Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowgirls Meet The Media
October 26, 2015 | Cowgirl Basketball
OSU Head Coach Jim Littell
On Saturday's Tragedy
"Our thoughts and prayers go out to those people that lost loved ones over the weekend or had loved ones that were injured. We'll just continue to pray for them. It puts a lot of things in perspective and we'll continue to pray for those people."
On Practice
"I've been very, very pleased with our practices. We've had to go longer than we normally do because we have a lot of new faces. But their intensity level, their focus, the attitudes, the passion that their playing for, I really like this team. What's probably more important is that they like each other. It's a team that's very close on and off the floor and hopefully that will equate into some wins. I've been surprisingly pleased with what we've done in the first three weeks of the season."
On Brittney Martin and Roddricka Patton's Leadership
"Brittney is playing better than she's ever played at this point but she's also practicing better. I think she realizes that the expectations for her are going to be very high and her preparation, her attitude, her leadership has been outstanding and her play as gone to different levels. We've been very happy with what Brittney's done. Another leader that really rejuvenated our club last year was Roddricka Patton. I could say that you could probably look to those two players as being the leaders on our team and showing the young players what we expect."
On Roddricka's Patton's Improvement Last Year
"Roddricka will tell you if you ask her that the reason she didn't play early, she was turning the ball over. When she was at the junior college level, she could throw it away and go steal it back. At this level, once you give it up, it seems like it's a four- to six-point swing on you. The two points you don't get and the two points that you give up on the other end. She had to learn to value the basketball a little bit more and once she did that, she just wanted to play. It's a kid that loves the game, has a great passion for the game and she figured out that, 'Hey I can't continue to turn it over, or coach isn't going to play me.'. When she figured that out, our season turned around. We were 2-6 when we put her in the lineup and we were down pretty big at KU that night and she turned that game around and basically turned our whole season around."
"She had to slow down, she had to figure some things out. There's a transition period when high school players come in, but there's also a transition when JC (junior college) players come in. It was just a different speed, a different type of people she was playing with and against. It was just a learning process for her. She understood and she continued to grow each day and figure it out. She said, 'Hey, coach isn't playing me, I've got to figure this out and I've got to get it done,' and she did and it really turned our season around."
On Saturday's Tragedy
"Our thoughts and prayers go out to those people that lost loved ones over the weekend or had loved ones that were injured. We'll just continue to pray for them. It puts a lot of things in perspective and we'll continue to pray for those people."
On Practice
"I've been very, very pleased with our practices. We've had to go longer than we normally do because we have a lot of new faces. But their intensity level, their focus, the attitudes, the passion that their playing for, I really like this team. What's probably more important is that they like each other. It's a team that's very close on and off the floor and hopefully that will equate into some wins. I've been surprisingly pleased with what we've done in the first three weeks of the season."
On Brittney Martin and Roddricka Patton's Leadership
"Brittney is playing better than she's ever played at this point but she's also practicing better. I think she realizes that the expectations for her are going to be very high and her preparation, her attitude, her leadership has been outstanding and her play as gone to different levels. We've been very happy with what Brittney's done. Another leader that really rejuvenated our club last year was Roddricka Patton. I could say that you could probably look to those two players as being the leaders on our team and showing the young players what we expect."
On Roddricka's Patton's Improvement Last Year
"Roddricka will tell you if you ask her that the reason she didn't play early, she was turning the ball over. When she was at the junior college level, she could throw it away and go steal it back. At this level, once you give it up, it seems like it's a four- to six-point swing on you. The two points you don't get and the two points that you give up on the other end. She had to learn to value the basketball a little bit more and once she did that, she just wanted to play. It's a kid that loves the game, has a great passion for the game and she figured out that, 'Hey I can't continue to turn it over, or coach isn't going to play me.'. When she figured that out, our season turned around. We were 2-6 when we put her in the lineup and we were down pretty big at KU that night and she turned that game around and basically turned our whole season around."
"She had to slow down, she had to figure some things out. There's a transition period when high school players come in, but there's also a transition when JC (junior college) players come in. It was just a different speed, a different type of people she was playing with and against. It was just a learning process for her. She understood and she continued to grow each day and figure it out. She said, 'Hey, coach isn't playing me, I've got to figure this out and I've got to get it done,' and she did and it really turned our season around."
Players Mentioned
Guard
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Guard
/ Cowgirl BasketballFriday, June 05
Friday, May 29
Wednesday, May 27
Monday, May 18
