Oklahoma State University Athletics
West Virginia Postgame Quotes
January 09, 2016 | Cowboy Basketball
"Congrats to West Virginia. I thought they played very hard and very well today. They made 3's. They had 10 more offensive rebounds than we did. We had a few too many turnovers, and we simply didn't make our free throws, but they played well. They made shots. I think they made one or two more 3's than they normally make, but I was impressed with their team."
On his strategy to avoid the press
"Don't turn it over. That's pretty much it."
If they had to play a perfect game today
"Missing (Tyree) Griffin really hurt us. That kind of changed things for us a little bit. We probably would've used him and Evans together a lot. It probably would've cut down three or four mistakes late in the game. We didn't want to be in a rush and turn it over. Obviously, that's your answer. Don't turn it over and don't be in a rush. We try to play at our pace as much as possible. We had a plan of attack. We had to be strong with the basketball. For the most part, we did okay if you want to compare us to other teams. I don't care how many times they turn people over. We struggle to score no matter who we play."Â
On how hard it is to emulate a West Virginia team
"It's very difficult to emulate that's for sure. I have been very disappointed in our rebounding the past couple games, but we have talked a lot about it. We did a bunch of drills and a lot of stuff to fix that. Sometimes it just boils down to desire. It boils down to toughness. You have to go get it, and West Virginia does a very good job at doing that."
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West Virginia coach Bob Huggins
On putting Oklahoma State into foul trouble early
"We tried to do just that. It was kind of the game plan. We tried to keep the ball away from (Jawun) Evans as much as we could because he's very good with it."
On the ball movement against Oklahoma State
"They were playing zone, and we were just passing it around. It is hard not to pass it around when they are playing zone. We need to be able to do a better job of making looks. We didn't shoot the ball very well. Our offensive rebounding carried us just like it normally does when people play zone."
On if today was more precautionary on Daxter Miles Jr.
"I've never played a guy that doesn't practice. Ever. It's not fair to the other guys."
On benching sophomore guard Daxter Miles Jr. and the depth of this team
"I didn't bench him. Please don't write that because that is no where close to being true. He wasn't benched. He just didn't practice. He had a sprained ankle. Teyvon (Myers) is getting better. It's nice having the luxury to have a guy like Nate (Nathan Adrian) that I can play. I can play him at forward. He gives us the versatility with that. He made a shot today. He has to start making some shots. He gives us size on the perimeter. He gives us good size when we play those two guys at three."
On only having 10 turnovers on the day
"That is what we are shooting for. We want to be 10 or less. We have kind of always been in that range. We always had a very high assist to turnover ratio. That's been a problem for us. We turn it over so much."
On why there was less turnovers today
"They played zone. Unless you really force things, it's hard to turn it over. We shouldn't turn it over much against a zone even though we have. We found ways, but we shouldn't."
On senior guard Jaysean Paige's first start of the year
"He didn't shoot as well. I don't know if he was as active. I think he feels more comfortable coming off the bench. I think he is a lot more comfortable. That other group needs him. Tarik (Phillip) got into foul trouble, and he is the other guy in that group that has been scoring."
On the big guys as a whole group
"We emphasize rebounding. You can emphasize that as much as you want to emphasize it, but if you don't have guys that go get it, then all that emphasizing doesn't do a whole lot of good. It has to be a habit. Brandon (Watkins) is not rebounding as well as he is capable of rebounding, but that's just because of reps. If we can get Esa (Ahmad) to rebound it better then I think we can be a really good offensive rebounding team. Devin (Williams) is going to rebound, and Jon (Jonathan Holton) is going to rebound. Nate is really active. Elijah (Macon) is getting better. He went and got a couple pretty well today."
