Oklahoma Postgame Quotes

Dec. 12, 2009

Oklahoma Head Coach Jeff Capel
On if Utah did anything specific to slow down Willie Warren early in the game:
"He hadn't shot the ball well for us all year, especially behind the arc. But he showed a lot of confidence. He did a better job of getting into the paint and drawing fouls in the second half. That 3(-pointer) he hit in overtime was huge. He had just passed one up the time before which led to a turnover. For him to step up and make that shot for us was big."

On if Warren grew up some today:
"I think a lot of our guys grew up today. It certainly wasn't pretty, to win a game on the road shooting 34 percent. I thought one of the things we did was we showed a lot of toughness. That's something we've been talking about a lot with this team. We knew coming on the road we were goinng to have to be tough. We faced different types of adversity today with some foul trouble with Tiny (Gallon), some guys had to play a lot of minutes, we were fatigued at the end."

"This reminds me a lot of the game against West Virginia a couple years ago. I'm really proud of the effort. Tommy (Mason-Griffin), defensively down the stretch, was really good for us."

On if what the team has gone through since returning from Alaska is paying off:
"I don't know if we get this win if we don't go through what we went through there (in Alaska). We certainly didn't want to go through it and we'd rather our record be a little bit better right now, but by going through that I think we learned about toughness, I think we learned about some of the things we have to do to become a better basketball team. And we've done that. Now we're not where we need to be. We didn't shoot the ball as well as we're capable of shooting it, we didn't execute, we made some mistakes down the stretch. But we still found a way to gut out a win."

Oklahoma Freshman Guard Tommy Mason-Griffin
On overcoming adversity to get the win:
"On the road, it's a different environment -- a hostile environment away from your fans, friends and family. So you just have to pull together and fight to try to get a win on the road."

On his steal against Carlon Brown with 14 seconds left in overtime:
"We wanted to make him go left. He's strong, he's prime time going right, so we wanted to make him go left. Once he picked his dribble up on that last possession, I got a hand on it and deflected it out."

On pulling out the win with Tiny Gallon and Willie Warren fouled out:
"It's just building our team's confidence. We know we need them in big games -- every game, really -- but with them out we just had to step up and make plays."

Oklahoma Sophomore Guard Willie Warren
On if Utah's physical play bothered him at the start of the game:
"It kind of did. It was frustrating because the refs weren't giving me any calls when I was going to the rack. But my coaches did a good job staying on the referee, letting him know I was getting bumped on my way to the hole. He made a couple calls in the second half to get me going a little bit."

On what OU had to do with Tiny Gallon on the bench due to foul trouble:
"Rebounding more. He's a double-double down there, so we just had to have more guys come down there and help us rebound. I feel like Ryan (Wright) came in and did a huge job down the stretch of getting key rebounds to seal the game."

On his 26-foot trey to give OU a 72-71 lead with two minutes left in overtime:
"I had just passed up a 3-pointer and turned it over and Coach Capel and Kellen Sampson told me that I've been shooting too many shots after and before practice not to trust my shot. They just told me to trust it. I told Coach O (Oronde Taliaferro) that if they go under the screen again I was going to shoot it. He went under the ball screen and I shot it. It went in."

On if this was his most complete game of the season:
"I would think so. I was into it a lot more because we had been so bad on the road, losing three straight at VCU and in Alaska. We wanted to come and show that we're a different team. We wanted to go on the road and get some W's."

Utah Head Coach Jim Boylen
"This was a disappointing loss. We had two tough starts on the halves. We missed too many free throws. I like my team and I like my athletes. We battled and we are getting better. Our defense is getting better with every minute."

"We have to make our free throws in the big games and we have to make our shots. We missed too many threes."

"I feel that David [Foster] did a good job containing [Willie] Warren. Our defense pushes. Our guys are big and the other team has to go out and struggle with our size and length. I feel good about our center position on this team."

"[Foster] is a great player. He fits in perfectly with the system. I was disappointed with his fourth foul. He has to play smarter in that situation. He needs to learn to sometimes let them get the two to avoid the foul. He is still learning. This is only his tenth game in the system and he'll keep getting better."

"I will never blame a loss on a young team. Yes, we have a young team, but I will not use that as an excuse for a loss."

Utah Senior Guard Luka Drca
"The difference in the game was our offense. Our defense was pretty good, I think we held them to 34 percent shooting, but our offense was not as good as it should be. When we were up four in overtime we took bad shots and we shouldn't allow that to happen."

"We have a young team and we are becoming closer to how we were last season. We wouldn't have lost a close game like this. It's been tough this season due to how many younger guys we have on the team, but the juniors and seniors need to work hard and lead the team."

Utah Junior Forward Jay Watkins
"Our shots that fell in the first half didn't in the second. A couple guys' shots that we normally could make just didn't fall. We missed some crucial rebounds on defense that could have made the difference in this game."

"This may have been the most disappointing loss in my career. It was heartbreaking."

Utah Junior Guard Carlon Brown
"I thought we were in the game the whole time. We let go of that lead in the first half and came out slow and sluggish in the second. We didn't make free throws, myself included, and missed some important rebounds."

"It's been a rollercoaster year so far. A lot of learning and teaching has been going on. We have to keep our heads high after this game and learn a lot from it and apply it to practice. As of right now, we are not ready for conference play. We have one of the toughest conferences in the nation and it gets harder through the season and we have to get better."

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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