Oklahoma State University Athletics
OSU vs. Kansas Postgame Quotes
January 08, 2013 | Cowgirl Basketball
Jan. 8, 2013
OSU head coach Jim Littell
Opening statement
"I'm proud of our team. Our confidence wasn't real good after the first two games, and I'm really happy about the way they've stayed together and supported each other. I thought it was a total team win tonight. Liz Donohoe was obviously very efficient tonight. I thought she did a good job of using the offense and reading the defense. She was a really smart basketball player tonight. Tiffany Bias did an exceptional job of running the team, deciding when to run and deciding when to get us into our offense. Toni came up big and had some nice drives from the free throw line. Brittney Martin, 14 and 10 is a nice night. She got off to a rough start. If we could help her get her confidence, she's got a lot of ability. For the most part, I thought we did a really good job. We gave up a lot of easy baskets in the first half, and we took a lot of that away in the second half."
On the keys to winning
"We hadn't had scoring in the first conference games from our wings, and we have to get production out of those people. It's no secret. Liz Donohoe has to play well. Toni Young has to play well, and Tiffany Bias has to play well every night. Those three kids have to deliver for us in a lot of different areas. I was glad to see our wings step up and have some production and play well. I thought we got a nice boost from Kendra Suttles on the bench. She did some nice things and got some second chance opportunities for us that allowed us to score."
On the four-minute increments
"We've let some leads get away, and we just really stressed to them at each media timeout that they won that four minutes and needed to win the next four minutes. I think it helped us to focus tonight and play one play at a time. We just need to continue to break the game down into four minute segments."
On the team's confidence
"As the game went on, I thought we started growing in confidence. This is like any other sport. You have to be confident to excel. Hopefully, our team knows that if we hang together and execute, play defense and rebound the basketball, we've got a chance to play against a lot of people in this league. Our focus for 40 minutes was a lot better tonight."
Tiffany Bias
On the changes made from the last two games
"We really worked on four-minute increments and just to win every four minutes. I think we did well in executing plays and not giving up easy buckets."
On tonight's performance
"I think we pushed the ball as much as we could. They started getting back on us because they tried to stop us in transition. I think that's really our game. It was really good for us to play all as one and to make big plays when we needed to."
On Liz Donohoe
"As a point guard, you should always know when your shooter is hot. This game, she came out on fire, and she used her screens to get around them. It's big for us, and it really helped us as a team. It's not surprising for us because that's just Liz. She's a great shooter, and she does that all the time in practice. For her to have a spark like that at the beginning of the game is good to see."
On the win
"I think it's big to come back off a loss from Baylor and to get a win in front of your home crowd. It helps get our pride and our confidence up. We're a great team."
Brittney Martin
On what helped the team win tonight
"Working together this time really got us going. All of us were scoring and all of us were getting rebounds."
On adjusting to Big 12 basketball
"I should have gotten the feel of it in the first game, but of course, the second game had to be Baylor. I just feel like I'm getting the hang of how to play in college. I'm getting it."
On the Kansas defense
"At the beginning, the coaches told us that Davis was really good. She plays good defense underneath and not looking to block shots. I just had to go in there thinking that she wasn't going to block my shot, and I needed to shoot over. It was kind of scary at first, but I have to adjust to it."
Kansas head coach Bonnie Henrickson
Opening Statement
“Credit to Oklahoma State. We said going into it that it's two starving dogs after the last piece of meat on Earth and they weren't going to give it to us, and they clearly didn't. What they gave us was a punch in the mouth. I'm disappointed we didn't have a better answer.”
On Liz Donohoe
“She's a complete player on the perimeter. But if you look at it, in our two games against her last year, granted she was a freshman, she only gets two threes off in two games against us. We didn't lock in. We didn't get through screens and she made the most out of every touch she got. A lot of two–man stuff she curled and got inside and got a look at the rim and either shot it or put it on the floor and drove it on us as well.”
On not finding a rhythm
“At the 14-minute mark we left a five hanging on the board that would have cut it to a four-point lead. We were at a front end of a one on one. We missed the second of two shots. If you can stick those and the clock is not running, now it's a four-point game and you've clawed your way back. We fell in love with the three in the first half and for us to shoot nine threes and go 0-9 and to shoot three free throws in the last minute and we didn't drive it. Our bigs have to work outside patterns and ball reversals and look high-low. We didn't get the enough to the short corner, low post and three-point line enough."
On going 0-9 from the three-point line in the first half.
“We didn't get in rhythm. Whether you're a good shooter or not, rhythm has a lot to do with your shot and your footwork. A lot of those were ball reversal threes where we never collapsed the zone. Some of them were challenged and some of them were out of rhythm. Then you have to recognize that you have to go try something else. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing to get the same results. Our defense was just horrendous. I'm more concerned about how bad we were defensively. That's the most disappointing part is defensively we were just so bad. If we're going to go oh-for from the three-point line it has to be 0-4 or 0-5, not nine. I like their optimism though.”
