Oklahoma State University Athletics
Maryland Postgame Quotes
December 03, 2016 | Cowboy Basketball
Oklahoma State Head Coach Brad Underwood Opening statement:
"Great college basketball game. Great environment. I learned a lot about my team tonight. Pretty much it's kind of been status quo for the Terps here, fall behind, come back. Give them a lot of credit. They're very well coached and have great players that continue to make plays over and over. It's not like it was a surprise what they were going to do and whose hands the ball was going to be in. I'm proud of my team. I thought we were good in the first half. We took the fight to them and I thought we were aggressive on the boards. We got out and created tempo, had a 60-48 lead and then missed a couple good looks, but more importantly Maryland got very aggressive on the offensive end. They got second shots, other opportunities and for the most part, that stretch of the ball game was when we fell."
On what he learned about his team:
"Well I'm in year one. We haven't won road games in Oklahoma State in the past. We went to Maui and we learned how to bounce back. We got beat by North Carolina and got Georgetown. We bounced back in a positive way and beat them by 27. That was a new experience. Tonight, being on the road in a true road environment with 17,000 and a great atmosphere, that's what it's like every night in the Big 12. They didn't know how we would react to that. Every good home team is going to make their run. You don't know how your team is going to handle it. I'm in year one so we're learning each other and I know I'll do some things differently next time than what I did tonight."
On what they discussed knowing that Melo Trimble would get the ball after the last timeout:
"I didn't expect him to shoot a jump shot. We were setting it up as a zone. Mark [Turgeon] drew a good play, set a little double screen and we had our bigs step up. It wasn't where it was going to be in anybody else's hands and it wasn't where I expected him to pass it. We thought we had a pretty good idea of what was coming and we felt good about being in the zone from that standpoint, but I give a lot of credit to Melo [Trimble] and Mark putting him in a good spot to make the play."
On what attributed to the scoring drought:
"I thought we had some pretty good looks. The ball bounced around the rim a couple of times and then we missed a free throw in there and it's one of those things where I thought we had the same shots. I do think [Maryland] did a nice job with Jawun [Evans] in the middle of the floor with the ball screen coverage, walling him off and keeping him out of the paint. Give them some credit for that, but I think we had good shots. When you're on the road, you have to make those. You have to make opportunities and you can't give them those second shots. I was really disappointed in giving up the offensive rebounds during that stretch. That just elongated the possession for them."
On whether he was surprised by Damonte Dodd or Jaylen Brantley's performances:
"[Damonte] Dodd, no. I told our coaches that he's one of my favorite players on their team because he impacts the game tremendously. However many minutes he's been playing, he impacts the game. Whether it's through defensive rebounding or just his sheer size at the rim, his defensive presence and impact is felt. [Jaylen] Brantley was a little curveball that I swung and missed on but give him credit. 4 of 11, 12 points, double figure scorer. You get consumed with some of their other guys and he did what a good player should do: step up and give him the opportunity and he made the most of it."
Maryland Head Coach Mark Turgeon Opening Statement:
"Obviously really proud of my group. We beat a really good team tonight, a really well-coached team. A team that is hard to prepare for. We kept battling. They made some shots when the shot clock was going down. They made some tough shots, built a 12-point lead and then we just locked in defensively. We figured it out. We didn't make any jump shots so they went zone, but we got second chance points. We drove the ball a little bit better and we did some nice things. This group of mine is just amazing what they do. We have all these young kids playing and we keep battling. We were down 12 and they're hitting some tough shots. They have a great point guard and we just kept coming. Everyone in our circle, our team, knew we were going to win the game. The last play we ran, we had two plays called, they went zone and our big guys played it perfectly. We got Melo into the paint and he did the rest. Really proud of Jaylen Brantley. He was terrific and Damonte Dodd's defense in the second half was great. We changed our ball screen defense on (Jawun) Evans, who's terrific, in the second half and I thought it helped us a little bit."
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"Great college basketball game. Great environment. I learned a lot about my team tonight. Pretty much it's kind of been status quo for the Terps here, fall behind, come back. Give them a lot of credit. They're very well coached and have great players that continue to make plays over and over. It's not like it was a surprise what they were going to do and whose hands the ball was going to be in. I'm proud of my team. I thought we were good in the first half. We took the fight to them and I thought we were aggressive on the boards. We got out and created tempo, had a 60-48 lead and then missed a couple good looks, but more importantly Maryland got very aggressive on the offensive end. They got second shots, other opportunities and for the most part, that stretch of the ball game was when we fell."
On what he learned about his team:
"Well I'm in year one. We haven't won road games in Oklahoma State in the past. We went to Maui and we learned how to bounce back. We got beat by North Carolina and got Georgetown. We bounced back in a positive way and beat them by 27. That was a new experience. Tonight, being on the road in a true road environment with 17,000 and a great atmosphere, that's what it's like every night in the Big 12. They didn't know how we would react to that. Every good home team is going to make their run. You don't know how your team is going to handle it. I'm in year one so we're learning each other and I know I'll do some things differently next time than what I did tonight."
On what they discussed knowing that Melo Trimble would get the ball after the last timeout:
"I didn't expect him to shoot a jump shot. We were setting it up as a zone. Mark [Turgeon] drew a good play, set a little double screen and we had our bigs step up. It wasn't where it was going to be in anybody else's hands and it wasn't where I expected him to pass it. We thought we had a pretty good idea of what was coming and we felt good about being in the zone from that standpoint, but I give a lot of credit to Melo [Trimble] and Mark putting him in a good spot to make the play."
On what attributed to the scoring drought:
"I thought we had some pretty good looks. The ball bounced around the rim a couple of times and then we missed a free throw in there and it's one of those things where I thought we had the same shots. I do think [Maryland] did a nice job with Jawun [Evans] in the middle of the floor with the ball screen coverage, walling him off and keeping him out of the paint. Give them some credit for that, but I think we had good shots. When you're on the road, you have to make those. You have to make opportunities and you can't give them those second shots. I was really disappointed in giving up the offensive rebounds during that stretch. That just elongated the possession for them."
On whether he was surprised by Damonte Dodd or Jaylen Brantley's performances:
"[Damonte] Dodd, no. I told our coaches that he's one of my favorite players on their team because he impacts the game tremendously. However many minutes he's been playing, he impacts the game. Whether it's through defensive rebounding or just his sheer size at the rim, his defensive presence and impact is felt. [Jaylen] Brantley was a little curveball that I swung and missed on but give him credit. 4 of 11, 12 points, double figure scorer. You get consumed with some of their other guys and he did what a good player should do: step up and give him the opportunity and he made the most of it."
Maryland Head Coach Mark Turgeon Opening Statement:
"Obviously really proud of my group. We beat a really good team tonight, a really well-coached team. A team that is hard to prepare for. We kept battling. They made some shots when the shot clock was going down. They made some tough shots, built a 12-point lead and then we just locked in defensively. We figured it out. We didn't make any jump shots so they went zone, but we got second chance points. We drove the ball a little bit better and we did some nice things. This group of mine is just amazing what they do. We have all these young kids playing and we keep battling. We were down 12 and they're hitting some tough shots. They have a great point guard and we just kept coming. Everyone in our circle, our team, knew we were going to win the game. The last play we ran, we had two plays called, they went zone and our big guys played it perfectly. We got Melo into the paint and he did the rest. Really proud of Jaylen Brantley. He was terrific and Damonte Dodd's defense in the second half was great. We changed our ball screen defense on (Jawun) Evans, who's terrific, in the second half and I thought it helped us a little bit."
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