Oklahoma State University Athletics
Postgame Quotes vs Texas A&M
February 25, 2012 | Cowboy Basketball
Feb. 25, 2012
Recap | Final Stats | Notes
Postgame Quotes
Oklahoma State vs Texas A&M
Saturday, Feb. 25, 2012
Oklahoma State head coach Travis Ford
Opening statement
"I'm very proud of our team for being able to come together the last couple of days and kind of respond from another injury. We thought we would come out and compete. Our guys flowed through the offense and did some things much better than I anticipated, as far as trying to piece things together. We've just challenged our guys the last two days from Keiton Page on down to Christien Sager and (Cezar) Guerrero, and all of them in between. We've even asked this again out of Keiton to do more, if it's possible. Because losing a guy like Le'Bryan (Nash), who does so much for us offensively, handling the ball, there's so many things we do within our offense that he's involved in. We were wondering if we had enough time to adapt, and for the flow of the game to go like it did for us, I was very impressed and pleased with our team, how they responded in such a short amount of time and accepting the challenge of playing a really good team. Obviously, if we got everybody (back to full health), our team is about as talented as A&M. These guys continue to overachieve. You kind of move along and accept the adversity one by one, and just move on. We spent more time just talking the last two days in practice trying to get our guys in the right frame of mind and our guys responded."
On being without Le'Bryan Nash and Marek Soucek, Philip Jurick and Cezar Guerrero stepping up
"I talked to them in front of the team, I called some of them on the phone last night. I just told them, especially in front of the team, that everybody is going to have to do something more. It doesn't have to be scoring. That's what everybody wants to look at first with Le'Bryan. For us, 15 points is a lot of points, but it may be screening better, it may be rebounding better, it may be defending better. Whatever it may be, somebody's going to have to do more, and it started with those three guys. I told all three of them, 'you will play'. I wanted to try to rest our guys as much as I could with breaks, something I haven't been able to do, and they all responded, they all did something positive."
On playing better even when missing players
"It can happen. It's kind of the overachieving effect, the eye of the tiger. I've been on both sides of it, definitely. You try to motivate your team as much as you can to overachieve. I understood the challenges of losing Le'Bryan in the back of my mind, but we never mentioned it to our team, as far as where that was going to hurt us. We just used the concept to tell our guys what need to be done."
On if this game is "launching point" for the program
"I think you could use any of the games we've won at this point. When you look at that this team, preseason, was picked seventh, and we locked that up today, and all of the things we went through, and to have seven wins in the league, I think we've done a lot to lay the foundation. I think we've done a lot besides just tonight. Tonight was just another game where you can say, 'wow'. A lot of people in the last couple of days, when they found out about Le'Bryan, even my buddies were like, 'you all are in trouble. This is going to be a tough game'. I thought we could succeed today."
"I thought we were going to be having to coach every offensive possession just trying to get everybody in the right spot. We had some guys who hadn't played together in a long time playing together, but they did a great job. They really did. We've said to our guys that we're laying the foundation all the time. Wins or losses, we're laying the foundation. Obviously, you'd rather win and learn, but sometimes when we don't play so well, like last game, our team does a pretty good job of usually learning from it. So I think every game that we've played is laying the foundation."
OSU redshirt freshman guard/forward Brian Williams
On the team's defensive effort
"They had probably the best front-court we've played this year. They have great scorers, and we just tried to limit them tonight."
On how the team has changed since the last time they played Texas A&M
"I think we play hard every night now. This was one of those nights where everything was clicking, we were making shots, and everything was going well."
On playing Kansas Monday night
"When I was in high school, I saw James Anderson and the team beat Kansas, and that was pretty special. I got a little taste of the whole rushing the court thing when we beat Missouri, but I want to do it again."
OSU redshirt freshman forward Michael Cobbins
On playing without Le'Bryan Nash and moving forward
"We just want to show people that even if we are down one, we can still compete. We need everybody to step it up a level, and fill in his shoes."
On being there for Keiton Page's final home game Monday night
"It's definitely special, he was the one that showed us the ropes around here, and he showed us the ins and outs of this program. He showed us what it means to be able to play at a high level."
Texas A&M head coach Billy Kennedy
Opening Statement
"Not taking anything away from Oklahoma State, they did a lot of good things, but we were just terrible. Bad effort, practices hadn't been good, and the ball stuck. We were selfish offensively, and we were stealing money from the university. I apologize to Texas A&M University and our fans."
On whether he saw a poor outing coming
"We've been worse since we've gotten guys back, offensively. The ball is sticking. That happens with injuries. When you bring guys back, the chemistry goes another direction. I could see it coming three weeks ago, but fortunately we were able to weather the storm. Oklahoma State did some good things. Markel Brown is a tough matchup, and I thought their big guys did a great job of keeping us from scoring around the basket."
On whether the absence of Le'Bryan Nash changed the game plan
"No, it didn't really have any effect. Sometimes, teams play better. They move the ball better, their offense was crisper, and didn't stick. You have to give them credit. Travis (Ford) did a really good job without him, and their post guys came in and did a good job."
