Oklahoma Head Coach Jeff Capel
Opening comment:
“(Tony) Crocker had a great first half. It’s one of the best performances I’ve ever seen live. He was just in one of those zones. He is a streaky shooter and earlier this morning in shootaround I watched him make about 15 in a row. The whole time he was saying ‘I don’t think I can miss.’ I guess it carried over to tonight. One of the things I liked was that all of his shots early came within the flow of the offense. He was terrific.
“I thought we were pretty good in the first half in stretches. I was very disappointed in us in the second half. I don’t think we competed. I think we went through the motions and the body language reminded me of how we looked in Alaska. I thought we were beyond that, so we haven’t matured as much as I have wanted us to mature right now. We have an opportunity to come back tomorrow and Friday and get ready for a good Utah team on the road.”
On leaving Crocker in the game in the first half:
“I told him during one of the early timeouts, I’m not taking you out. Because he was in one of those grooves, he was in one of those zones. I knew at some point I had to get him out of there just to give him a little break. We had a big enough lead where we could do that. Also, we had to keep him in there because he was the only one scoring. No one else was making shots. He was our offense, especially in the first 10 minutes. He had 25 with 10 minutes to go. I knew he was feeling it and I wanted him to enjoy that.
“He did so many other things. His impact is bigger than just (scoring). He rebounded the basketball, was on the floor and had three blocks. That doesn’t count the number of deflections he had. His impact was all over the game. It just stands out even more because of what he did in the first half.”
On OU’s game at Utah Saturday:
“I am curious to see. We haven’t been good on the road at all. We have gotten a little bit better here the past few days since we’ve been at home. We have two days to practice to get ready. They (Utah) are a good team, and they are good at home. It will be a tough challenge for us.”
On Tiny Gallon’s progress:
“For him to get on the floor and dive for a loose ball is big. That is something he wouldn’t have done when he first got here. For him to take a charge, which he did late in the half. I think this is two games in a row where he has taken a charge. That’s big. It’s the little things now. He is still a work in progress. He still has to do a better job of learning our stuff, and learning our plays and where he’s supposed to be. He has to do a better job of getting deep position and using his body. He’s getting better and I loved what he did in the last four minutes, diving for a loose ball.”
Senior Guard Tony Crocker
On his 29-point first half:
“My teammates got me the ball in spots I can make shots and they were falling. It felt good. I’m not going to say it didn’t. We were just trying to play hard out there and work on our game as a team.”
On his teammates making an effort to get the ball to him:
“The other team was doing a lot of switching and stuff so that left open spots, so it just worked out good.”
On his 10 rebounds in the first half:
“Yeah, we’re just still blocking out. We’re just trying to box people out because we’re going to be smaller than the other people now, so we’ve been working on boxing out. Coach (Capel) preaches that everybody should go to the glass, so we’re just trying to go to the glass so everybody can get rebounds.”
On if he was in a good rhythm in warm-ups:
“I just came out and did the same thing I did before: shoot close jumpers and work my way out. It pays off.”
Freshman Forward Tiny Gallon
On Tony Crocker’s hot first-half shooting:
“We just gave him the ball. He was hot. At first, he hit like two 3’s in a row, and I was like ‘OK.’ I was just playing, but I thought Crock would be off. He hit like two more in a row so everybody was just saying to give him the ball. When it comes off, I was just going to rebound and give it back to him and let him score.”
On if he is making a conscious effort to work in the low post:
“Yeah, you know, you all saw me step out and hit a 3. That’s something I love to do. I like to shoot the 3’s. I wasn’t going to settle. I was going to establish myself in the post because their post man wasn’t that strong, so I got the rebounds and used my strength.”
On the balance between sharing the ball with Crocker and himself:
“I think once Crock started missing, like when he missed a couple shots, he wasn’t going to force it so he started going to me, or we started doing a pick and roll, or he starts slashing to the basket or stuff like that. I started feeding him the ball when he slashed, so we’re just playing off each other basically.”
Head Coach Greg Gary
Opening comment:
“They have a lot of weapons. They’re young. (Tony) Crocker obviously is not, but a lot of them are young. When they start playing together like that and playing good defense, they’re a talented team. Obviously, we’re a little outside, but we’re going to fight. We played a pretty good second half. When you’re up by 20, it’s your human nature to relax a little bit, but our guys fought back pretty hard.”
On defending against Oklahoma:
“I’ve always said that if you don’t have the basketball you can’t score. We did a horrible job on the transition. It’s hard because you have to pick your poison. You have the guards in (Tommy) Mason-Griffin and (Willie) Warren and need help on them because they can get by almost anyone they want to. You have to help, otherwise you give them the layup. Our guys didn’t do a good job of closing out on Crocker and getting to him quick enough. We have a very, very, very young team too. I think they’ve learned from that. I told them they have to understand that he’s probably feeling really good tonight. You need to make it more difficult for him. We didn’t do a good job of that in the first half.”
