Oklahoma Postgame Quotes

Nov. 14, 2009

Oklahoma Head Coach Jeff Capel
Opening comment:
“First of all, I am pleased with the win. I thought our four freshmen were tremendous for an opening game. Their first college basketball game, for those guys to step up the way they did and all of them contribute and play very well, it speaks to how talented they are. And the thing about that is I think they still have such a huge ceiling to get better. I thought Willie (Warren) was terrific in letting the game come to him and making plays.

“We have a lot of work to do. I wasn't pleased with transition defense and some things defensively. Mainly, a lot of it was transition. We have to do a better job of really understanding and listening to a scouting report and carrying that over to a game. Our sense of urgency to get back and our communication needs to get better. I still want to play faster. I would love for our intent to push and to run to be like Mount St. Mary's. We did some good things, especially rebounding the basketball, which is something we really tried to emphasize in practice. So it was good to see some success there.”

On Tiny Gallon's 15-rebound performance:
“He did it in 22 minutes. He has the potential to be a very good rebounder because he is really long, he's big and he has good hands. It is just a matter with Tiny (Gallon) of getting him to understand how to use his body. The biggest thing for us is to get him to really use his body offensively, defensively and for defensive rebounding – use his length for that. Hopefully it makes him hungry, hungrier to come out with 15 boards today, to realize how big that is for us and for him.”

On the difference in transition defense from the first half to the second half:
“We started getting back. That was the main thing. We started getting back, we started picking the ball up and our communication was better. That was one of the things Andrew (Fitzgerald) did for us. Andrew does a lot of stuff that doesn't show up in a box score. He just does winning things for you.”

On the play of Andrew Fitzgerald and Steven Pledger off the bench:
“Those guys are good. Steven Pledger can really shoot the ball. The thing with him is he really doesn't try to do things he can't do. He gives you a great effort on the defensive end and the guys trust him. The guys see him every day in practice making shots like that, so they trust him. And he doesn't need much time to get it off.

“Drew does a little bit of everything. When you look at him and watch him, he is not an above the rim guy, he's not a high flyer. He just gets stuff done. He is one of the guys that the more you watch him, he just kind of grows on you.”

On Tommy Mason-Griffin's play:
“I thought it was good. I thought he was solid. He missed some shots that he'll make. His two turnovers – I know one at the end of the game was a careless turnover, trying to thread the needle. I thought he did a solid job. He has to get better defensively, but he will be a good player for us.”

Sophomore Guard Willie Warren
On the performance of the freshmen today:
“They've been doing the same thing they've been doing in our last exhibition game versus British Columbia and in practice and that's hitting shots. Tiny [Gallon] is getting down there banging like we want him to do. Pledge (Steven Pledger) is hitting 3's from anywhere on the court.”

On four of the freshmen scoring in double figures:
“What (people) fail to realize is we have probably one of the most talented freshman classes in the country. So they're going to come out here and play ball, and they've shown me that I have nothing to worry about and that I can have someone to lean on when my shot isn't falling.”

On getting a sense in the beginning of the game that he was going to have a lot of assists:
“Yeah, I saw that in the first play of the game when we ran a ball screen. They hedged it all the way to half court, so I was like 'Oh yeah, I see what type of game it's going to be today.' So when I penetrated, all the attention came to me and I got a couple easy dump-downs with Tiny. I'd sure like to see him dunk a couple of those, though.”

On having confidence in his teammates this year:
“It helps a lot. The defenders can't hug me the whole time because now other players are making shots, and now you have to help off me and give them assistance. That's going to make shots a lot easier for me.”

Freshman Forward Tiny Gallon
On how critical it was for him to rebound well today:
“I mean it's not that critical because I can rebound. So, like Willie [Warren] was saying, I don't have to worry about stepping out and shooting a 3 – maybe once – but I just focus on rebounding and touching the ball whenever the guards give it to me.”

On if Coach Capel told him to be more physical with the other team this game:
“No, that was (Willie Warren). Yesterday, we were talking about it and he said he wanted me to go down. He was talking about Blake [Griffin] and all this. That really kind of got to me on the side, but I didn't show it but we had a talk about it yesterday. He said if I rebound and go down there and play like a center or a forward, we can win a lot of games. And I took that to heart, so that's what I did.”

Freshman Guard Steven Pledger
On his first performance here today:
“I think I did well. I mean, I was just running around basically playing off of Willie [Warren] driving to the basket. Whenever he's driving, I'm just sneaking around and I know he knows where I am. So it was a little dump-off here and there. Tiny gave me a little dump-off.”

On if he thought he was going to be the high scorer in his first game:
“I really did think it was going to be either Willie [Warren] or Tiny [Gallon]. I didn't know I was going to be the high scorer this game.”

Head Coach Milan Brown
Opening comment:
“I was proud of the way my guys fought. We knew we were playing against a very good team today. They showed it in stretches of the game. Some parts of the game we felt we did a good job. We just couldn't sustain it for long periods of time.”

On opening the season in Norman:
“It was good. We had been here before, about two years ago when Blake (Griffin) was a freshman. Some of the guys that were playing in that game knew what the environment was going to be like coming in. We felt confident and good. It was the first game of the season so everyone was just ready to play. We talked about how we were playing with a lot of grenades, so we needed to go out and play. We knew that we were playing against a very good team. Our guys were excited, but we had a couple turnovers, run-outs and some offensive rebounds, and later we weren't too excited.”

On Oklahoma's team:
“I think they have a chance to be very good. Obviously, their young players are going to have to step up and play a major role. Not only making plays, but probably managing themselves in the locker room and managing themselves on and off the court. They have some talent. Willie (Warren) just needs to play like Willie and they will be fine.”

On OU taking away the Mountaineers' transition game that had been working in the first half:
“We tried to make a concerted effort to push the ball up the court and see if we could get some early looks. I think one of the things they were able to do was they didn't have to send as many guys to the glass, offensively, in order to get the basket. I think earlier they were sending three and sometimes four and as they digressed they only needed to send two. I think a couple times, because we were battling them, it zapped us some on the effort that we could have coming at them on the push. We would like to do it a little more, but that is always the danger of a team of our caliber. I think we are going to be a good team, but when you play bigger teams and you put more possessions in the game, this is something that can happen. ”

On his impression of Keith “Tiny” Gallon:
“I thought he did a good job. It was funny. I had talked to Jeff a couple places around watching them play AAU ball in July. I was laughing saying, 'I hope you get him,' because he is a big guy but a fun guy. It was great to see that he worked to get his body better. He is really good with the basketball. Today, we kind of needed him to be silly with the ball by trying to pass behind his back and shooting a lot of threes. He didn't do that. He took one three and I'm pretty sure Jeff might strangle him for that later. I think he is going to be good. If he works and stays steady like he did against us today, then he gives OU a different low-post presence than Blake (Griffin). But he gives them a low-post presence for sure.”

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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