OU-UW Postgame Quotes

Oklahoma Head Coach Sherri Coale

Opening Statement:
“I have a fabulous team. I love who they are and tonight I really loved how they played. You can tell they love each other, they have a ball, they told me I had to keep this on [400 crown], so I am going to look ridiculous but I am going to keep on it because they said I had to. They did what I said during the game so I'm going to do what they say now. I appreciate the recognition for the 400^th win but I haven't made a basket or gotten a rebound in 19 years. It's the players doing it. I have a phenomenal staff. Jan Ross has been by my side for 19 years, for every single one of them. Lots of great coaches, lots of great players do that. I told our team in the locker room, the exclamation mark for me tonight is that we played the way I believe the game is supposed to be played. We played it with full out effort, we played it together, we helped each other, we shared the ball, we moved around as one, our behavior was championship in every way, shape, and form and that's the most rewarding part of this to me. That's the exclamation point of the night, the way we performed.”

On what made the team play so well together this early in the season:
“Personal commitments to the mission, to the way you want to play and to one another. We have talked a lot about connection and about how every link in the chain has to be tied to the next one. There can't be a dead spot anywhere and these guys get it. They buy in. Every team should be able to come into a press conference and say 'yeah we played for each other and we played with great abandon' and it's a very, very hard thing to get 100 percent commitment to that ideal. There are a lot of great players in this country, but I don't know how many great teams there are. We're striving to be a great team.

On not being hesitant when you see it from lots of teams:
“It comes from trust. Assuredness comes from trust. When you really count on each other you can be very decisive about what you do. You can be very sure. I thought you saw a great deal of trust defensively. People were there to help on penetration. I know when someone scores 45 on you, you have defensive issues to shore up but as far as trying to help one another and not being afraid to go do the right thing, I couldn't be more pleased with that.”

On Kaylon Williams' performance:
“Well, I thought she was fantastic. She was just so confident with what she did whether it was receiving the ball, going after a rebound, helping on defense, going to score, she was just really confident. The one thing I will say is that I'm not sure if we should have a party about her staying out of foul trouble yet. They weren't going inside, it was all guard play. She did have to help and rotate a lot and she did a great job of being there early. She took a couple of charges. Where the discipline comes in for Kay is when she is coming straight down on the shooter and getting a silly foul. She just went straight up and if they make it they make it, if they don't, they don't. She was not going to commit the foul. The other thing was that I thought the times that she did foul, they knew they had been fouled. That's a difference from last year. She got a lot of touch fouls, a lot of silly ones trying to get out of the way. She made a decision tonight that they weren't going to make a layup and it cost her a foul, but it sent a message as well.”

Junior forward Kaylon Williams

On difference in play from this year compared to last
“It started in the summer time kind of trusting myself and having my teammates there backing me up to discipline myself to stay out of foul trouble so I can't really take full responsibility. Just the discipline with having my teammates around me. Even if I did have one foul, my teammates reminding me by telling me 'you have one now you have to be smart.' So kind of keeping that in my head. It was constant in our huddles tonight. Them being there to just remind me was great.”

On demanding ball at the post
“I think that is the goal for the year. Just to be known down there [at the post position]. I know that I may not be the tallest or the biggest post player in our conference. Just trying to kind of send a message that I am down there, and watch out.”

Senior Sharane Campbell-Olds

On leadership this season and play on the court
“Most definitely just bringing the energy to the team. People always refer to me as the human battery of the team. It is just something that I enjoy seeing. If I get an and-one just seeing my teammates running to me. It gives me energy to give back to them. If I have five points, I can still give the energy and someone else can have 20 points. I just had so much fun out there tonight. Even if I had two points, I had fun. So I think that is the main thing, if we are enjoying each other and connecting, we are going to play great.”

Redshirt Sophomore Peyton Little

On her first night out as a Sooner
“It was just awesome. It was just fun playing with these girls. They just have so much fun and have such great team chemistry. It is great basketball. It is what Oklahoma basketball is all about. Just playing for one another, competing and having fun.”

Washington Head Coach Mike Neighbors

On if there was anything Oklahoma did that surprised him:
“I've been watching Sherri Coale coach – I was a high school coach in Arkansas – and I've been watching her coach since day one. I don't care – green, freshmen – doesn't matter. She has a program. When you have a program, it doesn't matter who takes the jerseys. They have good players, they recruit kids that she can coach and they have a great program. If you ask me if something surprised me? Yeah. They scored inside a lot better than I thought they probably could just from our scouting and hats off to Kaylon Williams. I thought Sharane Campbell-Olds got every loose ball. I mean, we'd tip a ball around – and I think we did a pretty good job – but she would just come up with it and get an And 1. I thought if we could hold them under 10 threes we might have a chance but, they just pummeled us inside and I didn't do a very good job adjusting. Everybody can say what they want about Sheri having no starters coming back but they're always going to have a good team and they're always going to be extremely well prepared to start the season – that's why we scheduled them. I've been watching her since she was first coaching and I knew that we would leave here today knowing something about our team. We could have played a lot of other schools in this part of the country and we would have gone home and not known anything. We know an awful lot about our basketball team and we've got a pretty good team, but we will be able to improve from it and it will help us come Pac 12. To answer your question, I thought their post play was a little better than what I thought and that's credit to them.”

On if he feels like he spotted OU 10 or 12 points in the beginning:
“Was that what it was? 12? It felt like a whole bunch to nothing and we've got shots that we can make and we are capable of making – shots that I'm okay with us taking. I did want us to drive it a little bit more and that's what we started doing, obviously. But, yeah, obviously that start gave them momentum and in this crowd, in this place, you can't fight back. To start the half, if you do a little better job and you're not spotting them 15, you're only spotting them 10, then it's tied instead of still down five or six. I'm really proud of our kids we fought it back out to a two-possession game inside about a minute and a half. Our group has a lot of fight and we've got a lot of experience. We've been there before but we haven't seen a team that's been in the NCAA tournament 15 years in a row to open up the season. Really proud of our group but hats off to them and congratulations to Sherri on 400 wins – it's a tremendous testament. Like I said, she inspires all of us former high school coaches that have been able to move to the next level.”

On Kelsey Plum:
“Yeah, she's a special scorer and she really worked hard in the offseason to improve a lot of aspects of her game. She is capable of doing that a lot of nights. We normally make a few more threes – we got some great looks at them. We normally don't turn the ball over 20 times either – that was kind of our magic number. I was afraid if we got too many turnovers – we don't normally turn it over that many but credit to them. They were heavy in the passing lanes and driving it when we were driving.”

On if Plum will lead the conference in scoring:
“I don't know. We've got some pretty good players in the league but she is capable because she can score so many different ways. They started trying to stop her really exclusively and that just fuels her. When you get closer to her, that just allows her to get around you and I know she doesn't want to have a career high or set a school record in a loss. That's the first thing she said to me coming off when somebody told her she set the school record, she said, 'We've got to do something because I don't ever want it to be in a loss.' She's a great team player, she's going to do everything I ask her to do, that we ask her to do. She played 39 minutes – she would have played 40 if she hadn't fouled out, obviously. She's a special scorer, could lead the conference in scoring, but we've got a lot of other good scorers in the league. It won't be a goal of hers, I can assure you, and it won't be something we try to do but she's capable. Keep an eye on her, she's a sophomore and she's got lots of games ahead of her – lots of big games. When she decided to come to Washington I told her, 'We will start playing games like this.' And, we're going to. And I don't care what our record is. We're going to continue to challenge our group. The Pac 12 is good this year and we've got to be better when it comes January than we were tonight but we wouldn't do it if we started out the season with a poor opponent.”