University of Oklahoma Athletics
Postgame Quotes
December 19, 2010 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 18, 2010
OU Head Coach Jeff Capel
Opening comment:
"Congrats to Cincinnati. It was an ugly game, on both sides. Neither team could make a shot. I don't know if that was good defense or just really bad offense. The first four or five minutes, I don't know if we could get better shots. If we knock down a few of them, maybe it's a different story down the stretch.
"I was proud of our guys with how we fought. I thought we fought throughout the game. I thought we did a decent job defensively throughout the game. We're getting better. Even with the way we shot it (tonight) -- our three leading scorers (on the year) being a combined 8-for-28 -- it's still a two-possession game there with four or five minutes to go. We're right there. Costly turnovers at key points really hurt us. But we'll keep fighting, we'll keep working and we'll keep getting better."
On the timing of his team's turnovers:
"They all kind of came in a row. We had three in a row when I think it was a two-point game, and all of a sudden it's 10. Three turnovers right in a row. I think they're unforced. We mishandled the ball twice trying to make a pass and not having the awareness that they're switching. That's an area where we have to continue to work with our guys and we have to get better. We have to do a better job in practice of getting them to understand."
On if he's got his playing rotation pretty much figured out:
"It's a nightly thing and it (also) depends on what happens in practice, how guys practice. We had a week to prepare and I thought we were very prepared. We had some guys who had some really good practices and some guys who didn't have good practices. We had some guys who were sick and missed practice and weren't able to go a few days. It all just depends on who we're playing, the style of the opponent, how big they are, different things like that. But no, we don't have it completely settled yet."
On his team's defensive performance:
"We did a good job defensively -- holding them to 66 points, 42 percent from the field. Again, we fought. We fought for 40 minutes. It wasn't anything with that. It was our inability to make, at times, wide open shots. We had several possessions in the first half where we had time to catch, (time to) spin the ball. I mean wide open shots. We missed three layups in the first half. If you make one of those 3's and two of those layups, it's different. I'm not necessarily saying we win, but it's different game pressure. Maybe it puts a little more pressure on them, maybe we're a little more confident. I thought we let our inability to make shots affect our body language, our face."
