Oklahoma State University Athletics
Postgame Quotes vs Kansas State
March 09, 2013 | Cowboy Basketball
March 9, 2013
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Postgame Quotes
Oklahoma State vs Kansas State
Saturday, March 9, 2013
OSU head coach Travis Ford
On his team's performance
"They were unbelievable. By the time the ball was first thrown up we were locked in, especially defensively. A lot of their shots came off of desperation shots, especially in the first half, and they made some. Or second shots, bad bounces from the rebound. There were few mistakes defensively out there, we made a few early, but we regrouped at about the 10-12 minute mark. The effort was tremendous, I thought we played very unselfish, which is something we had been talking about for the past two days in passing the basketball. We had 13 assists today but shot 56 percent and its because we shared the basketball. We were getting the ball where guys could score, where Le'Bryan Nash, Markel Brown and Marcus Smart like it. It was very important."
On Le'Bryan Nash's performance
"LB has learned that he isn't the greatest three-point shooter, and that's nothing against him. I don't mind when he's hot and rolling for him to shoot a three, if that's his fourth or fifth shot after he's made four or five. What he has figured out is that he likes to score and he wants to score with those percentages. He's realized he doesn't have to shoot threes and he hasn't been shooting threes for awhile. LB's understanding of what we need from him has drastically improved, and tonight I thought he was unbelievable, tremendous."
On playing from behind late in the game
"We didn't come out at halftime the way we wanted, but I burned another timeout there with four minutes left. I wasn't very happy there, but I'm glad I called it because as soon as I did, K-State started celebrating and that was the best thing that might have happened for us. They start pumping their chests, so that's what I lead with. I said, 'Look at that down there, they've already celebrated a championship on your court. You have four or five minutes here to do something about it.' They woke up and their eyes got big. The first timeout I called was more about Xs and Os and the second one was about, 'playtime is over and it's time to get after it'."
On senior Philip Jurick
"I thought he was a warrior, we really challenged him. Thomas Gipson really gives us problem for some reason, I thought Philip Jurick came up with some big offensive rebounds, but he also gave us a bigger presence around the rim and made it tougher for them score. He did what he was supposed to do for our basketball team. We don't ask him to score, but we want him to defend, block some shots, set some screens, get some offensive rebounds, and he played to his role tonight. I'm glad we won our senior night for him. I've never been around somebody who apologizes to me so much. Every time he does something wrong, he apologizes. After I'm yelling and screaming, it makes me feel bad. I yell for him to block out and he says, 'I'm sorry, coach.' He is the nicest young man, a very polite and nice young man."
On looking back on the season
"We lose in double overtime here by one point in a very tough game against Kansas and that's the one we look at as the one we probably let get away. Kansas is going to win the league or be tied with the league depending on what they do today. We beat them there and to come back here, it was very close. Our two losses in here were by one point. The Gonzaga game, we should have won and we let it slide. Against Kansas, we let them shoot a lot of free throws and it was tough to overcome that in overtime. I'm proud of our guys, I'm so happy. Just look at college basketball this year, for us to be 23-7, there are lot of teams with four, five or six losses and ranked No. 1 for many weeks this year, and we've played as tough a schedule as anyone. I'm really proud of the regular season that we had. We lost some tough games, we lost some games that we didn't play so well, but I'm very proud of this basketball team. They played really hard tonight and it was good to be 13-5 in the conference. It was a great atmosphere tonight, another sold-out crowd. We really appreciate all of the support from our fans the whole year."
On facing Baylor next in the Big 12 Tournament
"They are as talented as anyone in our league. They gave us problems; Pierre Jackson is one of the toughest guys to guard in the nation. They've got Isaiah Austin who's long inside, he gives us problems. They're a big team, their fours and fives are really big. We have our hands full, they beat us pretty good down there and we squeaked one out here, so they're going to have confidence going against us. But a new season starts and we're going to give our guys a couple days off to get prepared. First game is Thursday night at 8:30 pm, so we have to get ready to go."
OSU freshman guard Marcus Smart
On the offensive foul call the changed the momentum of the game
"It was a big one. They had the ball with the momentum and us down two. When they called it, their momentum just dropped. The fans erupted. It gave our team the spark that we needed to make a run."
On what OSU has meant to him in his first year here
"This place means a lot to me. The fans have been incredible. They brought me into this OSU family, and it's been a really good ride. It was really great to end the season with a win at home tonight."
On the "one more year" chants:
"I definitely heard them, but I tried to block it out. It seems like I at least hear it once a game now."
OSU junior guard Markel Brown
On Kansas State opening the second half on a run
"We knew we had to get our way back into the game. We took it one possession at a time. We got stops on the defensive end and converted them into offense. We just went out and got the momentum back. They're a very good basketball team."
OSU sophomore guard/forward Le'Bryan Nash
On his aggressive style of play today
"For me, I just had to get my mindset right. I just kept telling myself to keep attacking the rim. I told my teammates, too, I told them to keep it going and keep taking it to the hole. That's what we did. We kept attacking the rim, and it got us back in the game."
KSU head coach Bruce Weber
On his team's loss, missing conference title
"Obviously, on our behalf it's disappointing. The guys have battled all year and we battled today. Probably didn't play our best basketball but give credit to Oklahoma State. They're a very good team, very talented team. We didn't do a very good job defensively. You can't give up 56 percent (shooting). Way too many lay-ups. Some dunk tips off of put backs. I told them at halftime we had to keep fighting, battling in there. We made a great comeback, took a nice lead, and again, give credit to the Cowboys. They made enough plays … I don't know if we got tired or tentative or what. We had opportunities, we just didn't take advantage of it. It's disappointing for our guys. It's disappointing for everyone involved, but there are a lot of good things that can still happen in March. That's our main thing. Get our guys healthy, get them a little rested. See if we can do something in Kansas City and the next couple of weeks."
On point guard Angel Rodriguez
"They did a good job defensively (on him). They really jammed him, they locked into Rod(ney McGruder). We thought we didn't have very good movement. You saw it in the second half against TCU and then today in the first half. They were very aggressive. They fought Rod on every screen, they bumped and jammed him. Then we didn't get very much movement, so now Angel (Rodriguez) has the ball in his hands and he probably forced some things. He made some really good decisions to start the second half when we made the run. He got into the lane much more. He had a bad one where they switched big on him and we had just told him not to sell out, shoot the bomb three, and that was one he tried to feed Thomas (Gipson) inside, and he probably should have shot it. But he's been very, very good. He just didn't have his great game and you've got to give them … they've got some pretty good athletes that can guard and defend. They made their focus there's no doubt to make sure that Rod and Angel were jammed up as much as possible."
"We have not done a good job the last couple weeks of really protecting the paint. They did a good job getting it to him, we did not do a good job of denying it. Against great players, you can't let them catch the ball. You've got to play defense before they catch it. You can't let them catch it in their comfort zone. They're gonna score baskets. We gave them too many easy layups and then he started wheeling and dealing and getting in there and we should have probably helped better, made him kick it, made them shoot some threes. They only shot nine threes. Obviously, (Phil) Forte is pretty good. (Markel) Brown is pretty good, but we should have protected the paint a little better. Give him credit and coach (Ford) credit. They went small ball and put him (Nash) at the four, it seems like they're much more successful, much more mobile and they've got more weapons just like when we go with Shane (Southwell) there."
On how important it is to play well in the conference tournament
"I don't know if its … we want to do well. Hopefully we'll go there and win a conference tournament. If we did something like that, it would solidify a good seed, which gives you some advantage maybe playing in Kansas City thats a wish, a hope, a dream. The main thing is we've got to get better on the defensive end, and it starts in practice in the next few days. I'm proud of the guys. I told them after (the game). I'm disappointed in the one play, the big changing play was the out of bounds where they called the offensive foul. I bet if you went and watched it, it wasn't an offensive foul. That changed the game and the momentum a lot. But then they made plays and we didn't. Nino (Williams) had a couple of free throws. We had three, four opportunities. We had three putbacks on one play and we didn't get it in. Rod had an open shot in the corner and it didn't go down. They made the plays."
On Jordan Henriquez's limited involvement
"His back went out. He gave it a go. Tried it a couple times. That's why I said, we've got to get healthy. Hopefully, Will (Spradling), he hasn't practiced in two weeks, probably. Ten days at least. His condition is bad and we've got to get him healthy. Get Angel (Rodriguez) healthy so we can make a little push here."
On how they handled Marcus Smart
"We did better last time probably. You know, he's good. The key is when other guys play well, that allows him to roam more. Now you're worried about (Le'Bryan) Nash, you're worried about (Markel) Brown, and then he kinda roamed. We have to do a better job of protecting because if you play those guys one-on-one, they're just too good. They're very very talented."
KSU senior guard Rodney McGruder
On his feelings
"It's very disappointing. If I wasn't disappointed, I wouldn't care."
On his thoughts when the Cowboys started to make a comeback
"Nothing changed in my mind. I just thought that we had to stop their run and we had to punch back. That was all that was going through my head."
On what led to the Cowboys' comeback
"There were a couple bad plays that we could have stopped. That's on us."
On what's next
"We're just going to learn from it. Just like any other loss, it's either going to help you or hurt you. Hopefully it helps us, so we can learn from our mistakes and come back with a punch."
