Oklahoma State University Athletics
Postgame Quotes
December 17, 2013 | Cowboy Basketball
Dec. 17, 2013
Recap | Final Stats | Notes
Postgame Quotes
Oklahoma State vs Delaware State
Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2013
OSU head coach Travis Ford
On the spark in the second half
"We made more shots. It was the difference between the two halves. We played hard in the first half, but we didn't play with the energy or push the ball the way we wanted. We didn't make anything happen. We played within the slow-down style of basketball. I told the guys at halftime that we were better than how we were playing. They were just kind of sitting back. We needed to pick up the pace offensively and defensively. I asked the guys after the game if they felt the difference, and they all said 'Oh yeah, what we did in the second half is what we want to do all the time.' We got back to pushing the basketball the way we needed to."
On the offensive play inside tonight
"Our hands weren't very good tonight. We had opportunities around the basket that we didn't finish. We had some walks and misses. One thing we wanted to do that we talked about the last few days, even though we knew they were going to play zone, we wanted to try to get to the foul line and attack the rim, which is not always the easiest thing to do. We saw on film that there are opportunities if you have good ball movement to get to the rim. We did a good job of getting it inside, we just didn't get the completion rate we wanted."
On Phil Forte
"I don't think anything about (his struggles). Every time he has a shot, I want him to shoot it. You don't worry about makes or misses with a guy of his shooting ability. We know if they go in, it really helps your team, but we've got other things to worry about."
On the defensive effort
"Overall, it was very good. They made some shots late, and threw up some shots late in the shot clock. Overall, I thought our halfcourt defense was good. We had a lot of balls hit us in the hands that we didn't come down with, so we've got to do a better job of that."
On the match-up with Colorado
"It's going to be a very challenging trip. This is a great basketball team, one of the best teams in America. We're very evenly matched up. Our strengths are very similar. They've got some big guys that can score inside. This is a great match-up between two top 20 teams, and we're going to have to play better than we have of late and bring our 'A' effort. It's a good team for us to be playing right now for us to continue to learn about ourselves and prepare for later on."
OSU senior guard Markel Brown
On the pace of the game
"It was much better tonight. This team wanted to slow it down a lot, and we actually got to put some pressure on them and we pushed the ball."
On pushing the ball
"That was something that was talked about before the game. We need to get back to pushing the ball. I think that is when we're best is when we're pushing the ball, getting each other the ball, moving down the court and taking fluid shots that we like to take. We wanted to get back to it, and I think we did great at that tonight."
On forcing shot clock violations
"Coming into the game, we knew that this team was going to be running a lot of false motion and run the clock down. We just sat down and talked about it all week in practice about playing disciplined defense and not letting them get the shots that they want, even the lulling us to sleep or anything. So, we just took pride in playing disciplined defense and stopping them."
OSU junior wing Le'Bryan Nash
On shot clock violations
"We're playing defense. We can hold a team for 35 seconds without giving them a good shot. We're all locked in and playing defense. We knew this team was going to take it all the way down to five seconds. We knew that when we heard 10 seconds, we had to really dig in and make them take tough shots. That's what we did, and that's why we came out with a victory."
On Colorado
"This time of year, we get focused on one thing, and that's basketball. We have a huge game coming up against Colorado. You saw what they did to Kansas. We have to take them really seriously. It's going to be a big game. This is our chance to show that we are one of the top teams in the nation. We're coming into this game with a chip on our shoulder. My teammates feel the same way that I do, and that is that we need to show that we are a top team."
DSU head coach Greg Jackson
On OSU's change of pace between halves
"They took it to another level, especially in the second half. We thought we controlled the tempo in the first half. Any time you play a team of this level that's so talented and so strong, you're going to have to make adjustments in the second half. They did what they had to do. They're a good basketball team, they're well-coached and they're well-disciplined. They do what they need to get done to win basketball games."
On containing OSU's powerful offense in the first half
"I thought we did an excellent job in the first half. You can only play with emotion so long until talent takes over. I thought that was the difference in the ball game, but we controlled them in the first half. We had them where we wanted to get them, but their talent took over in the second half."
On the team's rebounding
"I thought we did an excellent job of rebounding the basketball tonight. Every time we play a team of this caliber and we out-rebound them by five, it's great, especially with how small our guys are. You can't question our effort. We just got beat by a team with more talent than us."
On building a tough non-conference schedule
"What we try to do is get our kids a lot of exposure. My philosophy is about the game of life, and what are you going to do in life without facing adversity like this? If you can deal with this, you can deal with those types of situations in life, too. It's all about the growth and development of our young guys."
