Oklahoma State University Athletics
Oklahoma State Vs. Kansas Postgame Quotes
February 07, 2000 | Cowboy Basketball
Feb. 7, 2000
OSU Coach Eddie Sutton
"I told Roy (Williams), as a team we played a little over our heads tonight. If you play like that, you can play with most teams in the country. I thought our defense was outstanding. I thought that was really a key. Then all of the sudden we started shooting the ball the last two games like I thought we would. It was just a good team victory for us. (Desmond) Mason had a tremendous game. I think he showed us why he's one of the best players in college basketball."
On if it was one of the team's best defensive efforts
"Well, it has to be. You know, Kansas is really talented. They're young, and
they're really going to be good as they gain more experience. They're good
right now. I mean, they're a top 25 ballclub. But defensively, I thought we
did a terrific job of keeping the ball out of the middle for the most part.
One of the three keys to beating Kansas was defensive board play. Kansas,
normally, when they miss they just attack the glass, and I thought we really
did a good job of limiting the number of second opportunities they had this
evening."
On keys to the game
"Well, our defense is good, and then when they shot the ball we just did a
good job on the defensive boards. Like I've said, when you shoot the ball
well it camouflages a lot of your shortcomings. Tonight we shot the ball
just like we did last Saturday. We shot the ball extremely well against A&M,
and we shot it well tonight."
Oklahoma State Players
Forward Desmond Mason
On his 31-point performance
"It was big time. I have said this about three or four times. It was the
first chance I've had to beat Kansas in my four years in here. I think
that's about the best we've played against against anybody up to this point
this year. We have a great team, and we can play great defense if we want
to. If we go out with that mentality against everybody, we can give a lot of
people some problems."
On his five three-pointers
"I knew that they would be pressuring us a lot, and the only thing that was
open tonight was back there. You had to back up to get open, or you weren't
going to get open. They put a lot of pressure out on the wing.
"I jumped up and knocked down a couple of threes. I had talked to my dad about just jumping up and shooting it and not thinking about it. If I think about it, I was probably going to miss. I jumped up and let it go. Coach (Sutton) has the confidence in me to let me keep shooting like that and my teammates also. I just have to jump up and knock them down. I had a good shooting night tonight."
Guard Doug Gottlieb
On his free-throw performance
"A real special thing happened Saturday. I've had a tough season. It's been
real up and down. I had a bad game Saturday (against Texas A&M), I'll admit
it. We had a young guy in our locker room, his name was Cody Paul from
Drumright, Okla. He has bone cancer. It puts things in perspective for you.
I came in the locker room at the end, and I was about as low as I could be
because everybody had played real well and I go 0-for-8 from the field. It's
tough when you've started your whole career, and now your not starting and
coming off the bench. I looked in his eyes, and he wasn't giving up on his
fight, so I wasn't going to give up. So I would just like to dedicate
everything I did tonight to him because of him and his fight in the chemo
room in Oklahoma City is keeping me going."
On the crowd
"It was wonderful. Sometimes people don't understand it's really tough. I
know I give off the impression that I'm a very confident to the point of
being cocky person -- especially with the way I play. That's how you have to
play as a point guard. you have to have that swagger. But sometimes you lose
that, and the toughest way to get it back is when you look out into the
stands, you see students and you take your shot. Sometimes they can feel
your pain, and sometimes they can almost turn on you. I don't blame them.
But tonight, they were behind me from the start and behind our whole team
from the start. You can see the type of energy we play with at home this
year. That's what Gallagher-Iba is all about. That's what Oklahoma State
University is all about."
Oklahoma State Locker-Room Quotes
Forward Brian Montonati
"This is the biggest game of my career so far. It's like a dream, beating Kansas by 33. I just hope somebody doesn't pinch me and wake me up. We played well and we played really tough defense. There were a couple of times I missed a couple of rebounds. We knew we were going to have to play well on the defensive boards and limit their second shots because they are a really great offensive team. We just battled in there and stayed tough and played 40 minutes of basketball. We played with our hearts and our souls and everything. The fans were tremendous. It's huge for us to get a win like this."
"OU is going to be a real tough game. I'm sure they're sitting at home watching this tonight and they're thinking, 'this Oklahoma State team is for real.' And we're going to go down there and show them we're real."
Guard Joe Adkins
"It was a real sweet victory because in my four years we've never beaten those guys. We've come close on a couple of occasions. Tonight was big, but we know we're not 33 points better than those guys. We'll take the win, though, because we just played well."
"I've been shooting a lot better and I've been working on that a lot. Now all the work is starting to show for me."
"We are very familiar with OU. They have some good players. But we're not really worried about them right now. We're going to relax for a day and we're going to start working on it Wednesday."
Kansas Coach Roy Williams
"They totally manhandled us in every aspect of the game. This was the worst feeling that I've ever had on the bench. I felt like I was useless. I did not have them prepared to face this kind of exhibition. I was totally outcoached in every way, and we were totally manhandled on the court. This will be the shortest press conference in history. I have nothing to say. They absolutely defeated us in every face of the game -- physically, mentally, and coaching."
On Desmond Mason's performance
"I think that he's a fantastic player. We knew he was a fantastic player.
We talked about trying to get up and not let him have the open looks for
three. They were nine-of-thirteen from the three-point line. That was one
of our focuses yesterday at practice and in our pregame talk: to get up and
not let anybody have open looks. Some of them were open. He (Mason) also
made points when we fouled him, so they weren't all open."
On Kansas' individual performances
"I think we can look at individuals all we want, but that's not the way I
coach. I'm not concerned about individual performances. This team has got
to get better and has to be able to handle stuff on the road. Right now
every time we go out on the road and there's the slightest problem early or
late in the game, and I haven't gotten the kids to understand how to
maintain their poise and keep their toughness in all those situations."
Kansas Players
Forward Nick Bradford
Opening Statement
"They got off to a good start, a couple of shots went down and they just
built a lead from there. They outplayed us in every phase. It just seemed
like they did a good job of spreading us. We gave them too many open looks.
Coming into the game we didn't want to give them open looks because they
have great shooters. That's what ended up happening, they got open looks and
knocked them down. It got them going defensively and we couldn't get any
shots and we couldn't get any stops. It just snowballed from there."
On the Crowd
"It is no different from any other crowd. They have a great crowd that did a
great job of supporting them."
On Desmond Mason
"He is a great player. He is definitely, I think, one of the top 10 players
in the country. We gave him too many open looks. A guy who can score like
that with open looks is going to kill us all day."
On Oklahoma State
"It starts at the defensive end. They have a great defensive team. Coach
Sutton always has that game. He is going to make his team play great
defense. When you have shooters like (Joe) Adkins, (Glendon) Alexander and
(Desmond) Mason out there coaching with (Doug) Gottlieb, who strips the ball
so well, they are a good team, a very good team."
