Oklahoma State University Athletics
Postgame Quotes OSU vs FSU
December 16, 2017 | Cowboy Basketball
Oklahoma State Head Coach Mike Boynton Jr. On the team's performance: "I'm really proud of our guys, the way they played, the way they compete…..we played a really good team today. Florida State is going to win a lot of games. Coach Hamilton has done a great job but I think today we were just a little bit better.
On Mitchell Solomon's performance: "Mitch is our MVP. He doesn't score a lot of points or get a lot of praise or press but he makes every right play while he's on the court. He fouls sometimes in bad situations in a couple possessions but he didn't pout. He kept his head up and new he had an opportunity to make a difference and he did that on the defensive end for us.
On Jeffery Carrol's performance: The stat sheet will tell you the difference he made, 23 points on 19 shots, 7 rebounds. I think maybe in his mind he felt a little more comfortable. On the team's transition game "That's just the way we have to manufacture baskets. We don't have a ton of guys who can just go and score in a half court setting so we have to be really good in transitioning… when a shot goes up, we have to be committed to manufacturing a basket and getting those rebounds.
Oklahoma State R-Senior Guard, Jeffrey Carroll
On the last sequence of the game "I almost felt like slow motion just how Terance Mann came down and scored on that tough put-back that he had and then Mitch [Mitchell Solomon] got that great tip-in and just playing hard and then coming down and taking that charge, it felt like a movie almost.
On surpassing 1,000 career points "The milestone, it's good. I mean I think it shows that we've had three great teams or four great teams in I don't know how many years."
Oklahoma State Senior Forward Mitchell Solomon
On the last seconds of the game: "In the timeout before the second to last defensive possession, all we were talking about was getting the rebound. We knew we are capable of getting stops when we need to, but we let them get one, an easy one, so we knew we had to get it up the count pretty fast. I think we had 12 seconds left, so Ken [Kendall Smith] pushed it up the floor, got a good look, it came off and I was able to get a tip-in. We played solid man defense and I was able to take a charge because I think [Tavarius] Shine was riding his man down right to me."
On if he practices taking charges: "It depends. Sometimes I'll go straight up and try to alter the shot; sometimes I'll take the charge. IT's definitely something I'm working on this season.
On forcing 22 turnovers: "We take a lot of pride in our defense. Making plays, altering players, speeding guys up, different things, making them play out of their comfort zone. We schemed a lot this game knowing that they had some good guards so we knew we had to get it out of their hands and pressure them when they did have it. Today, it [our defense] came up big for us and we were able to score points. That's a big part of our game."
Florida State Head Coach Leonard Hamilton
Opening Statement: "I thought Oklahoma State did a very good job of creating the atmosphere that turned our guys very indecisive. I thought that we would beat their half-court press but then we would be out of rhythm and that's when we made poor decisions. They were extremely prepared. I think that they mixed the defensives up and creating confusion with our guys. We had some guys step up and give us our leadership from Phil Cofer and Terance Mann. I was proud of them. Some of our younger kids struggled a little bit and that is part of who we are. I have always said we are a team that is still growing and I think we have potential to development into a pretty good basketball team. We have to learn from this one. I give Oklahoma State credit. They did a great job and got a great tip in there at the end. We did a good job getting down to the basket with the 5.4 seconds left and having that chance to make a play. It was a very hard fought game by both teams. "
On key free throws being missed on the end: "We have been inconsistent with our free throws all year long. I thought we would have been a much better free-throw shooting team than we have shown. We just missed some key free throws down the stretch."
On Oklahoma State's transition point scoring: "They have been doing that all year long. We have been a really good transition defense this year. I think tonight that they were just a little bit better with their transition offense than we
were with our transition defense. When we did make a couple of turnovers they made us pay, scoring 22 points off our turnovers. I thought we were indecisive and if we could have cut those turnovers in half, it would have been a different game."
On how much losing the win-streak meant: "I hadn't even given that a thought. We play in a conference where we can't get caught up in streaks. No one in the ACC is going to go undefeated. That doesn't ever happen. What we can continue to do it continue to get better. Tonight we played against a team that out played us. We still have so much potential as a team and that is the real positive I see. We haven't even come close to reaching our potential and we are still a pretty god basketball team."
On preparing for ACC play: "These types of games prepare you better for your conference race. Teams that are well prepared and execute well. They were patient and then had some players make some big shots when the game was on the line. Jeffrey Carroll hit some big shots. They made one more point than we did."
Florida State Junior Guard Terance Mann: On the winning streak: "Like Coach said, there are a lot of games left and we know the ACC is a long season. Anything can happen on any given night. We weren't too caught up in the streak."
