University of Oklahoma Athletics
Postgame Quotes
January 09, 2012 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 9, 2012
Oklahoma Head Coach Lon Kruger
Opening statement:
"This was a game where in the first half, when they popped to a little bit of a margin, then we played from behind the rest of the way and never could quite get back over the hump. We have to play harder, we have to play smarter, we have to get on the floor after loose balls and those sorts of things. I thought O-State beat us to loose balls. We have to be more the aggressor, more often than we have been. We have a lot of work to do; a lot of work to do. We have to get back to practice and make a lot of improvement."
On if he's surprised by not playing well in conference games:
"Conference play is tough. The level of competition has gone up a lot. We have to realize that and try to prepare for that. I don't think our guys have been surprised by it. They know this league is very, very good, and we have to do more things to make good things happen instead of just wanting good things to happen. They're a great group of guys and want a lot of good things to happen, we just have to work harder. We have to work harder and expect more and expect more out of each other, coaches, players, across the board."
On the offense struggling in conference play:
"We're having trouble making shots. We haven't shot the ball well in any game in conference play. We have to get better movement, we have to work harder to get better shots, we have to compete harder against better defenses, do all the little things better and make progress across the board."
Oklahoma Junior Forward Romero Osby
On the loss:
“It was frustrating, we hate to lose. We want to win. We have to look at ourselves first as individuals and then as a team. We need to get back to the drawing board and spend more time in the gym. It is not going to get any easier. This is the Big 12, one of the best conferences in the nation. We have to come out prepared to fight every night.”
On Bedlam:
“We have to be aggressive and get after it. It is Bedlam and we do not want anyone questioning our effort. It is embarrassing and something we need to work on.”
Oklahoma Junior Guard Carl Blair
On turning the season around:
“We have to get in the gym and work harder. We have to get better every day. That is all we can do. We have to come to practice and go as hard as we can. We have to do all the little things that coach tells us. We have to execute the game plan and do whatever it takes to win.”
On the loss:
“It is a hurtful feeling. We have to turn things around. No excuses. I have no excuses. We just want to look forward and keep working hard.”
Oklahoma State Head Coach Travis Ford
Opening statement:
“I was really proud of the effort of our guys. I thought it was one of our more complete games. I was concerned about how much we had in us. Yesterday at practice, we didn't really do anything. They were tired. We didn't get back in here until a little after 11 (pm) on Saturday night after an extremely physical game against Texas. We basically played seven guys and they showed resilience. I was proud that they picked up the game plan very quickly. We competed and that's what we've been talking about. I told our guys how good this Oklahoma team is and how much confidence they're playing with. They came into league play with an incredible amount of confidence. We wanted to guard the three-point line, and for the most part we did that.”
On Le'Bryan Nash:
“Le'Bryan Nash had a good night. We're trying to get him in better spots to score. We're wanting to try and get him in some situations where he can take guys one-on-one. He's getting better. It's just a process. We started the year thinking he was going to be the low-post scorer for us. But that's just not his strength. Not that he can't do it, but he is better on the perimeter. The biggest struggle early for him was that all the things that came so easy to him in high school, didn't come quite as easy here.”
On wearing the orange jacket:
“I decided to wear the orange jacket a long time ago. I mentioned it to my wife and we decided I should do it. It's my way to honor Kurt Budke. I always thought it was neat he wore it. I had one of our managers bring it in five minutes before the game and told our guys I was going to wear it in honor of Kurt Budke. I said, 'he wore this jacket on the Bedlam upset here when OU was ranked No. 6 in front of a sellout crowd. We need to go represent that in the right way.' We brought Shelley Budke in after the game and presented her with the game ball.”
Oklahoma State Freshman Guard/Forward Le'Bryan Nash
On his performance tonight:
"I'm being aggressive. My coaches told me I needed to be more aggressive in games; just going in and rebounding the ball. This was a big game for us. It's Bedlam, it's a rivalry, so I just try to do what my team needs me to do, and that's scoring the ball, helping Keiton (Page) out, and helping all of my teammates be better on offense."
On the defense:
"Our half-court defense is so good right now. We get teams frustrated. We really identify by our half-court defense, so they couldn't get (anything) off. The were taking bad shots and we were capitalizing off of them."
Oklahoma State Senior Guard Keiton Page
On the team's performance tonight:
"I felt like we played hard tonight and fought hard. We know our half-court defense is going to be our identity, and I felt like at Texas, even though we lost, I thought our half-court defense was great that game. We know our offense is going to come to us. But tonight, we stepped it up. We had a four-switch defense tonight and we thought it caused them a little bit of trouble on the offensive end. We gave up too many offensive rebounds. We knew coming into the game that they were a great offensive rebounding team and we struggled tonight, and it's something that's going to need to continually get better. But overall, the guys fought hard tonight and made big plays when we needed them."
On what he told the younger guys about Bedlam:
"We talked to them ... Markel's (Brown) experienced Bedlam. And even though Mike Cobbins and Brian (Williams) didn't play last year, they got to see what Bedlam was like. We explained to our guys it was a different type of game tonight. It's a big-time game for us and we talked about how we needed to make big plays to win this game, and that's something that we did tonight."
On if the difficult non-conference schedule has helped the team in Big 12 play:
"I definitely think it has (helped us). That's something that (Coach Ford) has told us. A lot of teams like to call them 'cupcake teams'. He told us we weren't going to have any of those. I think that the Alabamas, the Virginia Techs, the Stanfords, and those type of teams have really prepared us well for the Big 12."
