Oklahoma State University Athletics
Post-Game Quotes
February 12, 2010 | Cowboy Wrestling
Feb. 12, 2010
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Oklahoma State Coach John Smith
On taking the lead early
"You like to see in those earlier matches where we put a lot of points up. We did a good job on the takedowns. I like the attitude of domination when you have the chance to do that. I think several of our guys pushed through it and picked up some bonus points for us."
On scoring bonus points
"You form a habit when you score bonus points. It's not something that comes naturally. It's something you've got to do when it counts on the mat."
On the two losses in the dual
"I thought they were a little tougher than us. I don't know that they're that much better than us as they were just tougher than us tonight. The 174-pound match got into a real tough, tough match. It was a fifth-year senior against a sophomore and it looked like that was the difference. I think Mike can gain something from that match as well as Z. That was a tough match at 197, a lot of hard wrestling. Z had to fight to not go to his back once and of course had to fight off a couple takedowns. If there is anything a little disappointing in both of those matches, it's that we didn't score a point. That's something you don't want to see."
On Jared Rosholt's win
"I was pleased with Rosholt getting the victory after losing the last time to his opponent. I think that's important when somebody who beat you last and you come back and you beat them. That's what Jared did. The last time he wrestled him was in the Big 12 consolation finals and got beat. It was good to see him turn that around in the dual in a very dominating way."
On where his team is at this point in the season
"We're getting closer. We're not where we want to be. We've still got some guys one or two pounds heavier than I like to see sometimes. For the majority part, it's in check, but it's not where we need it. We have three weeks before the Big 12 to continue to focus on that. I do believe for the majority of them it's not the sacrifice it was at one time in the season. I do think we climbed over a hump."
Oklahoma State 157-pounder Neil Erisman
On scoring 10 near fall points
"It's something that I work on a lot. I've been focusing on it and definitely something I've wanted to improve in so I think I really showed that tonight."
On Getting A Big 12 win
"It definitely helps with the team and the standings in the Big 12. I think it's good that I went out there and tech-falled him. Next time we're going to wrestle a lot tougher at Big 12. I can't take him lightly just because I tech-falled him tonight."
On The Team's Focus
"We're preparing for the next duel now. We're focusing on getting better this week and doing the best we can against OU. We've just got to get better every day. Then we'll focus on Big 12."
OSU 149-pounder Luke Silver
On Getting A Big 12 Win
"We're just trying to get some momentum going as we head in to the end of the season."
On His Bout
"They told me at the beginning of the week to be ready because they might bring somebody out. My mindset at the beginning was that I needed to be ready in case they change anything. I wish I could have gotten another take down in the third early rather than at the very end."
Nebraska Coach Mark Manning
On the dual as a whole
"Oklahoma State has a real good team. John and his staff have done a real good job bringing them along. Their redshirt freshmen looked good. They looked good, they wrestled well. We were overmatched at some weight classes, but we knew that coming in."
What he talked about before the dual with the team
"We have some young guys and they don't understand that you have to wrestle hard to win at this sport. You have to get off bottom and in a number of matches we got ridden too long. They did a good job on top. We've got a long way to go, we've got to get better."
The next step
"At some of the weights we didn't compete hard enough. So I will be getting that point across. We have to get off bottom. We have to wrestle at the end of periods. We just didn't wrestle very well. Even at 174 and 197, they did a good job at slowing us down and controlling the ties. Oklahoma State outwrestled us in lots of different facets."
