Oklahoma State University Athletics
Postgame Quotes
November 08, 2013 | Cowboy Basketball
Nov. 8, 2013
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Postgame Quotes
Oklahoma State Cowboy Basketball
vs Mississippi Valley State
Friday, Nov. 8, 2013
OSU head coach Travis Ford
Opening statement
"We did a lot of things well. We got to play a couple of different lineups because of foul trouble in the first half. I told our team in the locker room that I liked our maturity and focus. We ran a bunch of different plays and a bunch of different defenses. That's always positive. Although we won by a huge margin, we got a little bit out of it. We've got to shoot our free throws a little bit better than we did. I loved the passing. I thought we found the open man and made shots, which was nice to see. Overall, I thought it was a pretty good performance."
On the team limiting turnovers
"A lot of those 13 (turnovers) came late when we were just running around and throwing the ball around a little bit, but 13 is not a bad number at all. I think that our guys showed a little bit of maturity. They continued to execute the whole game and not worry about the score."
On Le'Bryan Nash recording his first career double-double
"I'll take those numbers every game. He was tremendous. He had to kind of hold the fort down for us when everybody got in foul trouble in the first half. He and Brian Williams were the lone starters out there for us. We moved him to the five spot, and I think he played about 12-14 minutes at center for us. Le'Bryan gave us a rebounding presence in there, which is great to see, because it's something we've been challenging him to do and something he hasn't been doing. For him to go out and get 10 rebounds was something we were excited to see."
On freshman point guard Stevie Clark
"He's really passing the ball and leading our team. Stevie has a great feel for the game. He sees things happen before they actually happen. That's all because he's got a great understanding and great feel for the game. I like how he's running the team. He's starting to understand when to fast break, run plays, and things like that. He didn't shoot the ball particularly well, but I'm not worried about that. He'll make shots. I thought they were all good shots. Eight assists to two turnovers. That's what you want out of your point guard."
On things that can improve
"We didn't guard off the ball handler too well early in the first half. We didn't play extremely well in the first five or six minutes. Something we've got to do is get off to a better start. In the other games we had played up to this point we had gotten out of the gates quickly. That's something that we really need to do. We've been shooting free throws pretty well at 71 percent, but we need to get that up to 74. They did have 11 offensive rebounds. That's a few too many, and a lot of those came late. Overall, there wasn't a whole lot to find negative in this performance."
On the decision to sit Jeffery Carroll
"Yeah, we're planning on redshirting him at this point. This is the first time I've actually talked about it. This is interesting because I love his game. He is going to be a great player here. He's going to be a superstar here some day. I really believe that, but a lot of guys are in front of him right now, and I think that he could get a whole lot more accomplished by redshirting and playing significant minutes next year than he could playing this year."
OSU junior wing Le'Bryan Nash
On earning his first double-double
"I'm excited. My biggest focus was getting rebounds. Coach (Ford) and I talked about that a lot, in the offseason I was trying to improve my rebounding a lot, and it showed today. I'm not worried about the scoring, the rebounds are the bigger part."
On everyone contributing tonight
"It shows that we're competing hard. That we are all love playing with each other, from the best player on our team to not the best. It shows our team chemistry."
On the team's performance
"It's further along so everyone is the same on our team. It's the start to the Final Four for us, it's the road to the Final Four. We take it one game at a time and coach will always say, 'Take it one game at a time.' Tonight we executed everything on offense and defense. Today we rebounded the ball and made sure they didn't get second chances and I feel like we did a good job."
On the success with Marcus Smart's limited playing time
"It shows you we have a lot of weapons on our team. Marcus is our guy, our All-American. Not everyone has a good night, not saying he didn't have a good night. Marcus played the way he wanted to out there. Tonight might not have been the night, but you know that the next night might be. It just shows you how many weapons we have."
OSU junior wing Brian Williams
On tonight's performance
"We stayed focused the whole game, even with the big lead, we just made it a point for everybody to stay like the score was zero."
On Christian Sager's near dunk
"It was crazy, Christian (Sager) almost dunked on somebody. We were over there going crazy. I would've been on the court, even though we were already on the court. I would've flipped."
On using their size as an advantage
"We had to overcompensate for the size of our guys and athleticism. We just tried to send everybody to the glass and tried to do as much damage as we can down there."
On the success with Marcus Smart's limited playing time
"Everybody can play ball. That's our point guard, we need him out there. This was a game where we didn't really need him, but we need him."
OSU sophomore guard Phil Forte
On the team''s performance
"These guys do a great job of always trying to find me in transition. We have so many offensive weapons offensively, so it spaces the court out and gives me opportunities to look for my shot. We have so many great players on this team that it makes my job easy, and tonight was one of those nights."
On the successful shooting tonight
"I guess we were saving it for a game that mattered. That's not really what we are worried about, we all know we can shoot. We work hard on that everyday, sometimes shots aren't going to fall, but we need to stay consistent defensively, and as long as we can do that, we'll be on course."
On Stevie Clark's performance
"It's kind of a process with him, but he's learned really quick what it's like and he's grown up really fast from the moment he stepped on campus. And everyone thinks of Stevie of when he was in high school and shooting 35-footers, but honestly he's playing like a true point guard. He's playing really well right now and he knows when to drive it. He's fun to play with, I love playing with him out there."
