Oklahoma State University Athletics
Oklahoma State Men's Basketball Postgame Quotes
January 30, 2000 | Cowboy Basketball
Jan. 30, 2000
OSU Coach Eddie Sutton
"I thought we played really good basketball the first 20 minutes. We were 41-19. They had five treys, two twos and no free throws. I thought we really played well offensively and defensively. We had six turnovers. The second half was a different story. I've had it happen before. We got a big lead, and when you get a big lead there's a tendency to lose a little intensity. Sometimes the other ballclub picks up on that. I thought Baylor played better the second half. We lost our intensity. That shows up in rebounding, and it shows up in careless passing which means you're going to turn the ball over. We won the game. That's what I told the team. We were fortunate to do that, and we'll learn from it."
On his expectations for the team
"Usually our teams have gotten better in February everywhere I've been. This team plays in spurts, and that's one of the things they have to do is become more consistent over a forty minute period. I would hope we will start shooting the ball a little bit better. I hope that we will get more aggressive offensively and not be so content with shooting perimeter shots, which allows you to get to the free throw line. When you only get to the line 12 or 13 times, it tells you that you're shooting the ball out on the floor. You're not driving the ball. You're not getting it inside as much as you should. This is something that we have really been trying to get our players to better understand. When you get into February with the schedule we have, you better be playing because almost every team you're playing probably has a chance to go to a postseason tournament."
Forward Desmond Mason
On the game
"I think in the first half, we came out and played really well. In the
second half, we weren't as aggressive on defense. I think everybody saw the
lead we had and thought we were going to win anyway, so we started playing
soft."
On Andre Williams' play in the second half
"I think he came in and played an excellent game. He rebounded, ran the
floor, blocked shots and did everything we needed him to do every game when
he gets in."
On staying focused when up by 21 points
"You should keep your mind in the game, and I try my best. But I think when
you have a lead like that, you're probably going to let down. You should
have that killer instinct like some of these big men like Duke. They put
people away. I think we should have that same killer instinct, but we didn't
show it today.
"It's a big problem because when you get to teams like Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. When you get those guys down like that, you really need to put a good team like that away."
Forward Andre Williams
On his play
"In the fist half when I came out, I was real slow. I couldn't move. I just
wasn't into it. The team played a great half, but I didn't play that great.
In the second half, I knew I had to get it going because we were kind of
sluggish starting off. I just tried to turn it up as best I could. It ended
up well."
On being back to where he was in December
"I hope so. I'm not quite sure. I haven't played enough to know. Missing
five games hurts. It will be a while before I actually know where I stand."
Baylor Coach Dave Bliss
"Oklahoma State is just a terrific basketball team. Desmond Mason is difficult to guard (Doug) Gottlieb does a great job of being a coach on the floor. Inside, their strength is getting better. For instance, (Andre) Williams had a good day against us. We came up here and we had to do all we could do to slow the game down a little bit. They're just a great full-court team, whether it's defense or offense. We went through a period after about seven minutes of the first half or so where we lost control of the game.
"At halftime, we had to set our sights differently. All we tried to do at halftime was start over again at 0-0. We tried to slow some things down. We changed our offense a little bit. For all intents and purposes, we improved some of the things that we've been working on.
"Unfortunately for our basketball team, because we are undermanned, some of the best times for us to get better is when we play against top-25 basketball teams. I say that tongue-in-cheek because frankly, we don't have enough depth on our team to practice hard enough sometimes. When we get in a game like this, it takes us a little while to get up to speed.
"This is the wrong team to have to do that against. They (Oklahoma State) had good depth out there today. They hit some good shots against our zone. We move on, and they move on."
On Baylor struggling to get points in the paint
"We start a walk-on and two of them are freshmen. It's difficult to go up
against the experience of a lot of the teams that we face. Certainly, the
post players for Oklahoma State are very gifted. They're very good.
(Brian) Montonati hit some good turnaround jump shots. We just didn't get
the job done in there, and that's a large part of why we kind of changed
things in the second half to go to a more perimeter offense. We shot more
threes than we wanted to shoot, but sometimes that's the shot you can get.
We missed more threes than we really should have missed. We had some great
looks. But that's all part of playing against the Cowboys."
Baylor Players
Guard DeMarcus Minor
On the Bears' depth
"It is basically like coach said, our depth is not really what we want it to
be right now. I feel, by the time the season ends, we will be able to score
some points in the paint once we get a couple of things straightened out."
