Postgame Quotes

Dec. 1, 1999

OSU Coach Eddie Sutton

"Both teams played great defense. At times when defense is as intense as you saw it tonight, your shots don't fall like they do when there's not that type of defense. This is certainly not to take anything away from Wichita State because I thought their young men really played their tails off.

"As I told Randy (Smithson) after the game, I really like his ballclub. I think they have a chance to really do well in their league if they play like they did tonight. We had a chance, though, to break the game. I think we were up 10 to five and during that stretch we missed a lot of free throws. We missed a couple of dead layups. You can maybe get it to double figures. All of the sudden when you play at home and you do that to a ballclub, you kill some of their confidence and some of their initiative. We let them hang around. The longer you let a team hang around, the more confident they become.

"The thing that I was impressed with our ballclub is that they certainly kept their poise. In the last four minutes of the game, they hit their free throws. They didn't turn it over. Their defense was solid. They did a better job on the defensive boards. They played with a lot of poise and certainly competed hard.

"Jimmy Williams did the scouting on this game, and he told them, 'We need a real tough game.' I thought for a while it was too tough. We're happy to get out of here with a victory. I think we learned some things about our ballclub. I think Randy certainly should be very proud of his ballclub."

Oklahoma State Players

Center Alex Webber

On his 20-point performance
"To me, the other team read our scouting report and put a body on Desmond (Mason) and Brian (Montonati) all the time and seemed to forget all about me. I got lucky, got in the right spot and got a few offensive rebounds and layups."

On his physical health
"I feel fine. My body's finally healthy. After 22 years of my life, I'm finally healthy. I go out there and bang with somebody, and I'm not going to go down that easily. It's taken me awhile, but I feel like I'm finally where I need to be."

Forward Desmond Mason

On the matchup with Jason Perez
"I made a commitment to myself before the game to try to keep him in single digits. He got 10, but I think I did a really good job. We played together in high school during the summertime on AAU team. Coach said it was going to be a physical game coming out and everybody had to step up. I didn't score many points, but my teammates stepped up and made some big shots. I'll take a win any way they come."

On the closeness of the game
"We knew it was going to be a physical game, and it was going to be really rough. We had to go out and play really good defense, and that team was a good defensive team. They played their hearts out. I think we did a really good job on defense. We made some improvements just tonight in the game. But this is something that we needed to get us ready and just to wake us up a little bit. If we play like this, we're going to win a lot of games."

Oklahoma State Locker-Room Quotes

Brian Montonati

On taking control at the end of the game
"We didn't shoot the ball very well tonight. Sometimes you have to win it with your defense. The last 10 minutes of the game we really stepped it up on defense, hit our free throws and crashed the glass. In the end it showed on the score board."

On OSU overall play
"They played good team defense and got up on us. We just didn't really hit our shots. That's something we're going to have to work on, and we're going to have to hit our free throws. We should have been up by 10 in the first half and ran away with it, but we didn't. We're really going to have to work on hitting our open shots and taking our time."

Joe Adkins

On Wichita State's defense
"They played good defense, but we got open looks and didn't knock them down. Any time a game has so much intensity like this players tend to rush their shots. I'm not going to take any credit away from them. They played pretty good defense, but we have got to knock them down."

Wichita State Coach Randy Smithson

"I'll give you the same statement I gave my ball club at the end of the game. We didn't come here for a morale victory, we didn't come here to play hard and lose. It's taken me four years to walk off that floor after a loss and feel really proud of a basketball team. We put a game plan together, and the kids executed it. We put a little heart on the board before the game and said that's our equalizer. We've just got to go out there and play with purpose and play together and play with heart. They did that.

"I'm not hyping them (OSU), but I watched a lot of tape. I watched them last year as a final-32 team. They have six seniors back from that team, and they're happy with their big kid. That may be one of the best teams that he's (Eddie Sutton) has ever had here. He's got a chance to go to the Final Four with that team. I knew if our team could get in here and give ourselves a chance to win, and that's all we asked for, that I could gauge us and I hope our players can gauge themselves from that. Our basketball team could be special. This wasn't a one-time effort. By golly, our basketball team will have a great year too. I believe they are. I said all along that I believe that we have a special group of kids.

"This is a tough place to play, it's a tough environment, and I just wish I could have given them something in the last two or three minutes to help them out. We're going to go back to the drawing board and maybe I can find a few more plays and a few more things to get the right people in the right spot at the right time and get then a better look at it. I was proud of them."

Wichita State Players

Wichita State Forward Jason Perez

On his eye injury
"I got it when I was going for that steal in the passing lane. (Desmond) Mason just accidentally poked me in the eye. Right now, it is a little hard to see out of, but I will be all right. I will be ready for Saturday."

On his matchup with Desmond Mason
"Like Coach said, it was two good players going head to head. I know if I am not getting my points, then my opponent is not getting his. That is the way I look at it. I have got to take this experience playing a big-time ballclub like this. I have to look at the film and see what I did right and what I did wrong. See how to get open better and go from there and use it one Saturday in the Valley."