Postgame Quotes

Nov. 1, 2012

Oklahoma Head Coach Sherri Coale

Opening statement:
"As always, I appreciate Oklahoma Christian coming down and playing an exhibition game because we know that a couple of things will always happen. They will always play really, really hard and they will be able to shoot it from anywhere at any time. Both of those things proved true tonight. I think they're going to have a great year. I really do. They open on Saturday, I believe, and we wish them the best with that. They gave us some great stuff to work from in the film room -- a lot of cuts on offense, which tested our jump to the ball; played a lot of five out where our big had to come out and guard on the perimeter, which was good for us; press action, we hadn't done any press offense, so that was good for us, too. So we got exactly what we wanted to get out of the exhibition game. The last part of that being that we got to play in front of people and work out whatever kind of stage fright we might have associated with that. All in all, I think we got exactly what we wanted to get out of the night."

On if OU's 22 turnovers worry her:
"Well, I wouldn't say worry me. I'm not happy with them at all, but they were turnovers that came from playing a little bit too fast and mostly from young guys playing a little bit too fast, which that's part of the growing pains. We'll live with those for a while. Maddie [Manning] and Nicole [Kornet] will both slow down. Their decisions will be a little bit better as time goes on. Both of them just got rushed, even Sharane [Campbell] -- a few of hers were hurry up, playing a little bit faster than she needs to play, so they kind of came in spurts. There was a four-minute interval where we had eight, which is brutal. Part of that comes from the sloppy nature of the game when the score gets out of hand. Not an excuse at all, maybe an explanation of sorts. Is it something we want to be cognizant of? Absolutely. But is it something I'm worried about? I wouldn't say so, not after one contest."

On center Nicole Griffin:
"Nicole getting down to the block is just a fundamental principle that we worked on. She has four seconds from the time of possession when it begins to get to the front of the rim. She has four seconds to get there and if she's too tired to get there in four seconds, then someone else will go in and get there in four seconds. We just want to stretch defenses. We want them to play 94 feet of the floor. It's easy sometimes when you have a lot of shooters to want to play to the free-throw line extended. Everyone spots up outside the arc and we're done, and that's not the best way to attack defenses. You need to flatten out and get the ball to the baseline, get the ball to the post, so the big guy running is a big part of that."

Oklahoma Junior Center Nicole Griffin

On speeding up the tempo during the game:
"We are trying to push the ball early in transition, so I'm just trying to get to my position and score points."

On how she prepared in the offseason:
"I worked on post position and getting the ball where I can score. I've worked on a couple of moves and my hands and working on trying to catch the ball and looking to pass at the same time."

Oklahoma Junior Point Guard Morgan Hook

On the game:
"I think we came out and proved that we can play with energy. We talked about our scrimmage and how we came out flatlined, and I think we came out with that as a chip on our shoulder. Tonight we came out with energy and I think we did a good job."

On the new players' performance tonight:
"They don't quit. [Nicole] Kornet threw a pass behind her head just to save it and they were just going 90 miles an hour. I could see it in their mind. They were just wanting to get down the court just as fast as they could. We had to calm them down, but they aren't going to give up. No matter how bad they're playing or how good they're playing they're going to be within us and enjoying what we're doing."

OC Head Coach Stephanie Findley

On the game:
"I feel good about our team. Our goal is to stay healthy, and we did this game. I was pleased. The score doesn't reflect what we were pleased about. We had goals. We outrebounded them the first half. That's awesome. We made them call about two or three timeouts in the first half. That's awesome. We forced turnovers with our press. We did some good things."

On OC's game plan:
"One of our things was to see how long they would run and if we could make them tired, and we did. I think we did. We were getting tired too, but they were definitely getting tired. That is one of the objectives is to try to wear the other team out. While we're not as tall or as long or as athletic as they are, I was pleased. It was a full-court game.

"I'm sure they've never seen us come in here with a plan to press them. And who would? We just said, hey, this is what we want to practice and work on, and that's what we're going to do."

On the experience of playing at OU:
"It's always fun to play here. Outsiders see the score and that's all they look at. But this is a great experience for the girls. After they graduate, they will not remember what the score was, but they will remember they played here and they will remember what it was like being out on this floor playing against a top-10 team."

Players Mentioned

Nicole Griffin

Morgan Hook

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University of Oklahoma Athletics

Postgame Quotes

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Players Mentioned

Nicole Griffin

Morgan Hook

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