Postgame Quotes

Feb. 4, 2012

Head Coach Lon Kruger
Opening Comment:
“Hard-fought game. I told the guys afterward that a lot of the possessions we liked, but not a high enough percentage of good possessions. Too many possessions that we have to improve on a lot. Iowa State's done a terrific job, Fred's (Hoiberg) done a great job with this club. He has got guys that shoot the ball obviously really well. We didn't do a good job getting to the shooters. We have got to keep working. We have a long way to go. As disappointing as this is, there is obviously not much time to let up before we play again. We have got to bounce back and make some progress and get better for Monday.”

On the decision to help out on Royce White, leaving shooters open on the perimeter:
“They had a lot of open looks. We wanted to give some help on [Royce] White, of course, but not any more that would keep us from getting back to the shooters. If you go a little bit too far, you don't have good recovery. We have to do all that better; we didn't handle that as well as we needed to. We have got to work on it more and do a better job of it in practice. We will do that. We didn't execute that recovery as well as we need to, for sure.”

On looking at the positives in Andrew Fitzgerald's and Romero Osby's performances:
“They are both doing a terrific job making shots, playing with confidence and playing with aggressiveness. We need that to continue. Again, we are going to learn from the things they didn't do as well but they are doing a lot of good things. A lot of good possessions in the ball game. These guys shot the ball very well, but then on the other side of that we have to take that for what it's worth, which is good. But we have to keep making progress. There is no other way of saying it than that. We have to work harder, focus better and have more good possessions in a ball game. We will keep working toward that.”

On playing catch-up:
“That is the nature of coming back. We were behind five or seven most of the night and we were working to get back into it. But, that is the nature of any athletic competition when you have to work to get back. A little bit draining and fatiguing, but you have to work that and try to push right on by.”

On if fatigue played an issue for his team down the stretch:
“At that point of the game guys aren't thinking much about fatigue with a couple minutes to go and adrenaline going and making a good run with the crowd into it. Everyone has been out there for the same length of time. So, for the most part you just have to work hard to push through that.”

Junior Guard Sam Grooms
On guarding Iowa State:
“It was tough considering the fact that they run so many ball screens and double low screens. They just run all the time and move, move, move, and they move the ball well as a team, so you have to credit them for that. They just made shots. It was kind of tough though, when you're running from this shooter to the next shooter. It's something we've got to get better at.”

On his turnover in the final minute of the game:
“I just mishandled the ball. There's no other way to explain it. I mishandled the ball, cost my team a play and a chance to get a shot off at the rim.”

On Iowa State's 3-point shooting:
“It's frustrating when anybody scores on you consistently. (The fact they were) 3's makes it even worse. They made shots tonight. We could've guarded better, we could've done a lot of things better, but that's the pleasure of basketball; we have tomorrow and we've got to get better and be ready for Missouri. There's no other way to talk about that. They made shots tonight. We need to guard better as a team.”

Junior Forward Romero Osby
On Iowa State's 3-point shooting:
“It's frustrating. You hate to see that because we knew they were one of the leading teams in the country in shooting 3's, especially attempts. It seems like they were just making everything today. Every time we'd go for the rebound and the ball was going through the net.”

Junior Forward Andrew Fitzgerald
On how to prepare for the quick turnaround against Missouri:
“Just keep our heads up and keep fighting. I think today we had spurts where we were fighting and other spurts where we weren't fighting at all. We just have to learn from this loss, get back to film and really just guard, trying to take things away.”

Iowa State Head Coach Fred Hoiberg
On OU's double-teaming of Royce White:
“We're not sure how teams are going to guard us from game to game. This is really the first time we've seen it in a while, since Kansas double-teamed Royce. We saw a little bit in the Oklahoma State game. We did a good job of getting some baskets there. Lon Kruger is one of the best coaches in the business. I have so much respect for him. He does such a good job everywhere he's been. He would throw something at us and they kind of came from that baseline side. But Royce did a good job outside of getting the thing started. It might not have always been his assist, but if you count hockey assists, Royce probably has 15 of them by him being the first kick. Then that ball was just flying around the horn. The stat that I'm looking at right now, that I'm most pleased with is 19 assists on 25 baskets. So, we did a great job of taking what the defense gave us. That's who Royce is. He's not the guy who goes in there and tries to force it up. He'd rather get an assist than a basket and tonight showed that.”

On tonight's shooting performance:
“We got off to a great start. We got hot and they were shooting right back at us. Defense was less than stellar in the first half, but our 3-point shooting kept us in the game. Again, if we get the ball moving around like that, we made a little bit of an adjustment to get Melvin (Ejim) diving to the basket more in the second half to really open up that weak-side shot, and our guys stepped up. I think Chris Allen had a huge one after missing a few and I was very happy to see Chris hit that one down in crunch time.”

Iowa State Senior Guard Scott Christopherson
On ISU's 3-point shooting performance:
“Well, by the way that they were playing Royce (White), we were able to kind of play through the post and they were doubling off the weak side. You know, Royce has gotten so good at throwing those pinpoint passes because he's so strong and has those hands. He's able to kind of see over there the double team and get good looks. I expect our team to shoot well; maybe not make 15 every time it happens, but when we're getting shots like that, we're probably going to shoot pretty well.”

On Iowa State's 7-3 Big 12 record:
“I'm not surprised. We had our struggles earlier in the year, everybody knows that. We had guys that never played together and we were growing as a team and growing as people, honestly. I think right around Christmas time, we had the team meeting and everyone kind of got the point of what was going on. Since then, people have kind of stepped up and been accountable for their play and I think that correlates around the wins and losses. ”

Iowa State Sophomore Forward Melvin Ejim
On his personal performance:
“I don't know what they were doing, but I just played my game and took opportunities. Coach kept telling me to shoot the ball. I was feeling it today and I had a good shooting percentage. I think I did a good job at just taking advantage of them double-teaming Royce and guys making extra passes.”

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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