OU-Weber State Postgame Quotes

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Head Coach Lon Kruger
Opening comment:
“Good win. There was a lot of activity from the start. The challenge was to come back after a late arrival from Vegas on Saturday, early Sunday morning. We had to bounce back on a short turnaround, which is going to be the case in Big 12 play with those Saturday-Monday games. Our guys responded very well. Our activity was great. I thought Ryan (Spangler) got us off to a good start. Jordan (Woodard), Isaiah (Cousins), and Buddy (Hield) on the perimeter really were aggressive and attacking all of the time. We can go down the list a long ways with people who had good ballgames. Most impressive was defensively. Our focus was good from start to finish for every possession and we created a lot of offense from our defense.”

On if it was a challenge to keep the team going after being up by 40 in the first half:
“They did a good job of that. The objective is to always play the next possession. I think our club is getting better at doing that. The scoreboard, you just can't play the scoreboard. This group has a chance to keep getting better because of their experience and all of the guys understand the significance of all that. I thought their leadership showed tonight.”

On working more of their offense through the post:
“Since the Bahamas, I thought the guys have done a good job of getting the ball inside. (TaShawn Thomas) and Ryan (Spangler) especially did a good job of posting and getting good position inside. The perimeter guys are getting them the ball. The spacing around that has been pretty good. The big guys have an opportunity to work when they don't double in there and when they do Ryan and Tay are both good passers. They make good plays out of the post.”

On if he is aware of when the team is going on such a long run:
“Not specifically. You're aware, of course, that there is a really good run going on. I don't stop to think about the numbers necessarily. It was a very nice stretch. We were getting looks like Ryan and Isaiah said that we wanted. They worked and that is the result that you're looking for.”

On if it is that simple:
“It is. You're not over there calculating the run or worried about that as much as the next possession offensively, getting a good shot, and defensively keeping them from doing it.”

Junior Forward Ryan Spangler
On his thoughts during OU's 39-0 run in the first half:
“We didn't get to think much. Coach made sure that he was on us. He told us to keep playing hard and to execute and work on our execution. We need to get better at that going into the Big 12. I think we didn't have any other thoughts than to keep executing and get good shots.

On if he recognized the run and how long it was:
“I don't think we knew the count, but we were getting the shots we wanted. We were doing a good job on defense taking away what they wanted to do. Once we did that they kept running into the shot clock. I think we stayed aggressive and made them take tough shots.”

Junior Guard Isaiah Cousins
On being part of OU's 39-0 run in the first half:
“It was pretty good because they weren't getting any good looks. Last game our defense kind of wasn't really there. We picked it back up today, and played every possession on defense. It was a great day for us.”

On if the team needed to start fast today:
“Coach was saying that we had to play well before going to (Christmas) break. There are normally a lot of upsets, and we didn't want that upset to be us. We were ready for this game, and we were ready to take on the challenge.”

Head Coach Randy Rahe
Opening comment:
“We got whitewashed tonight by a very good basketball team. I think that they were a little bit on edge tonight after losing a tough one to Washington. We got whitewashed in the first half, obviously. I thought a lot of it had to do with them. We have a really young basketball team as I'm sure you guys noticed tonight. When they pressured us they took us out of everything that we tried to do. It might have been a little bit of us, but it was a whole lot of them. They have a really great basketball team. Coach Kruger is a great coach. Bottom line is they got rid of us early tonight, really by halftime.”

On what he said to his team during first-half timeouts:
“Tried to settle them down and give them confidence. Just trying to let them know that they are good basketball players. We are young. I have eight new guys this year. A lot of our guys are freshmen and sophomores, so we are going to go through some things like this, especially on the road against a good team like this. My message was really just we have to compete. That is one thing we do in our program is compete hard. We just have to keep them believing in each other and understand that the next shot is going to go in. We are going to be fine; we just have to compete.”

On how he thought his team competed:
“I thought they tried hard. It wasn't that we didn't try. It wasn't that, it was Oklahoma. They were all over the place tonight. It was like there were 12 of them out there. When we couldn't score for the longest time it takes the life out of you, it deflates you. There were some possessions defensively where I think we let our guard down. We just couldn't get the ball in the basket. People say that when you are not scoring, you have to rely on your defense. If you can't score for a long period of time it's hard to be aggressive when you are defending. I thought we competed all right, though. We got beat by a great basketball team that was ready to play tonight.”