Oklahoma Postgame Quotes

Feb. 4, 2009

OU Head Coach Jeff Capel:
Opening comment:
“Well, it feels good to win. You have to give a lot of credit to Texas A&M. I thought they did some really good things and showed a lot of character. I thought we got off to a pretty decent start, got up 15, were doing some really good things. Mainly we were getting stops and we were rebounding. Then I thought we got away from that. They drove us a few times and they started dominating the offensive glass. I thought we showed a lot of character in the last 5:30 to be down like we were. I think we were down nine with 6:25 to go. For our guys to get back and start getting stops, and then execute and get good stuff on the offensive end, it was all spearheaded by Juan Pattillo when he got in the game. His energy and what he brought to the table for us really energized everyone. We were pleased with that and again I thought A&M was terrific throughout. We showed some character down the stretch and found another way to win.”

On Juan Pattillo's second-half performance:
“It was almost as if he wasn't going to let us lose. He did it with energy plays. That is what he does for us and we need him that way all the time. We are trying to get him to understand that it becomes contagious when he is like that.”

On getting outrebounded by 14:
“We didn't do a good job of blocking out. Everyone. Not just our post guys, our guards (too). They had guards getting in and getting offensive rebounds while we were just standing and watching. I think at times we rely on our athleticism too much. They are a good offensive rebounding team. (Chinemelu) Elonu is so active and the same with Bryan Davis, then (David) Loubeau, a freshman, came in and was terrific. Those three guys are the guys that really did it on the offensive glass.”

On OU's 22 points from its bench:
“Our bench has been doing good stuff for us all year. Ryan (Wright) was terrific tonight, obviously Juan, Cade (Davis) with the minutes he gave us and Omar (Leary) gave us some really good minutes tonight. I think they have done a solid job for us, but they scored for us today.”

Sophomore Forward Blake Griffin
On his overall thoughts of the game and the struggle it turned out to be:
“We did a good job out of the gate. We got up 15, 14 or whatever it was and we relaxed, we let up. You've got to give credit to A&M because they did a good job of capitalizing when we were relaxing. For us to play as poorly as we did and for us to come back kind of said a lot about our team. At the same time there is no excuse for why it should have been that close.”

On if the players had energy throughout the game:
“No, not at all. We didn't play with any energy except for the last four minutes and a few times in the first half. We just have to do a better job and that is something that can be fixed easily. We just need to do it.”

On being outrebounded by A&M:
“Pretty much the whole game I felt like they wanted it more. I know Taylor (Griffin), I, and whoever was down low were kind of embarrassed. It is embarrassing for us to give up that many offensive rebounds. We will take that upon ourselves. I will take that upon myself. ”

On Juan Pattillo's strong second half:
“That is why he is so important to us. Not because he can go out and score points for us, but because of the intangible things he does. The things that nobody else on our team can do, he does. He comes up big for us. It might not be in the stat sheet but we know. We probably wouldn't have gotten this win without him.”

On what he was thinking when OU trailed by nine points:
“Just to climb back in it. Not to get down on each other and not turn on each other. Just to keep climbing back in it. Get into range where we can take the lead and keep getting stops.”

On the mood in the locker room after the game:
“Relieved, but at the same time upset, disappointed, and a little embarrassed. Like I said, that shouldn't happen to us. We shouldn't allow that to happen.”

Texas A&M Head Coach Mark Turgeon
Opening statement:
“Obviously, I'm really proud of our team. We don't believe in moral victories. We had that game won and they outscored us down the stretch. They do that to teams. We had a lot of guys play really well. We were quicker with the ball, I thought we played harder and executed better. I thought we deserved to win. They outscored us by 14 at the line. You guys can read into that however you want to read into it, but Chinemelu (Elonu) was playing his tail off and he wasn't allowed to play. The fact is we had the game and we didn't execute down the stretch. They made stops and made plays so give them credit. There's a lot of pressure on them right now and they got it done. I thought the crowd was great. That helped them too.”

On outrebounding Oklahoma:
“We had a great effort and they had a stretch where they were really good defensively and we made some silly plays in our transition. We're a confident team but we've had a tough stretch. We're 3-5 but we've played some tough teams. Our foul trouble really caused us trouble and we just tried to get through it. We missed Chinemelu. We didn't score another bucket when he went out.”

On the play of OU's Juan Pattillo:
“He made some big-time blocks. I told him afterwards that he changed the game. I think Oklahoma made a great decision. They're 22-1 and have arguably the best player in the country (in Blake Griffin). He didn't play great tonight and still went 16 (points) and 14 (rebounds). They put all hands on deck. If they want to make a run at the Big 12 Championship and the NCAA Tournament they need their best players on the court. Juan Pattillo is one of their better players.”

Senior Guard/Forward Josh Carter
On the game:
“We were just playing hard and trying to win. We were trying to get offensive rebounds and play hard to get the win.”

On Oklahoma's defense:
“I thought they did a better job down the stretch. We still got some good looks. I had a lay-up that rimmed out. Their defense picked up but we still had the opportunities. We just didn't get it done.”

Junior Forward/Center Chinemelu Elonu
On how A&M prepared for the game:
“Coach was just telling us all week to crash the boards hard and (in order) to beat them we have to rebound the ball. So that is what we did.”

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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