Oklahoma State University Athletics
OSU vs. Kansas Postgame Quotes
February 05, 2014 | Cowgirl Basketball
Feb. 5, 2014
OSU Head Coach Jim Littell
Opening Statement
“This league is crazy people. It's just flat crazy; from top to bottom. It just shows you what the Big 12 is about. I heard TCU went in and won at Iowa State tonight. I heard that that happened. Kansas is inexperienced in some positions, but they bring in four kids that have had a lot of playing time. Two Sweet 16 teams in Chelsea Gardner, CeCe Harper, Natalie Knight, Asia Boyd, Markisha Hawkins, it's a good basketball team. It's a team that beat Baylor by 17 or 17, and I think they're better than their record indicates. In my opinion Chelsea Gardner is the best offensive post player in the Big 12. She showed it again tonight. She's just a great talent. I thought we did a pretty good job on her. She hit a lot of tough shots. It's hard to say you played pretty good defense on her and you look up at the end of the night and she's got 25. LaShawn Jones was a huge factor in tonight's game. We challenged her to step up and find a way to get eight points. She came through on that. Two big free throws when they were fouling her intentionally at the other end. She's been a 49 percent free throw shooter and she hits those two free throws that were very big. We're making some mistakes that you can't have. We had an and-1 late in the game with, I think, a four point lead. You can't do those things. We're missing some free throws at the end of the game. We're getting a lot of one out of two, and that will get you in trouble in this league. We feel fortunate enough to get out of it with a win. We made some plays when we needed to. I don't know what the score was when we came out of a timeout and ran a nice little backdoor to the inbounder, to Tiffany Bias. I don't know what that put us up by. Roshunda Johnson played really well again tonight, and did some quality things. We're happy to get out of it with a win.”
On penetrating and getting the ball to LaShawn
“They pressure on the perimeter, and they get up and underneath you. When people do that to you, you have to forget about running plays go make plays. I think that's what Roshunda did a nice job of in the first half. In the second half she did a nice job of ripping the ball through, getting by people, post player coming off, dish to LaShawn and other people. When they pressure you like that, you have to be able to put the ball on the floor and create for yourself or create for your teammate.”
On others stepping up when Bias didn't score until late in the first half
“We've always based on our game on having a lot of balance. I don't know what it is now, but when we have four people in double figures, our winning percentage is pretty high here. We don't like relying on one person, and when somebody is a little off, when you have conditioned your team to have multiple scorers, you can survive some bad nights. A few years ago when Andrea Riley had a bad night, we didn't have a chance to win. Or when Toni Young had a bad night, we didn't have a chance to win. Developing the mentality that we're going to share the ball and have four or five players in double figures has won us a lot of games.”
On the struggles at the free throw line
“We're making them make 50 free throws a night before they leave the gym. I don't know what more you do. It's not like we're blowing it off and saying, 'Hey, we'll be alright.' We're working on them. It's a problem. We're 19-3 and we've lost two games at the free throw line. We lost the West Virginia game and the Baylor game at the free throw line. In this league, where every game seems to be determined by two or three possessions, the ability to score at the free throw line is crucial. That's an individual thing where our kids are going to have to step up and be held more accountable and make a higher percentage at the end of the game.”
Guard Brittney Martin
On what Coach Littell said after the game
“He said 'good job.' We have a lot of work to do. Those kinds of games are scary. We all need to hit free-throws and we need to hit all of them instead of just one. He said it was a win but it was tough.”
On being patient finding the rhythm of the offense
“We've been working on that for the past couple of days. We always speed things up and we're trying to push it up the floor. We're just working on the motion and getting people open and taking our time. We're working on waiting for open shots instead of forcing open shots.”
On the free throw in the final minute of the game
“I was nervous, obviously, I missed the first one. We practice free-throws every day, we have to shoot 50 before we practice. So, it shouldn't have been anything, but in a tough situation it's hard.”
On the team mentality
“It's the same as every game; we have to play like it's the championship game. We have to give it our all when we come to the game. We have to pick up defense and basically we just need to play defense. I think that's what he really puts an emphasis on before the games and the practices before the games. I think we just need to all play hard and be on the same page.”
Guard Roshunda Johnson
On playing 37 minutes this game
“It's always something new. I just figured that it's a big game so if I play hard I will be able to continue and stay out there as many minutes as I can. I just kept fighting through and I played 37 minutes."
On contributing more on the court
“I feel like it's going good. I'm getting really used to the team, playing harder than I was when the season first started. I feel like it's going good and I'm getting the hang of things and I'm stepping up.”
KU Head Coach Bonnie Henrickson
Opening statement
"I was proud of our kids tonight. They really hung in there. The game was decided by which team made more one-legged layups than the other team. We were aggressive and got to the rim, but when we look at the film, it will be a matter of seeing them score at the rim on a drive and drop or a one-legged layup. We missed too many at the rim. I loved our aggressiveness, but we have to focus on finding a way to finish. We got ourselves in it by executing and being aggressive, but we just couldn't get big shots to drop."
On the team's 34-28 points in the paint advantage
"I thought both teams did a great job of taking away primary looks and finding out who would be more aggressive after not finding the first look. They're really good. They'll run these three plays for [Brittney] Martin, these three for [Tiffany] Bias and these three for [Kendra] Suttles. They scored at a really high rate and a really high volume. We did a pretty good job of running certain plays here and there, so it really came down to being more aggressive when you couldn't find the primary look. I thought we drove and tried to be aggressive, and they drove and tried to be aggressive. I thought when Chelsea [Gardner] got back in, we got her some pretty good touches, at least a couple of times. We did a good job of driving and kicking it out to our girls in the paint."
On keeping Tiffany Bias contained throughout the game
"We did a good job of it, but she hit that big one with three seconds left on the shot clock, and also the out of bounds back door play. That's what I said in the huddle, I said, 'Who's going to take over?'" It's her. She's good, and we let her get to the rim and watch her make a one-legged layup off a hand off. That's what she does. She didn't hit a lot, but the two she hit at the end were huge."
On KU's last play
"We tried to spread them out, kind of like we did on the play before where we got the and-one. We had opportunities with people coming behind and floating on the outside. We also had our bigs down low, so Chelsea almost got a piece of the rebound. It came off the rim and back to the front, and we had both bigs down low diving for the ball. [Markisha Hawkins] wasn't as aggressive as she was on the and-one, and she didn't get a good look once she got backed down. It was aggressive and confident, though, just like the play before."
