Oklahoma State University Athletics
OSU vs. Idaho State Postgame Quotes
November 18, 2013 | Cowgirl Basketball
Nov. 18, 2013
OSU Head Coach Jim Littell
Opening Statement
"I was very pleased with our effort tonight. I thought we played extremely hard on the defensive end. This is a team that's very difficult to guard and a very well coached Idaho State team. They run on pure emotion, very good at slipping picks and running player picks. It's a team that's hard to prepare for because you can't scout them, they're just reading what you do defensively. You have to rely on your base fundamentals. For the most part I thought we did a good job of that. It's a good team that blocks out well most of the time, hard to get any second or third opportunities. But we did a lot of positive things. We held them to 1-13 from the three, we kept them of the free throw line, only 10 free throws. Thought we did a good job in the second half of taking care of the ball better, only have six turnovers in the second half. You take away two spots in the first half where we turned it over on consecutive possessions and the last 1:50 we were pretty sloppy. You take those two segments out of the game and I thought we played pretty well for the most part."
On Idaho State
"They're just a well-coached team. We told our players that the well-coached teams are going to make you go to second and third options offensively. They did that and we hadn't been forced to do that yet and we didn't show a lot of patience in the first half of doing that. It was a good game for us, they were a good mid-major team that went to the WNIT and the year before went to the NCAA Tournament. They started three or four seniors and I'm pretty pleased with what we did as far as our effort. We didn't shoot the ball as well as we're capable of shooting it, but we shot good free throws. We have to learn to grind some games out and I feel like we did that tonight where we grind possessions out and if we turned it over a couple times we settled in and played hard defensively."
On playing a team like Idaho State
"That guy can coach anywhere. He can coach. They were very well prepared and difficult to guard. I knew what we were getting when we scheduled them and I wanted that because I think those games help you. They'll play with a lot of teams. A 29-point win against those teams is a good win."
On the defense
"We've always really tried to get across the idea that defense can create offense. When Tiffany turns the motor up, I feel like our team really feeds off of that. We got some steals, deflections, loose balls. You have to pressure that team because if you allow them to look and pinpoint passes then they'll carve you up because they run that motion really well."
Tiffany Bias
On Idaho State
"I think they're a fundamental team. They run a good offense and a good defense so I think that was a good test for us tonight."
On the offensive struggles at times
"It's not exactly what they did, I think it was more we weren't disciplined in making the sharp pass. I think we weren't breaking open hard enough. I know they played good defense but that's one of those things you have to push through it and execute the offense."
On the defensive performance
"I think when we started pressuring the ball more on defense, picking the ball up in the backcourt, all of our guards being up on those wing denials and the posts always helping and making sure there's not an open lane to the goal. I think we get energy off of each other, so when one person is up on somebody someone else gets up, we feed off each other."
On the success of the bench tonight
"I think we have a bench this year and people we can go to. We can rotate through and a bunch of girls can come in no matter who it is and just play with each other no matter who is in off the bench. I think by adding those 28 points from the bench is a key for us in the long run."
LaShawn Jones
On their defensive coverage of her tonight
"At first it was difficult because I'm used to guarding bigger people, but I had to adjust to it and they started to track me so I had to keep kicking it out."
On the rule changes
"I think for me it's hard because I always have to have my hand on someone, using my armbar. I think the team is getting used to it by now. We're all starting to get the hang of it."
