Big 12 Championship Quotes

March 6, 2010

OKLAHOMA HEAD COACH JACK SPATES

On the tournament:
"Three champions; tremendous performance in virtually every match. Really, with the exception of one match, we wrestled better in every match than we had all year. So, it's just a great, great performance."

On Jarrod Patterson:
"He's has a heart as big as his body. He's a little guy. He weighs about 128 pounds and I think his heart is about 100 of those. What a great kid. (Andrew Long) is a kid who dominated us in the dual meet. To turn it around and win the Big 12 Championship under the lights, that's a huge credit to him. If you had told me last year he was going to come in and do this, I wouldn't have put a whole lot of money on it. It's great when kids prove you wrong. Not that we didn't think he was going to be a great one, but to do is this early with such poise and such character, it's tremendous."

On Zack Bailey:
"What a hero. You know, he was so far down last year that he was just laying down on the mat. We didn't really want him to wrestle this year and he saw Jarrod King struggle with the same kind of injuries. He saw (King) win the nationals and said, `I want a piece of this.' I think he will too. He will come back really strong for the NCAA Championships."

OKLAHOMA'S JARROD PATTERSON (CO-OUTSTANDING WRESTLER)

About being co-most outstanding wrestler of the championship:
"It is a great feeling," Patterson said. "It was just last year I was wrestling in high school and I think I have come a long way since then. It is a big honor to be voted `Outstanding Wrestler' because a lot of other guys deserved it."

OKLAHOMA STATE HEAD COACH

Opening statement:
"It's definitely good to be on top in the Big 12. It's been since, I believe, 2006. They become really special when you haven't won one in a while. I was really encouraged by our effort today. There were some ups and downs throughout the tournament. In the end, it took a couple sophomores and a junior that won in the finals to put us over the top. Clayton (Foster) sealing the deal there at 184 against a tough competitor and a guy that he hasn't beat in his career. Special win for him."

On if Foster's victory was an unusual spot to win:
I like the way that we were competing in the finals with Jordan (Oliver) starting us off, Jamal (Parks) following "up and Neil (Erisman) in a tough battle. I just thought, tonight, that it appeared that we were going to wrestle hard and win the championship. We needed everybody's effort; it took everything."

On winning a championship with a young team:
"It's definitely a plus. We just need to embrace what we have from this point forward with the NCAA tournament. Really feel relaxed and feel good about what we accomplished this weekend as we going into our training for the next week and a half."

OKLAHOMA STATE'S JORDAN OLIVER (CO-OUTSTANDING WRESTLER)

On if he was surprised his winning takedown move was effective against a senior All-American in Nick Fanthorpe:
"Yeah, when we wrestled in a dual meet earlier he kind of knew it was coming and circled away from it. In this match, when he did get to my leg and I released out and went for it, he didn't circle out. He put more pressure into me to try to get the takedown, I think, more than worry about the tilt. Caught him off-guard and I got him."

About being co-most outstanding wrestler of the championship:
"I had no clue I was going to get that. I was sure that was going to be either Clayton (Foster) or (Jarrod) Patterson. It was awesome. It's an exciting think to get voted outstanding wrestler in the Big 12 Conference with all these outstanding wrestlers. I guess it's something I'm going to have to keep pushing for these next three years."

On looking ahead to NCAAs:
"Definitely, in nationals, kids are going to come out hard in every match with nothing to lose. I think we are going to have to pick up the pace and get better in certain positions. We still have stuff to work on, but we can wrestle better than we did. I'm not saying we wrestled bad, but there's time for us to get better."

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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