University of Oklahoma Athletics
Postgame Quotes
December 10, 2011 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 10, 2011
Head Coach Lon Kruger
Opening comment:
“I'm really happy for the guys. I thought they played great. It was one day of preparation for an Arkansas team, that is a unique preparation. I thought they were fantastic defensively, played with great awareness, contested a lot of shots for the most part. Arkansas is very tough to guard, very quick off the dribble, and again I thought the guys had good communication and good awareness defensively. They rebounded the ball well again. They handled the pressure pretty well, threw the ball down the floor, attacked pretty aggressively, made a lot of good plays for each other, and a lot of guys stepped up and made shots. It was a good combination of stuff.”
On containing Arkansas:
“After we opened a little bit shaky right off the bat, then we had a good flow going, a good run. I told the guys afterwards in the locker room that I thought, just on a couple of occasions, we lost focus through the 40 minutes. Hopefully we will try to improve on that. Again, that stretch at the end of the first half and maybe even then to start the second, we lost focus a bit, but overall, great job. Again, a lot of guys stepped up and made plays for each other.”
On Tyler Neal's performance off the bench:
“That's huge with any team. We're not real deep in general. Cam (Clark) gets that second foul very early, Tyler goes in and it was great to see him aggressive, attacking. He can do that, he'll keep doing that more and more. I thought Tyler was great defensively. I thought he really was the glue on the defensive end of helping, recovering, and awareness on the defensive end. Then Barry (Honore) came in and gave us some big minutes with Drew (Fitzgerald) in foul trouble. It's nice to see different guys again, doing it at different times.”
On handling Arkansas' pressure:
“For the most part, not bad. We got a little casual a couple of times. We turned it over. They can get on a big run with that press if they get it going and cranking it up pretty good. We avoided that, I thought, with back-to-back turnovers to make it a six-point swing. For the most part, I thought our guys did a terrific job with it.”
On OU's shooting success:
“Shooting the ball well cures a lot of problems. They put a lot of time in. That's the thing we keep reinforcing to our guys. It's not an accident if you spend time, shoot before practice, shoot after practice. As you start making shots, of course you want to shoot more so it kind of reinforces itself. They've worked hard, they're getting good results. When you get good results, you work even harder, so that's kind of a good niche for us right now. These guys will keep making progress.
Junior Forward Andrew Fitzgerald
On his first-half performance:
“Yeah, I was in the groove early. My teammates found me open at the right time and were looking for me. I really give all the credit for my points to my teammates, who found me open at the right time. Without them, I wouldn't be as hot as I am right now.”
Junior Guard Steven Pledger
On his second-half performance:
“In the first half, I felt like I took my first bad shot of the season. So I definitely wanted to try to come out (in the second half) and get back into the groove within the offense. In the first half I just kept feeding Fitz (Andrew Fitzgerald). It's his birthday and he was hot. I've seen him in a groove like that, in the summertime where he'll go two or three weeks without missing. So I know he can do that. With him hitting in the first half, me hitting in the second half and Tyler Neal being aggressive -- I think he had a career high tonight -- it was great.”
On his shooting improvement:
“I just tried to focus on the little things, like my footwork. It helps me keep my base wide so I can jump, score, and make baskets. But, I've definitely been working on being more consistent.”
On being 7-1 and the team's improvement under Coach Kruger:
“He's definitely boosted our confidence, ever since he arrived in April. We all had individual meetings with him and he let us know what he wants from us. I appreciated that from him, because it gave us confidence and we're doing our thing right now.”
Sophomore Forward Tyler Neal
On playing key role coming off the bench early in the game:
“As a bench player, in kind of a sixth-man type role, you always have to be ready to come in and do what you can to help the team. I really made it a focus to start with my defense and then let my offense follow. Then, I got hot and started making shots.”
On if he's improving as a shooter:
“I've always looked at myself as a shooter, even if I was the tallest guy on my team. When I was younger, all I wanted to do was step out and shoot 3s; maybe that's not a good thing in some parts. But it certainly helps to have that ability and my teammates give me the confidence to shoot it.”
Arkansas Head Coach Mike Anderson
Opening comment:
“Obviously, it's not one of our best performances and one of our worst from a shooting standpoint, but we have to give Oklahoma a little credit in that part of it. We just showed some tendencies of a young basketball team and we got rattled pretty easily. I thought in the second half we came out and we really got at it with our defense and we mixed it up, and we were right there within striking distance. [Steven Pledger] went out there and made some big plays; he had an offensive rebound and he went out there and made another shot. It seemed like we never could get that lead down to a number that we could work with, but that's credit to them. I know [Andrew] Fitzgerald did a good job in the first half with establishing a dominance inside. But they're playing with a lot of confidence right now, Oklahoma is. And we're a young basketball team. We just came off of a tough loss at Connecticut and now having to come back on the road, that's a tall order for a young basketball team. But that's what I've got. We just didn't get the job done. But I'll take the blame.”
On thinking if it was their chance to cut the lead when Fitzgerald went out after his fourth foul:
“I thought we played with them. I thought we were making them take some tough shots. I thought we rebounded on them plenty of times. Again, we just didn't make enough plays. Whether he was out there or not, someone else stepped up for them. [Tyler] Neal played well for them, made shots. [He] made some timely shots for them.”
On what he meant by saying he'll take the blame for the loss:
“Well, I just maybe didn't have the right combination. You've got to put the ball in the hole on the road, and we just didn't put the ball in the hole when we needed to. We got some guys in foul trouble. It just seemed like we were kind of off-kilter with our guys inside, so we were playing small. And of course I thought they capitalized on that at times.”
On why Oklahoma is better this year than last year:
“I think Lon's done a good job of getting them to this point. They're playing good basketball. They're trusting one another. I think [Sam] Grooms gives them a lead guy that does not worry about scoring. He gives the ball to the right people. They're older. I think more than anything, they're older. They're mature. I remember when Fitzgerald and Pledger were freshmen. I mean, just like my babies right now. They were as young as our guys. They're grown up now. And I think that's the difference. It's maturity.”
