Postgame Quotes

Head Coach Jeff Capel
Opening comment:
"I am pleased with the win; every game looks a lot better when you make shots. We shot 58 percent from the field and over 50 percent from three. Cade (Davis) made some great shots and (Steven) Pledger as well. I thought we had an opportunity there in the first half to really extend the lead, but I was very disappointed in our discipline on defense. I don't think we showed the kind of discipline we need in order to be a good basketball team. I thought we did a little better job of that in the second half. We were also able to put together a lot of stops as we continued to score and that's how we were able to expand the lead. I thought our match-up zone was good and I thought it was active. I thought we were able to get some guys in and get them some minutes, and those guys stepped in a played really well for us. We are pleased with this and we look forward to what is ahead."

On rebounding:
"Rebounding is going to be an issue for us. We are going to have to work more collectively as a group. We don't have one guy that is going to be able to rebound for us all the time. We are going to have to rebound together. We are going to have to do all the little things well, like blocking out, forcing guys to go around our back; and our guards are going to have to get in and rebound for us."

On having a young team:
"When you have a young group like this, if they are not making shots, like against North Carolina Central, it deflates them. Because they are subconsciously so into themselves, if they are not out there making shots it is hard for the young guys to get out of that mindset. So it is no coincidence that with us making shots the energy was a little bit better."

On becoming a better team:
"We have to understand who we are as a basketball team and what we have to do. We are not just going to show up and out-talent people. We had a team that could do that two years ago, but that is not who we are right now. Very few teams can do that. We have to understand all the little things, we have to be a blue collar team and hopefully we will be able to do that."

On the upcoming Maui Invitational:
"Maui, historically, has always been a premiere event as far as teams in college basketball. This year the field is probably as good as it has ever been. We are excited about the opportunity. We went there my first year and hopefully we will fare a little bit better this year. We have a really tough challenge early in our first game against Kentucky. Obviously, we know and respect the history of their program. They have a lot of talented guys; two of which we had here on official visits last year and who I know are very talented and playing extremely well for them. The team is athletic and well coached, so we know this will be a challenge. But we are up for it, we are ready for it and excited about it."

Senior Guard Cade Davis
On his shooting percentage coming into the game:
"I was aware, but I tried to block it out of my mind. I mean, I'd like to think I shoot the ball well. So I just come out, keep shooting, keep working on my shot in practice, have confidence and step up. We knew they were going to play zone. We wanted to get inside and play out, but we started getting shots early and got them out of it and kind of got whatever we wanted to on the offensive end from there on out."

On OU's shooting performance tonight:
"It's good. I mean it's good to help the team out like that and it's good that we had a game like this going into Maui and getting ready for a really good team -- Kentucky. So we have a lot of confidence going into that game which is good for us."

On going to Hawaii:
"We're excited. We're excited for the challenge we have ahead of us. We're really looking forward to getting out there and getting dirty and trying to get us an upset and get some wins a lot of people think we're not going to get. Like I said, this game gives us a boost and this tournament will prepare us for the long run."

On OU's improved rebounding tonight:
"Coach (Capel) emphasized how much more athletic this team (Texas Southern) is than the other teams we've played. We had to make sure we really had bodies on these guys, especially because the penetration they get in there gives them close shots. We wanted to make sure to keep them out of the paint and make them shoot from outside."

Sophomore Guard Steven Pledger
On getting wide open shots tonight:
"It came from the penetration, which we worked on a lot. The past two days (in practice), we tried to penetrate the zone, kick it out. We do better when we go in and out instead of just pass around and try to shoot. That's what we tried to do today and we did it."

On playing Big 12 caliber teams in Hawaii:
"Basically give us some light on who else is out there. We've been playing mid-major teams, so I think we'll be ready to play big-name teams. We'll come to play and the guys won't lay down."

On if learning from Monday's overtime win helped lead to tonight's performance:
"We didn't want another performance like that. We were messing with the game, didn't take it serious. Tonight we took it serious and came out on top."

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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