Oklahoma State University Athletics
Quotes: OSU vs West Virginia
January 06, 2020 | Cowboy Basketball
Oklahoma State head coach Mike Boynton
On the effort and intensity of the team:
"I'm awfully proud of my team. I thought we played with a competitive stamina that we obviously didn't have on Saturday. We fought like heck to have each other's back on the defensive end. I thought we actually tried to execute offensively the things we wanted to coming into the game, and tonight the ball didn't go in the basket the way we feel like we are capable of. We knew without [Thomas] Dziagwa we would have to load Lindy [Waters III] up. He couldn't get going, and again, I want to give credit to West Virginia. They are a very good defensive team and they make it extremely hard to get good looks inside. We got some good looks inside and got ourselves to the free throw line. We shot unusually low from the free throw line and we didn't make any threes. It's going to be hard for us right now to win a game where we shoot the ball as poorly as we did tonight."
On if the team lost something offensively because they were geared up to be physical:
"There is no doubt. I lived it as an assistant. So, Hugs and Frank and the guy who was the coach here before me have similar philosophies, so I've seen it. It definitely has like a collateral damage effect, so to speak, when you know you have to work so hard defensively and securing rebounds. Over the course of time, it affects you offensively. Again, I don't want to take anything away from them. I liked a lot of the things we did tonight and feel good about where we are going moving forward."
On Cameron McGriff:
"I am proud of him and Lindy [Waters III]. Again, people look at the stat sheet and say Lindy was 1-for-9 and had too many turnovers, but that type of leadership and effort is going to give us a chance to have success moving forward. I think we saw some really good things out of Avery Anderson and Kalib Boone. Their development is going to be critical to our team moving forward, and they were in big moments tonight and made big plays for us. Our seniors set the tone in practice the last day and a half preparing for this one and those kids responded."
On Avery Anderson's development:
"I don't want to belabor this because people don't want to hear it, but I'm going to say it any way. Avery is improving right in front of our eyes. It's hard to appreciate it when you see glaring turnovers, which he still has as a freshman and when you lose. As a former point guard myself, I can see him maturing and see his decision making improving. The thing I admire most about him is he loves to compete. The more competitive things are, the more he relishes the opportunity to be out there. He's going to help our team in the very near future even more as we move forward."
West Virginia Head Coach Bob Huggins
On his team's defense:
"They just missed them, but we fixed a couple of things from Saturday. We did a better job of containing. They really shoot it and they had a bad day. We had a bad day too. It was hard for me to watch sometimes, 39 turnovers, it was not either one of our better games."
On containing Isaac Likekele:
"We wanted to put Jermaine on him because he is 6'7, long and has good feet. He played the majority of the year at point last year and he knows what he is doing."
On holding OSU off in the second half:
"I thought we did a good job of staying in front of them and not turning me loose. We rebounded good, and pretty much it was one and done and we didn't give them extra shots."
On the effort and intensity of the team:
"I'm awfully proud of my team. I thought we played with a competitive stamina that we obviously didn't have on Saturday. We fought like heck to have each other's back on the defensive end. I thought we actually tried to execute offensively the things we wanted to coming into the game, and tonight the ball didn't go in the basket the way we feel like we are capable of. We knew without [Thomas] Dziagwa we would have to load Lindy [Waters III] up. He couldn't get going, and again, I want to give credit to West Virginia. They are a very good defensive team and they make it extremely hard to get good looks inside. We got some good looks inside and got ourselves to the free throw line. We shot unusually low from the free throw line and we didn't make any threes. It's going to be hard for us right now to win a game where we shoot the ball as poorly as we did tonight."
On if the team lost something offensively because they were geared up to be physical:
"There is no doubt. I lived it as an assistant. So, Hugs and Frank and the guy who was the coach here before me have similar philosophies, so I've seen it. It definitely has like a collateral damage effect, so to speak, when you know you have to work so hard defensively and securing rebounds. Over the course of time, it affects you offensively. Again, I don't want to take anything away from them. I liked a lot of the things we did tonight and feel good about where we are going moving forward."
On Cameron McGriff:
"I am proud of him and Lindy [Waters III]. Again, people look at the stat sheet and say Lindy was 1-for-9 and had too many turnovers, but that type of leadership and effort is going to give us a chance to have success moving forward. I think we saw some really good things out of Avery Anderson and Kalib Boone. Their development is going to be critical to our team moving forward, and they were in big moments tonight and made big plays for us. Our seniors set the tone in practice the last day and a half preparing for this one and those kids responded."
On Avery Anderson's development:
"I don't want to belabor this because people don't want to hear it, but I'm going to say it any way. Avery is improving right in front of our eyes. It's hard to appreciate it when you see glaring turnovers, which he still has as a freshman and when you lose. As a former point guard myself, I can see him maturing and see his decision making improving. The thing I admire most about him is he loves to compete. The more competitive things are, the more he relishes the opportunity to be out there. He's going to help our team in the very near future even more as we move forward."
West Virginia Head Coach Bob Huggins
On his team's defense:
"They just missed them, but we fixed a couple of things from Saturday. We did a better job of containing. They really shoot it and they had a bad day. We had a bad day too. It was hard for me to watch sometimes, 39 turnovers, it was not either one of our better games."
On containing Isaac Likekele:
"We wanted to put Jermaine on him because he is 6'7, long and has good feet. He played the majority of the year at point last year and he knows what he is doing."
On holding OSU off in the second half:
"I thought we did a good job of staying in front of them and not turning me loose. We rebounded good, and pretty much it was one and done and we didn't give them extra shots."
Players Mentioned
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