Oklahoma State University Athletics
Postgame Quotes vs Oklahoma
February 16, 2013 | Cowboy Basketball
Feb. 16, 2013
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Postgame Quotes
Oklahoma State vs Oklahoma
Saturday, Feb. 16, 2013
Oklahoma State head coach Travis Ford
On the Bedlam victory
"I'm so proud of our basketball team. I've got a lot of respect for Oklahoma as well. They're a very well coached, very good basketball team. I thought that our kids showed a lot of heart. I think the fan support played a role this afternoon. Gallagher-Iba being rowdy again was a big key. I thought we just played hard. Oklahoma really punched us hard and played really well. We just made big plays down the stretch. That was the key. We made a couple of big plays in the first half when we lost the lead, and got it back a little bit. I'm very proud of our basketball team and how hard they played. What a great game. What a great game for the fans to see, and I hope they come back."
On the offense and defending Oklahoma
"I was very upset with a lot of shots that we were taking. We got in the bonus very early in both halves, and we started settling for jumpshots. In the first half, I thought we did way too much one-on-one with no ball movement. At halftime all we talked about was ball movement and attack. We improved offensively, but we couldn't stop them. It was crazy. As you saw, we change defenses every three or four possessions to see what was going to work. But give Oklahoma credit. I have a lot of respect for their basketball team, and had before the year started. They create matchup problems for everybody, and definitely for us."
On defending Steven Pledger and Sam Grooms
"[Steven] Pledger went on about a three-minute tear where he was just making everything. Marcus [Smart] asked to guard him. He took that as a personal challenge, and he did a great job. Then the matchup with Markel [Brown] and Grooms was pretty good. He kept letting him drive. He thought he had four fouls, but at the time he did not, he had three. He was playing very hesitant. [Romero] Osby is hard to stop. He's such a mismatch problem. They do a good job of countering with him, and getting Pledger a stop. Give credit to them, but give credit to our guys for making plays. We had big steals, a big blocked shot by Marcus, a big and-one by Le'Bryan Nash. You can't single out any one guy on our team because so many guys made big plays."
On Marcus Smart
"He's pretty special. He does so many great things, but sometimes he does things that frustrate me, too. It's crazy. You've got to take all the great with the negatives, but he is a special player. He wants to win so bad, and that's usually where his mistakes come into play. You can live with that as a coach. I thought he played really well, and he made the other guys better too."
On OSU's seven-game winning streak
"They all seem to get bigger. In this profession, there's always some type of pressure, but it's good pressure if you're prepared and excited about it. Bad pressure is if you're not prepared or scared of your opponent. We're such a young team that I don't think they know how many they've put up in a row. They know we've won a few. We've got to coach them and make them understand that at this point you take them one at a time. You can't rely on what you've done. The next one is what counts."
On moving forward to the matchup with Kansas
"We're going to be ready. And make no mistake, Kansas is going to be ready. They're going to show video of us winning at their place and everything, but when it's all said and done, when that ball is thrown up, both teams have to play."
Oklahoma State junior guard Markel Brown
On Late-Game Steal
"It's all scouting report. I know he was going to try to get the ball back to his left hand once he had it in his right hand. Once he put it in his left hand, I tried to make a steal for it and he tried to hurry up and bring it back to his right and I don't think he thought that I would do that. Then he lost the handle of it and I was able to get it."
On versatility of the team
"This is a very versatile team. We have a lot of scorers on this team and a lot of guys that can do different things and help, whether it's scoring, passing or rebounding the ball. This is a pretty good team and a hard-working team and we work hard to be where we are now and it's coming together for us."
On what Sparked the team
"It was probably the OU loss [in Norman] we had earlier this season. After we lost that game, we had some early morning practices, looked ourselves in the mirror, and we knew we were better than that, so we just took another approach. We were going to be an aggressive team and a very hard-working team and we needed to use that to our ability. We worked on some different things and it's coming together for us."
On the crowd
"It (the "rowdy" being back) should be, it's a fun game. We gave the crowd a lot to look forward to, we're on a nice win streak and we have a big game coming up this week against Kansas. We can use their help any time of the day. We look forward to them being there."
On Coach Ford's orange blazer
"I like it. I think since he's been wearing it, we've been winning. It represents a very respectable man here in Coach [Kurt] Budke, and I was I could wear it out there on the court."
Oklahoma State freshman guard Marcus Smart
On the flow of the game
"We played against a great OU team today. They came in with a lot of confidence and they came in to try to win. They gave us all they had, but we just sustained it and we just came back out and let them know that we're at home and we can't afford this loss. We just kept fighting back."
On his defensive effort against Steven Pledger
"We lost him a couple times, a player like that has the ultimate range, he heated up. I told coach, 'Let me take him, everybody else guard their man and I'll make sure he doesn't score'. I took pride in that and that was my primary plan to not let him score there at the end."
On the jump-ball play late in overtime
"I knew at the time that he needed a three and I knew once he got the ball he would try to take it. I just timed it perfectly, made sure I got the ball, not foul him and the referee called it a jump-ball. He's a good player and he could have easily pump-faked me and tried to get a foul but it was just instinct and I left my feet when he did and timed it perfectly."
On redemption from road loss in Norman
"That game wasn't a good game for me, I got into foul trouble early and the rest of the game I was frustrated and wasn't able to be there for my team. I felt bad and that's all I was thinking about this week was this game today and OU. I just needed to come out and prove I was a better player, play right and I wasn't going to let them frustrate me this time."
Oklahoma State sophomore guard/forward Le'Bryan Nash
On his performance in the second half
"I just decided that I needed to stay in the game. I got two fouls early and didn't get to play much in the first half, so I just tried to stay in the game and help this team win games. I try to contribute as much as I can and help win. That's the biggest thing for all of us is just to win. It doesn't matter if it's pretty as long as we win it."
On being a difficult match-up for OU
"I'm just trying to contribute. I know I'm bigger and I'm glad I can post up. I just try to use that to my advantage. I think that's the best (part) of my game — posting up — so I'm going to try to use that to my advantage."
On the atmosphere
"They (the crowd) gave us a lot of support, they helped us out a lot. When we got momentum, there were times when I couldn't hear myself. It was a big crowd and helped us out a lot and motivated me to play harder. I love playing in front of big crowds and I'm just trying to help this team win. If we win this next one we should be No. 1 in the Big 12 and that would be pretty exciting."
Oklahoma head coach Lon Kruger
On the overtime loss
"It's a tough loss, sure, but a really good basketball game. I thought guys on both teams played their hearts out. It was a big-time battle from start to finish. Guys on both teams made a lot of big-time plays. Defense was having a tough time getting stops. I'm proud of our guys. Disappointed in not finishing it, but we got beat by a really good Oklahoma State ball club. We'll grow from this. We've got to keep making progress. There's a lot of the season left, and we'll keep getting better. I'm proud of our guys. They'll bounce back from this."
On Romero Osby in the last possession of regulation
"[Romero] had done such a good job carrying us down the stretch there in the second half. We were trying to get him isolated there and give him some options. Oklahoma State did a good job of covering it. He was terrific as he's been all season."
On senior Sam Grooms
"Sam played great. I thought he battled it all day long and was a big reason we were in good position late. He was attacking, he handled the pressure very well in the backcourt, and he played great. He'll remember the couple turnovers there late. His significance in the game was terrific, he played great, and we wouldn't have been in that position if he hadn't played how he did."
On Selection Sunday
"We're not at all concerned about it. If Selection (Sunda) was today, I might have some feelings about that. I'd feel pretty good about it. Our guys have done a great job. But we have a lot of games left, and a lot of work to do, and we'll approach it like we always need one more. We'll work on getting better."
Oklahoma senior forward Romero Osby
On going into overtime after the OSU comeback
"We came into it with high spirits. We thought we still had an opportunity to win the game. We weren't down because we had been up most of the game or anything like that. That's the case with some teams, but we just tried to keep it together and stay poised. We knew we had an opportunity to win it."
On the atmosphere in Gallagher-Iba Arena
"Like Sam [Grooms] said, it was great. The rivalry speaks for itself, but having an opportunity to play in front of a packed house is always good. As a basketball player, you live for that. I just wish we could have come out with the win."
On turning up his game in the second half
"There was one play where I drove down the baseline and made a bucket, and that kind of got me going a little bit. In the first half, I was really just focused on defensive rebounding. I took some tough shots and didn't make them, but I kind of got into a groove in the second half. There were a couple of nice rebounds and passes that got me started."
Oklahoma senior guard Sam Grooms
On turning the ball over in a critical situation
"For the whole game, I was just trying to attack, make plays and soften up the pressure that they were putting on us. As far as the last couple of plays, I don't really know how to explain it. I just lost the basketball. I'll remember that, but I'll move on."
On the atmosphere in Gallagher-Iba Arena
"I think the atmosphere was great. I haven't been around for that long, but from my understanding, it felt like an old-fashioned game in here. It was loud, intense and it was a fun atmosphere to play in. Of course, we wanted to get a win in that atmosphere to go back home with, but it was great."
On the team not being able to capitalize in late-game situations
"It hurts to come out of here without the win. At the same time though, we learned a lot of things as a team that can help us grow in the future. That's what we're looking forward to. We have to go forward into the next game and through the rest of the season. We'll work hard for next week."
