OU-George Mason Postgame Quotes

Return to Recap

Head Coach Lon Kruger
Opening comment:
“It is hard to believe this is the last pre-conference game. We had four days of practice coming out of the holidays and we are not as sharp as we need to or want to be, but we had a good run there in the first half that created a little bit of a margin that we worked with the rest of the ball game. We are going to start preparing for Baylor. We have to take some steps because we know how tough this conference is going to be. Obviously, our guys are looking forward to that challenge.”

On defense:
“Defensively, we were pretty solid from start to finish. It was not like they had a lot of runs where they chopped into the lead for three or four buckets at a time. I liked that. Obviously field goal percentage (defense) was good. I thought our activity was pretty good. They had some guys who could cause some trouble but our guys continued to do a good job there and we will continue to make progress.”

On if OU has established a defensive identity in pre-conference play:
“We have been pretty consistent on that end. Obviously there is a half here, half there that we would like to have back and that I thought we could have improved considerably. But for the most part, through our 12 ball games, it has been pretty consistent on the defensive end.”

On Khadeem Lattin's play, coming in for TaShawn Thomas:
“He did a really good job. He had 9 boards in 17-18 minutes, which is always an impressive number. His activity, his ranginess, a couple follow shots, blocked a couple shots; he just seems to get more and more comfortable with repetitions. That is what he needs. Sometimes it is hard to get enough of those as much as you like. But we keep making progress.”

On the flow of the game:
“The game did not really have any flow to it. TaShawn (Thomas) picked up a couple fouls early. Neither one was on guys he was guarding; it was kind of a weird situation there. He went back in the second half where he gets his third one pretty quickly. He never could get into the flow but I thought Ryan (Spangler) playing with two fouls in the first half was a good experience for him. Not that you want to be in that situation, but good for him to have that opportunity and experience that. A game without flow and that many fouls is a part of that. We will work through that.”

On if Frank Booker's back is doing better:
“I think so. He has gotten to practice for a few days and there have not been any problems with it. He just needs to get back in the flow of things.”

On where the team stands heading into Big 12 play Saturday:
“Well we have played much better basketball since the Bahamas. Today was not a reflection of that, necessarily, but overall we have made good steps. We understand, I think, the value of possessions and taking care of the ball. Today we did not necessarily, but we have to bounce back and keep getting better. There are so many good teams in the Big 12. The ones that keep making progress and improving, and understand the need to do that, will get themselves to the top half. That is what everyone in the conference wants to do.”

Junior Guard Buddy Hield
On a slow start offensively:
“I don't know. We can do a better job. Jordan (Woodard) found some good shots and TaShawn (Thomas) got a couple of rebounds. Defense helped us out quite a bit. Coach (Kruger) will get back to the chalkboard, we'll practice some more and we should be good after tomorrow.”

On how the team stands going into Big 12 play:
“I think we are at a good starting point. Coach (Kruger) has done a great job from the summer time up until now and we are just going to keep getting better and we are ready. We have been waiting for this moment – for conference time – and we have something to prove. We will take it one day at a time and that starts on Saturday and we will go from there.”

Sophomore Guard Jordan Woodard
On having a career-high day in rebounds:
“Our guys are doing a good job out there and letting me free so I can just go get it. I took a couple of jump shots and I got a chance to get in there and get the rebounds.”

George Mason Head Coach Paul Hewitt
Opening comment:
“I thought we had some pretty good looks; we just could not knock them down. I give them credit. They are very disciplined and play very hard. Again, the defense had something to do with us only scoring 43 points tonight.”

On Oklahoma's change to a defensive team:
“Watching them on tape, I thought in transition we had a chance to get some run-out baskets. We have some bigs who can run so made an effort early to try to get our bigs going in transition but they got back. We knew in the half court it was going to be tough. I thought in the second half, quite honestly, that we had some great looks. It is just one of those things that when you do not see the ball go in, it just gets harder and harder to even make an open shot.”