Oklahoma State University Athletics
Kansas Postgame Quotes
January 19, 2016 | Cowboy Basketball
Oklahoma State Head Coach Travis Ford
On tonight's performance:
"I've had the question in the past couple days about how we can get off to a better start. There's no drill for it and we've talked a lot about putting two halves together and letting things be focused on how hard we play. I've really challenged our guys in the last two days to bring their best individually. Although this is the best team sport, bring your best individually. Whatever your role id and whatever you need to do, bring your best. I couldn't be more proud of a group of guys who so many people, not around here, had given up on and said so many bad things about. For us to come out and play the way we did tonight against what I believe is one of the best teams in the country, makes me so proud of this team. I'm so proud of their effort. I told the team before the game, "The only thing that matters about history is that you learn from it," and tonight we were a pretty good basketball team."
On taking Kansas out of their game plan:
"Perry Ellis is hard to guard. I love the percentages we played on him, but he is so hard to guard. We go in every game concerned about foul trouble. What a team effort. If you look at the stat sheet, every single person who played, scored for us. Every single person who got in the game got a rebound. Kansas is averaging over 80 points a game, and we held them in the mid to low 60s. For our team to go get 86, I'm proud of that. We passed the ball, we executed, I thought we controlled the pace extremely well. I'm so proud of the team and their effort. This has been a really difficult stretch. Nobody likes losing, but I think they showed tonight that our team deserves to smile a bit."
On Jawun Evans:
"He's the prototypical player who makes everybody around him better and in turn does a lot of good things for himself by scoring, but he opens up so much for everybody else. Right now, he is getting so much attention on the court. All five players on the court are watching him defensively and trying to figure out how to slow him down. He's probably the best I've ever seen at understanding when to shoot and when to pass. He can go out and get you 20,25,30 points or 10, 11 or 12 assists. He did a little bit of both, but we had everybody step up, definitely."
On the Cowboy's post play:
"We've been begging our bigs to step up and give us some stats. Boy, they responded. Olivier had eight points in nine minutes. Anthony Allen had six big rebounds and two blocks. Mitchell Solomon knocked down his free throws and got some big rebounds for us down the stretch. I'll take that every single night from those three."
On Jeff Carroll playing with illness:
"He got really, really sick before the game with stomach cramps. I found out when they were announcing the starting five for Kansas. I looked over at him and he didn't look too good, but I didn't say anything to him. I just told the trainer to let me know if he can't go. I asked him after the starting five if he was good and he told me he was all right. Sometimes you play your best when you don't feel so good because you seem to be a little more focused. He made some big, big threes from the corner in the first half."
On enjoying the win:
"Our guys need to enjoy this in the right manner tonight. I told them that they need to enjoy this, but be very humble and proud. That's total respect for Kansas. They were ranked No. 3 and have been No. 1 in the past. I'm just so proud of the effort tonight. Very proud."
OSU freshman guard Jawun Evans:
On his first Kansas game:
"I liked it very much. Having all the fans here supporting us, and how hard our team played tonight was an incredible experience."
On comfort level going into the game:
"I was very confident and comfortable going into the game, mainly because my teammates give me confidence."
On how the team was at the beginning:
"We usually come out slow, but this game we came out hitting shots. Our defense was there, and I could tell it was going to be a great night for us."
On controlling the clock:
"As coach said earlier, you don't want to get into a fast paced game when you are up by so many points at the end of the game. Our goal was to control it and take smart shots, which allowed us to stay in control the rest of the game."
OSU senior guard Jeff Newberry:
On using the word desperate, and if they can use it to their advantage:Â
"When we play with a desperate mindset we go for rebounds, we lock down on defense and play like dogs, and I feel like that is how we played tonight."
On players meeting:
"We all met and talked about what we wanted to do, what we wanted the outcome of the game to be. We just wanted to play the best we could."
On teammates:
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"I noticed my teammates were focused, they didn't really have much of a choice because I made sure they were focused. They were eager to go, and coach helped make sure we were not overwhelmed by the other team, we went into the game with a good mentality."
On how he sees Jawun growing throughout the season:Â
"He asks a lot more questions, and is one of the most humbled people I have ever played with. He is very eager to learn and listen. He doesn't just take praise to the good stuff, he wants to know what he did wrong. I like that he constantly wants to get better every day, and comes calm and collected knowing he has to lead the team, and he takes on that burden."
On how the team played tonight:Â
"We all knew what we had to do tonight, we were all very prepared and I just had that feeling. We are at home, we were very calm, we knew we were on a losing streak and I knew we were due for one."
Kansas coach Bill Self
On Oklahoma State:
"[Oklahoma State] were so much more athletic and of course OSU played great. They made timely shots, I don't know how many times they scored with under 10 on the shot clock. They were great and had seven different guys make a three-pointers. It was their night, we contributed to it, but what went wrong is they were far better than us."
On Oklahoma State's shooting:
"I thought they made some hard shots, if you look at the stats they shot the ball a lot better than they have been. I thought [Jeff] Newberry and of course [Jeff] Carroll in the first half made those two in a row, and I thought Hammonds was good. I thought everybody that played for them played very well."
On Oklahoma State's roster:
"I like their team, they are athletic, they share the ball, they've got an All-American in their midst that's going to be fun to watch. I like their guys, they play hard and they seem to be getting better. I think they're a fun team to watch, unless you are on the end of a beat down like we were tonight."
On Jawun Evans:
"I think he is great, I think you can talk about other freshmen in the country and I think he's right up there, he's great. The thing that I like about him is he asserts himself, but he controls the game from an unselfish standpoint too. He is so fast and I don't know that we did an awful job on him, he had 22 and eight [rebounds], I would say that he's really understanding how to play at this level and growing fast right now. People should be excited about him."
Kansas forward Perry Ellis
On Oklahoma State:
"We have to give them credit, they were the better team today. I think they all played well as a team, I feel like as a team they all did well and they all contributed."
On the game:
"I thought it was pretty good, I thought in the first half we were competing and they were knocking down some tough shots. We just couldn't get stops."
On playing inside Gallagher-Iba Arena:
"They play well and they play well here."
Kansas guard Devonte' Graham
On Jawun Evans:
"He's good with the ball and getting in the lane. He's good at finishing as well."
On Kansas' energy:
"I felt like we came out with energy, they just did a good job of making shots and knocking down free throws. We didn't knock down many shots or free throws and they did a good job of controlling the game."
On Oklahoma State's shooting:
"Guys who don't usually make shots made shots tonight and we tried to be in strong help to keep Evans out of the lane, but they were kicking it out and making shots. Credit to them for getting in the lane and knocking down open looks."
