Oklahoma State University Athletics
Postgame Quotes
January 15, 2014 | Cowboy Basketball
Jan. 15, 2014
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Postgame Quotes
Oklahoma State vs TCU
Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2014
OSU head coach Travis Ford
On what the team can take out of tonight's win
"The most positive thing is that we talked about a lot of things at halftime that we wanted to do in the second half, and we did them. We played much better in the second half, and it started with rebounding. It was tied at halftime, 17-17; two teams that are not the greatest rebounding teams. We had one offensive rebound and they had one, so I talked to the team a lot about offensive rebounding. The margin was way too close. It was way too close, but then we out-rebounded them for the game, 46 to 33. That's a pretty dominant rebounding half. I thought that in the second half we defended better and made them take tougher shots. We fouled a little bit too much. Those were the positives. That's what I care about because on the offensive end, once we got off to a decent lead, we became very careless and tried to be a little too cute at times. We got a little bit sloppy, but our defense and rebounding was much better in the second half and that's what I was happy with."
On the defensive pressure in the second half
"I told them that we had zero steals at halftime. In the first half we were living off of our offense and tough shots. I tried to relay to our team that we needed to rely on our defense. We needed to start turning them over a little bit and trying to create some offense from our defense and try to get some easier shots. We changed up two or three different presses and got them to speed up, got them to miss shots and got some turnovers."
On the ability to rest players late in the game
"It was a great opportunity. I think that every player on the team got in, so that's always good, especially for the scout team guys that work hard every single day to help our team. It's good to get the other guys a little bit of rest, but this time of year, I'd rather them be out there playing and getting that experience. Sometimes it's good to work on a few things in the game."
On Le'Bryan Nash
"He played at a high gear. He played with a little more intensity and a little more of a fire in his belly than he did the first half. In the first half, I think he was taking a few things for granted and thinking he could go one-on-one. It didn't come quite as easy. In the second half, I think he was a little more determined. He got to the foul line. He didn't make his foul shots, but at least he got there. He got 15 shots off. That's a lot of shots. It wasn't his best game, but I liked how he responded physically in the second half."
On what his message to the team will be while preparing for Kansas
"Our message is that we need to understand the challenge ahead of us. It's going to be a tough environment, as we know, against maybe the most talented and deep team in all of college basketball. You've got to do some things to keep us in the game. Be very humble of the opportunity you have to play in an environment like this. They're going to be ready. There's no doubt about that. Our team just needs to focus on the scouting report and be very humble about the opportunity."
OSU senior guard Markel Brown
On not looking past TCU to Kansas
“We just went out there with the mindset of, 'this is the next team on our schedule'. We haven't been looking past opponents. We've just been going out there and playing our style of basketball and trying to get into a rhythm and trying to keep the chemistry alive and move the ball around. We're trying to pick up assists on offense, and I think we did a good job of that tonight.”
On making shots early on
“That was great to make shots early in the game. For the most part, everyone had a good percentage for this game and it's going to be huge going into next game. It's good when you come off shooting a good night for the next game.”
On the importance of rebounding
“I think like four guys had eight rebounds. That's awesome. Even coming from the guard spot. We're going to need that every night. There's not going to be too many games where we shoot the ball well, but we've got to depend on our defense and we've got to rebound.”
OSU junior wing Le'Bryan Nash
On the easy flow of the game
“Coach Ford was resting us. He did a great job with rotating all the guys in. It was great for our team and for the starters and some of the guys that come off the bench. That's a good thing, because we're going to need all that we can get against Kansas. It's going to be a good game and I'm glad we got to rest. We start tomorrow in practice and we can't wait for this game to start on Saturday."
On Leyton Hammonds' night
“He's getting his feel. He's still adjusting to the Big 12. It's just his third or fourth (conference) game. He's just getting the feel and that's what we need from him. If Murph (Kamari Murphy) or I get into foul trouble, we need him to step up and come off the bench and help us out a lot. It's a good game for him. His stat line doesn't show it, but he knows he can help this team. One of these games, he's going to show how talented he is and next thing you know you're going to see a good Leyton Hammonds for the rest of the year.”
TCU head coach Trent Johnson
Opening Statement
"(Oklahoma State is a) pretty good basketball team. I thought they wore us down. I thought we competed really well and really hard. They have a good offense, but that's attributed to good defense, they can come get you in there and Marcus (Smart) is a very good basketball player. Markel Brown, man he's improved, he's a very good basketball player. Brian Williams is a really good basketball player. We did exactly what we needed to do, we made some shots.
"In the second half, it didn't exactly get away from us, they were just better. They wore us down and our guys were engaged. First time all year they have seen high-caliber competition with the two on the glass. Then the last 10-12 minutes were just skewed so I don't pay attention to getting beat by 30 as opposed to knowing that the guys that I have to have play were out there and got (down) only 18 or 19.
"We need to get back to Fort Worth, have a day off and try to get healthy. We're about as healthy as we've been. It looked like Amric (Fields) is trying to get himself back in shape coming back off of ACL surgery, its the first time he's been able to play those kind of minutes. Karviar (Shepherd) is banged up with his quad, he played well the first time he made a play. So, it's still an adjustment period for us, it's nice to see us have some points. They have a good basketball team here in Stillwater and it should be interesting for y'all come Saturday, should be fun."
On Karviar Shepherd's play
"He played well versus a good team. (Kamari) Murphy is a good basketball player, they have some talent, they have some depth. So he played well."
On playing Oklahoma State
"It's always tough but the reality is, are we better than what we are playing? Yeah, we are. But that's attributed to, nobody likes to talk about it, I don't like to talk about it, you have a kid who is not in shape right now, who's one of your better players coming off an ACL. A kid like Hudson Price, who's a freshman, has to play a lot, because he's been hurt. So, you can go right down the line. But the kid's spirits are as good as they can be because they understand and we got off to a pretty good start against a team in West Virginia and we played good basketball, a good 30 minutes against a good K-State team. Oklahoma State is better than we are, they're deeper and more talented than we are, and that's the reality of it. It's important for me in my position that the kids understand that and see the big picture. Now obviously, we understand that you want to go into a battle with all of these minutes. But that's why I said I thought in the first half we played as good of basketball as we had played in a long time and their athleticism, strength and all of that stuff wore us down."
TCU freshman center Karviar Shepherd
On getting involved early
"We just saw a mismatch down low and we just really focused on attacking that. We were really just trying to do everything we could to win the game."
On becoming more involved with the offense
"I'm just trying to play in the system and do whatever I possibly can to help this team win."
TCU freshman guard Michael Williams
On Oklahoma State
"They are a good team. They are up there with the best. The Big 12 is really good this year and we're going to have to be prepared every game."
On Oklahoma State shooting well
"They came out shooting hot and continued that throughout the game. We started off pretty well, but then some of those shots just were not falling. I thought we kept our composure though and really tried to find another way to win the game."
