Oklahoma State University Athletics
Postgame Quotes
December 19, 2012 | Cowboy Basketball
Dec. 19, 2012
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Postgame Quotes
Oklahoma State vs UT Arlington
Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012
OSU head coach Travis Ford
On the team's overall performance
"It was a good game. We're grinding out, we're winning ugly, but that's just who we are. We're winning with defense, we're winning with decent rebounding. Tonight, the ball bounced funny a couple of times which allowed them to out-rebound us, but I wasn't overly disappointed with our rebounding, although you want to be on the positive side. Our rebounding didn't hurt us tonight, but our defense was consistent from beginning to end. We went through a stretch in the second half where they made several shots to start the half, but defensively overall, I was very pleased. Offensively, we're taking decent shots. We need to work on turnovers. The past two games, we've had 16 and 15, which is way too many for us. Our team, the way we're playing right now, we need to keep it around 10. If we can do that, that will help our offense. Overall, I was happy with how we played. I thought we got good contributions from a couple of people."
On the team's defense
"We got after it. UT Arlington is kind of like us. Sometimes they have trouble scoring, and they need a couple of guys to score. We needed to lock down on a couple of guys, and we did that. One guy got a little loose on us. He got a couple of good shots where we just lost him, which I was disappointed in. Our guys executed the game plan to perfection. We wanted to cut down on a couple of guys, and that's exactly what we did."
"Their center and our center are both 6'11", but their center is averaging a double-double. We challenged Philip Jurick to stop him from getting a double-double. He did a terrific job on their center. He didn't get double digits in points or rebounds."
On forcing turnovers
"If you can force 31 turnovers, you can afford to have 15 of your own, but I don't think you can count on them to have 20 in a half. That definitely helped our team. I was telling our guys that we're 9-1, and that's a positive thing, but the great thing is we have so much room for improvement. We're 9-1, and I think that there are so many areas that we can get better at and will get better at. It's good that we have a good record, but we're not a great team yet. We want to be great in February or March. This was a good team we played tonight."
"I loved what Kirby did. Kirby has put back-to-back games together as far as playing really well. He's lost 10 pounds in the last month. That's something we challenged him with, and he's done a great job getting in great shape. He's so much faster, and he seems so much quicker. He's finishing around the basket, which is something we wanted to see him do. Even the last two days, he's been the best guy on our team at handling the press. We mentioned after practice yesterday in our staff meeting that Kirby Gardner needs to start playing more, especially against teams that like to press. It allows Marcus (Smart) to get off the ball a little bit. I like the way Kirby is playing."
OSU senior forward Philip Jurick
On forcing 31 turnovers
"That was a big part of the scouting report. They had trouble handling pressure and didn't do too well with double teams, so we embraced that and did it."
On playing against 6-10 Jordan Reves
"I like playing against bigger players. It's harder for me to play against an undersized post with moving my feet and stuff, but I like the challenges."
On the emphasis placed on defense
"Coach Ford emphasizes defense more in practice, because every night you can go out and play defense, but some nights you may not be making shots. It's the only thing we can really control, and just get better at every day."
OSU freshman guard Phil Forte
On getting hot from three-point range in the second half
"In the first half, I missed one pretty badly, but I didn't get many looks in the first half — maybe passed up a few. At halftime, the coaches told me to shoot, my teammates told me to shoot, and I needed that. They did a great job of finding me when I was open. I just have to keep believing the next one is going to go in. I have to have a positive mindset and that's what happened."
On how missing shots early in the game affects him
"There's a lot of adrenaline that sits there and runs when you're on the bench. Once you get on the court, you have to get used to the flow of the game. That's usually what I try to do before I shoot one, but my role is to shoot, so when I'm open I just have to let it go."
UTA head coach Scott Cross
Opening statement
"Oklahoma State played a great game. They're a very good team, and they showed how good they were tonight."
On the teams' performances
"[OSU] has great size in all positions. Texas gave us a hard time with their size and athleticism, and Oklahoma State is the same way. I think our guys got really tentative and scared, basically.That's how it looked to me, and obviously, our 31 turnovers. You have to give them credit. They have a great team. They can defend, and they've got huge size. Phillip Jurick is a big boy, and he can block shots and disrupt you a little bit. Of course, his offensive rebounds were really big for him as well."
On turnovers
"For the last three weeks, we've spent 45 minutes a day on basic fundamentals with catching, passing and ball handling. It's stuff that we never really worked on for the first month and a half. We've spent a ton of time working on turnovers and pointing them out to our guys, so they are aware of when they are turning the ball over. I've never seen anything like it. It's a big issue. We defend really well, and tonight, for the most part, they had a tough time scoring on us. If we don't clean up our turnovers, it's going to be tough in the whack. We need to cut that number to 14."
