Oklahoma State University Athletics
OSU vs. West Virginia Postgame Quotes
January 17, 2015 | Cowgirl Basketball
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OSU Head Coach Jim Littell
Opening Statement
"Disappointing loss, especially here at home. You don't have to go very far to look at the outcome of the game. We had three key people that we count on that went 10 for 46. You have to make shots. Our stat line across the board shooting the basketball is not conducive to getting wins in this league, 19-for-66 overall, 2-for-14 from three and 9-for-16 from the free throw line. Despite that we were still in the game and then we had a stretch late in the second half where we come down and we throw it away twice in a row, back-to-back trips. We go down at the other end and don't check out on a free throw, they gain two more free throws at that time and then we come back down and we dribble off of our foot and the ball goes out-of-bounds. You can't quit executing and getting attempts at the basket despite shooting the ball poorly. That is what took the game from a two or four point game to a 10-point game in a hurry and that is what is disappointing. We knew that they were the top offensive rebounding team in the Big 12 coming in, that was the number one key point and we did not keep them off of the glass, 19 offensive boards and out rebounded 52 to 36 and that's a huge difference in the ball game."
On Brittany Atkins
"She's hurt, I don't know what the status is, but she left the game hurt. Our trainer said she was a no-go and that was why she didn't play."
On West Virginia's defense
"They're long, they're athletic, they close on you in a hurry. When you get by them they're good at recovering and swatting some shots. They had eight blocked shots today. Their big kid had six and you've got to get a head fake. You have to get them up in the air and at least draw a foul and we didn't do that. They've been a good defensive team ever since Coach Carey has been there. I think it was two-fold, I think you give them credit for what they did defensively, but also we missed a lot of easy shots. There were two trips in the first half where we missed dead layups. We go to TCU and we miss eight dead two-footers and when you do that you're going to come up on the short-end of scores."
On quick turnaround for a game on Monday
"We have to see where we are health-wise first. You don't have very long to cry in your milk for sure. It's important that you turn the page and get ready to go. OU is definitely on a roll they're playing extremely well right now. They are probably the hottest and most efficient teams, them and Baylor, as far as how they are playing right now. It's not an easy place to play so we can't spend time feeling sorry for ourselves. We have to regroup and go over the scout in one day and go down there and play with great effort."
On Oklahoma
"They're very deep, very deep. They throw a lot of people out there who can shoot the basketball. They have a nice blend of players who are three-shooters and people who can score off the dribble. I think they are playing hard and are extremely focused right now. I think they are playing really, really well right now."
On the Bedlam game
"Bedlam is different, Bedlam is different. If you don't think Bedlam is different than you shouldn't coach here and you shouldn't coach at OU. This game matters. Does every game count the same in league standings? Absolutely. Is a Bedlam game more important? Dang right it is."
On Katelyn Loecker
"Kate did alright, she fouled too much, but there is one thing on Katelyn Loecker is that you can never question her attitude and effort. Did she play the best she's capable of playing today? No, but she gave me everything she had."
Brittney Martin
On today's game
"It's frustrating. I just don't know what we can do to be consistent in any aspect of the game. It's frustrating for me personally because I'm not consistent in shooting and making my shots. I got two games making all of my shots and then 50 without making them. I think it's just frustrating as a team that we all can't be consistent and we all can't start off the game like we all want to. It's hard to find that balance."
On what is causing difficulties
"I don't even know what the problem is. Like coach says, sometimes we start practices bad and it shows in the games. Like yesterday, our preparation at the beginning of practice wasn't as good as it should've been and it showed today. I think we need to be consistent practicing before we start playing like we want to play in games."
On West Virginia's defense
"They play a lot tighter defense than most teams in the Big 12, like denying everything, they switched a lot of things. I think that kind of messed us up a little bit. Of course we practiced that, but we only had one day to prepare for it, which kind of threw us off, so that was bad for this game just because they play different from everybody in the Big 12. I think them playing up on us and denying everything and speeding our game us kind of threw us off."
On closing out games
"It goes back to practice again. We need to be consistent in practice. We need to have a full practice where we are good the entire practice and you don't have to stop and review things. Like I said last interview, we'll start out good and finish bad, or we'll start out bad and finish bad. We just need to be consistent and I don't know hoe to find that or where to get that answer from."
On the quick turnaround between games
"We can't think about that. We've just got to gin in there and play. We'll go to practice tomorrow and forget about this, forget about how close the games were. We've just got to go to practice tomorrow.
On the result of today's game moving forward
"I thought we played hard. All of us missed shots. None of us were on except LaShawn, but none of us could hit shots. I just thought we played hard. I thought we played hard the whole game. We just couldn't make shots."
West Virginia Head Coach Mike Carey
Opening Statement
"We were 0-4 in conference play, thought we should have won three of the four. Oklahoma State is well-coached, Jim (Littell) does a great job. They missed a lot of shots early, especially in the first half. They started hitting them in the second half. I thought overall our players played hard. We got some scoring off the bench, which is something we hadn't been doing. It was good to get a win."
On the play of Bre McDonald
"We just decided to start her, this is her first game starting, and she come into the game focused and ready to play. So it was great. I thought Jessica Morton came off the bench and scored seven points for us. So those are points we have not been getting. So it was good to see. Bria Holmes, even though she only scored 10 points she also had 10 rebounds, so she did some other things and that's what it takes. It takes a total team effort and our style of defense everyone is going to be moving, everybody going to get to the ball and that type of stuff. So it's something to build on, needless to say we're no where near where we need to be, but at least it's something to build on."
On the defensive strategy facing Martin and Donohoe
"We know there good players, they are going to get attention just like Bria Holmes gets attention, there going to get attention because there good players. They can score, so there going to get a lot of attention just like Bria Holmes is going to get a lot of attention. I think Jim is one of the best coaches, Jim's a great person and one of the best coaches in the Big 12. I just thought come down to that we hit some shots we don't normally hit and they (OSU) didn't. I thought we were able to get to the ball pretty good."
On being able to dominant on the offensive glass
"We've been doing that pretty well, we've been averaging like 14 or 15 offensive rebounds a game, simply because we miss a lot of shots. You should get some more offensive rebounds, but we hustle and get after it. I think they (OSU) had 11 offensive rebounds at halftime and ended up with 17 and we ended up with 19. So that's what we got to do. We turned it over to many times, but I thought we had a total team effort. I'm very pleased, not satisfied, but pleased."
