University of Oklahoma Athletics
Postgame Quotes
January 22, 2011 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 22, 2011
Head Coach Jeff Capel
Opening comment:
“I am very pleased with the win. I thought our defense was very good for the most part today. (Colorado's) average is 83 (points) overall, so holding them to 60 was really good. They were a 42-percent (3-point shooting) team in conference play, 37 percent overall, and we held them to 1-for-10. I thought our attention to detail was very good. I thought we executed offensively. We shot a high percentage. We're getting better. Our young group is getting better. We are able to process things a little bit better. I thought it was big, again, of Carl Blair down the stretch. He missed some free throws, so I thought it was in his head a little bit. But he stepped up and made them down the stretch. So I'm pleased with the win; not satisfied, but pleased. I look forward to getting back to work.”
On OU's game plan against Colorado:
“No. 1, we wanted to try and get them out of transition as much as possible. They are a very, very good transition offensive team. We wanted them to play against our half-court defense. We made some switches on some ball screens. Those two guys (Alec Burks and Cory Higgins) were really good one-on-one players. I thought because we switched, that kept them out of the paint. I thought our guys did a pretty good job of help defense throughout. We didn't want to give those guys gaps. We didn't want them to see a lot of open space. For a scorer, especially for a guy who can play off the bounce, if he sees a lot of open space that is what they look for. So we wanted to be in the gaps and have really good voice pressure. And I thought our guys did a pretty good job of that.”
On sophomore forward Andrew Fitzgerald:
“He is who he is. He is a below-the-rim guy, but he has always been that. He knows how to play and he knows how to get angles. It helps that he can shoot it. He can face you up and shoot it. We need him to continue. I was disappointed with him in the first half with rebounding. In 19 minutes, he had one rebound and they had six offensive. We challenged him, and he came out in the second half and had five rebounds. We need him to do that consistently all game.”
On OU's improvement:
“I think we are getting better. My thing with our guys all season long is to control what we can control, play to our strengths. Don't worry about the weaknesses and just do what we can do because that is the only thing we can control. I think our guys are getting a little bit better at that.
“We are improving. It takes young guys a while sometimes to figure it out, especially on the defensive end. That is the biggest area. But again, I think our guys are getting better. Our scout team is really pushing us in practice. I think those guys having to go against Romero (Osby) every day is really challenging. He dominates our practices. We haven't played against anyone better during conference play than what these guys face in practice every day (in Osby). So I think that is really helping them. We are starting to get a little bit better in guarding him in practice, which I think has given us a little bit more confidence as we get into games.”
Senior Guard Cade Davis
On the win:
“It's a huge confidence builder. Protecting home, that's what we have talked about all year since we have struggled on the road. But hopefully these two wins kind of generate some momentum for us going into Iowa State and hopefully we will go get a win in their place.”
On free throws as a critical aspect of the game:
“Well we struggled early on the free throw line, which we have normally been really good in the past few games we played down the stretch. We got a few stops when we needed to and built our lead off getting free throws down the stretch. Once again, most games are going to come down to that so we have to make free throws, make stops, and finally, we did that tonight.”
On Colorado's second-half surge:
“They are a good team; we knew they were going to make a run. (Cory) Higgins and (Alec) Burks, they can go. They knew they had to turn it on some way. They were going to get points somehow. We just had to fight through that little stretch and keep our momentum, keep our heads up.”
On Carl Blair at the free throw line:
“He struggled for a little while and missed some free throws early in the second half, but we know he wants the ball. We want him to have the ball at the end of the game, especially with the press they were putting on us; getting him the ball, we know he has confidence in making those free throws. So no matter how well he played, at the end of the game, he did what he needed to do and we got the win.”
Sophomore Forward Andrew Fitzgerald
On Colorado's second-half comeback:
“We try to keep our heads up, keep playing. We are all going to make mistakes, so all that matters is that you have to let that play go by and get the next stop.”
On OU's overall defense:
“We definitely relied on our outside defense, communicated with each other. Just don't worry about offense too much, just make stops on the defensive end and go from there.”
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
On the loss:
“I think we got beat by a team that wanted it more than us today. I thought our first half, we weren't very good offensively. We turned the ball over and it led to easy baskets for them and it gave them confidence. They're a team that was young, with freshmen and sophomores on their roster. They played five guys basically the whole game, and we were not very good. With that being said, they outplayed us, they out-toughed us, they out-scrapped us. They got long rebounds and loose balls. Extremely frustrating and disappointing day for our basketball team and our basketball program because this is a game I think we could have won. I think we should have won and we didn't win. It's hard to swallow when you're a coach.”
On Colorado's expectations coming into the game:
“We had a good game plan. They executed better than we defended. They shot about 52 percent and we couldn't make a shot. Seven games in a row now we've really struggled offensively and we've got to figure out a way. If we're not going to make shots, we better defend and rebound long enough to win a game. We didn't do it Tuesday night against Nebraska and we didn't do it here Saturday afternoon against Oklahoma.”
On OU's improvement:
“They've gotten better; you see them getting better each and every week. Their young guys are growing up. Going into the game I thought (Andrew) Fitzgerald was really an improved player. We know (Steven) Pledger can make shots. We gave him some open looks. When you give him a standstill 3, you know he's going to knock it down. We know what Cade Davis can do, he's proven it through his career here. So I think they keep getting better and better and I give them credit. I don't want to be one of these moaning coaches, but Oklahoma beat us today. And the way league works today, there's some teams you want to have a second crack at but you don't get it. So we have got to live with this one for the rest of the year.”
