University of Oklahoma Athletics
Oklahoma Postgame Quotes
February 13, 2008 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 13, 2008
Head Coach Jeff Capel
Opening comment:
"Well it's good to get a win. It has been a while. I am proud of our guys, and I am proud of the way they responded. I thought we got back to playing some pretty good defense, especially in the second half. We had some guys step up for us tonight. Tony Neysmith provided a huge lift in both halves. Cade Davis making shots, and Tony Crocker was terrific all evening long. It was great to get Longar Longar back; he gave us some really good minutes although he is still a little rusty. I am pleased with the win and we look forward to going to Texas Tech."
On when he found out Longer Longar would play tonight:
"Before the game. I think it was during shoot around this afternoon."
On how he feels about the contributions of Tony Neysmith and Cade Davis:
"Well, Tony hasn't been playing so he hasn't given us anything, but Cade has been giving us good minutes. He just hasn't made shots. He made shots tonight, and that's a huge lift when you can have a guy come in off your bench and score 11 points."
On the offensive flow:
"I thought we have been getting pretty good shots, we just made those shots tonight. Look, everything is better when you can make shots. This isn't a difficult game, it isn't rocket science. It is about putting the ball in the basket and stopping the other team from putting it in. Tonight we did a pretty good job at both of them."
On the physicality of Tony Neysmith:
"Well, the coaches and I were watching the Texas-Kansas game on Monday night, and we decided that the MVP of Texas is Justin Mason. If you watch him, he doesn't try to do anything that he can't do. He does a great job defensively, he gets in and rebounds and he fights and battles while he is out there. We need a guy like that and that is the guy that we hope Tony can translate himself into. He did a good job tonight. I told these guys on Monday when we came back to practice that everyone has a clean slate. You have two days and I will tell you who is starting on game day. Tony earned it. I didn't give him a starting spot, he earned it with what he did in practice."
Senior Center Longar Longar
On finding out when he was going to play:
"We were debating on it yesterday. I came in this morning for treatment, and it has just been the treatment that I have been doing. It has gotten better every day and has been feeling better."
On if his injured leg contributed to his 2-for-10 shooting:
"There was a little rust, I will get that off. I thought I took good shots. My teammates did a good job of getting me the ball down low and I just missed them. I'm not worried about it. The most important thing is we got the win."
On the team's NCAA Tournament chances:
"We are going to try and just take it game-by-game. I think the NCAA Tournament is right around the corner. We are going to take it game-by-game and try to win every game we play from this point on. The only way to do it is to come out and play like we did tonight. It's only going to get tougher going on the road and playing against good teams."
Sophomore Guard Tony Crocker
On his shooting tonight:
"W ran a couple plays where you come off the down screen catch it and look (for a shot). My teammates set great screens to get me open to make easy shots. We did it all game. They knew our plays, but our big men set great screens and our guards made good passes so it was easy to score."
On his aggressive play:
"I talked to coach and he said we needed me to be more aggressive on getting rebounds, hustling, and scrapping. I'm just trying to get every board I can, hustle down the floor and do stuff for the team."
Freshman Guard Cade Davis
On his career-high 11 points off the bench tonight:
"Coach tells us before every game that there is no one that believes in us more than he does. Going to me early, it gives me a boost of confidence to just keep playing, keep shooting, and just keep doing what I'm doing."
Iowa State Head Coach Greg McDermott
Opening Comment:
"I think it was obvious to everyone in the building that the tougher team won tonight. I thought Oklahoma played with more passion than we did. They went to the basket stronger than we did. We have (Jiri) Hubalek who is getting more aggressive, and Diante Garrett is following suit. Part of it was our plan defensively. We wanted to try and make it tough on their interior guys. When you do that, you are going to give up some things on the perimeter. To their credit, Tony Crocker, Austin Johnson and Cade Davis really made us pay. We have to tip our hat to them. We tried to take something away and give them something, and that was something they weren't doing particularly well before today's game (perimeter scoring)."
On his team recording only four assists:
"I just thought we were slow on our feet from the start. Our cuts weren't real sharp and our screening activity wasn't where it needed to be. I thought we were a step slow the entire night. Having only four assists is not acceptable."
On Blake Griffin:
"I think he is terrific. Obviously, if I am committing two guys to him, that shows the amount of respect I have for him. I just think his combination of size and strength and skill is one thing, but his tenacity in which he approaches the game is what sets him apart. He is trying to tip a ball in one second, and the next second he is head first at half court into the scorer's table trying to save a loose ball. That is a special, special player."
