University of Oklahoma Athletics
Oklahoma Postgame Quotes
January 17, 2009 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 17, 2009
Oklahoma Head Coach Jeff Capel
“I'm proud of my team. We beat a really good A&M team today. We built a good lead in the beginning which helped us out when they started making their runs. Our guys stepped up and made plays throughout the entire game. We're a team that is getting better every time we go out. This game was an example of toughness. (Chinemelu) Elonu is a tremendous athlete. We made a concerted effort to box him out and get him in foul trouble. Our guys know that we can win without Blake Griffin. We have been consistent the last few games and we will continue to get better.”
Oklahoma Senior Guard Austin Johnson
“I'm used to stepping up late and making shots. I work on shooting deep 3's and when they left my hand tonight they felt good. We've been through these last-minute situations before. We jumped on them quick in the beginning and were able to get them out of their offense.”
Oklahoma Senior Forward Taylor Griffin
"When Blake leaves we feel like we have to make up what he does on the floor. We especially concentrate on the rebounding. They have guys that are pretty heady and look to draw the charges. Our guards are great and when they play well we are hard to beat. Experience and talent is the difference between this years's game and last. This is a hard team to beat. We couldn't get them down in this great atmosphere."
Texas A&M Head Coach Mark Turgeon
“This one hurts. They have a couple great players on their team. Blake Griffin was tremendous and Austin Johnson was making every shot he took. They made the plays and we didn't. We never were able to get enough pressure on them to control the game. I thought we were nervous to start. They were aggressive and we weren't. You can't give a great team nine points right out of the chute. It hurt to have Chin out of the game; he's really carried us lately. Our backup bigs just didn't play well. Our team is getting better and will get better so don't count us out."
(On game at Kansas on Monday)
“I'm looking forward to going to Kansas. Kansas fans have always been good to me. I've loved going to Allen Fieldhouse since I was 4 years old. The place just makes me feel good. I know I will coach well because I love being there so much.”
Texas A&M Junior Forward Bryan Davis
“We tried to stick to the game plan. Sometimes it worked for us and others it didn't. We need this loss to hurt but we also need to realize that we played the No. 5 team close and played a pretty good ball game. We always feed off the crowd when we play, so we tried to get them involved so we can make the big plays."
Texas A&M Senior Guard/Forward Josh Carter
“We didn't make our plays down the stretch. We didn't come out aggressive and they were able to jump on us because we were just standing around. We know that our team isn't going to quit like we did at some points last year. We are always going to fight for the win. I always think that we can win the game if there is still time on the clock. At about 3 minutes to go tonight I really thought we were going to win, so it hurts to not walk away with a victory.”
