Oklahoma Head Coach Lon Kruger
Opening statement:
"Tough ball game, obviously you go on the road, and get an opportunity to win one down the stretch, you'd like to pull it off. You got to credit Cincinnati, Coach Cronin has done a great job with his club; especially the last four or five games. He's got them playing really hard and making a lot of good plays for each other. They didn't shoot quite as well as they have been, but they've been playing great, and they did what they needed to down the stretch to win a ball game. We had a couple chances to get a stop there late, and we weren't able to do it. We need to be able to do that, especially on the road to have a chance to win a ball game. We'll learn from it and hopefully get a little better from it."
On Oklahoma's struggles when UC went to five-guard attack:
"We didn't have positions there at the end that we would like to have. They were going back and forth between zone and man and doing a good job with that. We had a few good looks down the stretch that we liked, but didn't get those to go and as a result we didn't get the job done."
On how playing UC prepares his team for Big 12 play:
"Hopefully, it helps us for sure, especially when you get an experience like that on the road. We talked about being stronger with the basketball and moving the ball down the floor better in late-game situations. Hopefully, we'll learn from that and it will be an experience that we benefit from."
On the past two plays by UC's Cashmere Wright:
"Those guys are quick and you've got to do a better job of working to stay in front of them and talking and communicating on switch opportunities. Again, they're very quick and did a good job on both plays to get to the hole."
On Oklahoma's success on bringing a wing defender in and cutting off the lane. Was there anything about what you saw from them earlier that suggested that would work as well as it did?
"Not necessarily, they're a club that shoots the ball better than they did tonight. We got lucky that they weren't shooting the ball as well as they have been. We did a good job keeping them out of the paint and driving and kicking for open opportunities. On occasion we did a decent job, other occasions we let them get good looks. We need to continue to work to improve that."
