Oklahoma State University Athletics
Oklahoma Postgame Quotes
February 24, 2016 | Cowboy Basketball
Oklahoma State Head Coach Travis Ford
Opening statement:
"I'm proud of our team's effort. I thought we did some really good things [in the] first half. You got a guy [Ryan Spangler] that's shooting 22 percent from the three-point line that's four for four, so give him credit. We were doing a great job of keeping them out of those runs and trying to control the pace of the game and manage the game. We were doing a good job, but our offense just led to some easy points. When we got them in the half court, I thought we did a tremendous job, but give them credit. They made a few runs on us and separated the score."
On Ryan Spangler from the three:
"We did a lot of good stuff. When you're our team, you've got to hope that guy misses, and he made them so give him credit. He had a big game and he made shots when he was open."
On playing against Oklahoma without the injured key players:
"It's just hard to hold down a team that's as offensively talented and as offensively explosive as they are."
On Ryan Spangler's effort:
"He had a good night. He had a really good night, and that's what you need. When your team is a good basketball team, things like that happen for you. We tried to play to their percentages tonight and we studied a lot of film. They made the shots. We made the shots."
Senior Guard Jeff Newberry
On Ryan Spangler's performance:
"They have weapons who shoot it very well from the 3-point mark. Spangler is a valuable and capable shooter and he got started early tonight."
On if OSU settled for Spangler shooting so many threes:
"Yes. We would rather him take some of those shots than let Buddy (Hield) or the rest of those guys get going. Playing a team that shoots the three that well, you just have to pick your poison, and he made us pay tonight. Being at home had to give him some momentum and he played very well."
On OSU's second-half play:
"It's always frustrating playing like that. As a leader I can't sit back and act like it's okay for us to keep playing like this. We're in games regardless of if we're up or down at half, but for a portion of the year we just haven't been able to come out strong in the second half. I don't know what we're going to have to do, but we need to finish strong. We have three great teams coming up and we wouldn't want it any other way."
On the impact of Jeffrey Carrol's absence:
"It's difficult, but we also have (Tavarius) Shine. They both play around the same amount of minutes, and it's just up to Shine to step up. He knows that and he's been coming in and giving us energy. Obviously we would've rather had that extra shooter (Jeffery Carrol) out there with us because he was playing some good ball. We just have to look at it as though whoever comes to play needs to step up."
On the defensive mindset of the first half:
"They're a fast break team and they shoot early on in the clock, and they shoot it very well. We had to try and slow them down by getting back in transition and guarding the paint. If you don't do those things, they can hurt you."
Sophomore Guard Tavarius Shine
On Spangler's 3-point performance:
"That's the guy we wanted shooting the three. OU's other three guards are all shooting well, so if there was one guy we wanted to beat us, it would've been Spangler. He was just on tonight."
