and that is inside."

On freshman forward Blake Griffin:
"Blake was getting double teamed in his first game. I told him he had to get used to that. Early, I thought he did a good job of passing out of it. Later in the game, I thought he was a little over aggressive. I thought we had good movement in the second half. Our post guys are not selfish and they do a good job of passing the ball."

Freshman Forward Blake Griffin
On his first college game:
"It felt great to play in my first real game. I felt like we played a lot better as a team than we did in the first two exhibitions. We played more together and played a lot better on defense. When a team does those two things it's a lot easier to get baskets in transition and accomplish our goals that we have set out to accomplish."

On where he needs to improve:
"I definitely need to play harder every possession, I have to keep my intensity up every play and I have to be able to do that for a full 40 minutes. I know that to be the player I want to be I have to improve all facets of my game."

Junior Guard Austin Johnson
On his play tonight:
"I have been working on my game all summer and up to this point trying to keep improving. I have focused on keeping my turnovers down and having a high assist-to-turnover ratio. I just let it come to me, I try not to rush things or hurry things. I like to let things come to me and when you do that you have a better chance of not turning the ball over."

On what the team can improve on:
"Defensively we need to get better at help-side defense, we need to improve on blocking out and our on-the-ball defense needs to improve tremendously. We have a lot to work on but we will be a better ball club once we improve in those areas."

San Francisco Head Coach Jessie Evans
Opening comment:
"To say the least, we are disappointed in our showing even though we played a big and physical team. We felt that we could play a little better than we did. I thought early on defensively we did some good things. I thought we took the play to them, but I didn't think we could sustain the effort. They are a big, physical team.

"I think we are a pretty decent basketball team that will get better. That lull in the second half where they went zone made us struggle a little bit. When you are on the road and you can't put your offense together, then it makes it difficult. They (Oklahoma) keep coming at you."

On Oklahoma freshman forward Blake Griffin:
"I don't know what more you can say about him. He is like a locomotive. He comes down and is full-steam ahead and then all of a sudden he gives you that smoothness. He has a talent, and I think he really plays well with his teammates out there. I think they have a really fine basketball team that is going to get better."

On where they felt they could attack after scouting Oklahoma:
"I thought we could get some inside baskets. I felt they would have some inexperience if they started the freshmen. (Dior) Lowhorn did a pretty good job of getting some inside baskets. I felt we could attack on the inside, and I felt for the most part we got some good baskets. Nothing was easy there. I thought we could penetrate, kick and shoot a little better than we did, also. They keep coming at you and they don't let up, and that's a good thing for them."

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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