Head Coach Lon Kruger
Opening comment:
“Better balance today. We have got to keep making progress. Credit Kansas, another really good club. Bill (Self) did a really great job as always. The first half we battled them pretty good. Second half we opened it pretty careless with the ball, which gave them a little margin. Not only did we turn it over, but we turned it over with them shooting layups, which is the worst of both worlds, of course. We have got to keep working; we have a lot of work to do and a long way to go. Had a great crowd today, we appreciate that. The good thing about this group is that they will keep working and keep making progress.”
On OU’s second-half offensive performance:
“It’s frustrating because you’d at least like to line up and attack and give yourself a chance. The way we turned it over to start the second half put us in a little bit of a deficit.”
On if OU’s troubles offensively this week had more to do with itself or the competition:
“It’s usually a combination of the two. I don’t feel really good about what we are doing, but also credit Kansas for causing some of that too. Kansas was very sound, very tough defensively. We have got to move it better and get the ball out of our hands -- we were a little hung up a bit -- get it moving and get some rhythm offensively.”
On if his team played better basketball than they showed on Tuesday against Missouri:
“Certainly more good stretches today than there were Tuesday, no question about that. Progress is going to be the theme of what we are trying to do; not to be satisfied with not winning ever, but we’ve got to make progress. We have got to get more physical, we’ve got to get tougher, we’ve got to be more involved, more engaged every possession for 40 minutes. To start with, we have to have a base to start from. Tuesday’s was a pretty low standard, but we certainly did much better today.”
On Oklahoma State:
“I have seen them a few times. They’ve played a tough schedule, number one. They have had some injuries that have affected their play. (Keiton) Page has been making a ton of shots here of late to help them win some ballgames. They got a good conference-opening win against (Texas) Tech the other night and they play again tonight. We will have to battle and fight. We know it’s a tough place over there.”
Junior Guard Sam Grooms
On how OU’s offense can improve:
“Just better execution on our behalf. We can always be better at the things that we do; executing the offense no matter what other teams do to us. We’ve just got to be better at it. Setting a better screen…coming off a screen harder. We just have to attack it. We have to attack it to be explosive. We just have to get better at it.”
Junior Forward Romero Osby
On the second half:
“I think we came out kind of flat on both ends of the court. We made a couple of costly turnovers. Like Coach said, they equal points on the other end for them. So I think that’s really where it started. Like Coach said, defensively we weren’t as active as we were in the first half. We just have to do a better job.”
On how he can be more physical in the post:
“You said it, be more physical. Be lower. Coach always talks about having a low base and using my legs to kind of get position on both ends of the court. Guys are going to be bigger, they’re going to be stronger as we go on. It doesn’t get any easier.”
On if he feels OU made progress today:
“I think we came out in the first half and were really strong on both ends of the court. We seemed very active and that’s a fun way to play. The second half we kind of got staggered and we started standing around too much on both ends of the court, and we let things slip away from us.”
Kansas Head Coach Bill Self
On Kansas’ run to start the second half:
“I thought that the 10 minutes, or whatever it was, to start the second half was probably the best run we’ve had all year. I thought our defense was active and we got our hands on balls and we were able to get out in transition. We’re pretty good when we get out in transition. We did actually an above-average job on that. We may have missed some shots, but that was the best stretch we’ve played. Other than that, it’s just back and forth. We didn’t outplay them at all, other than that 10 minutes. That 10 minutes was enough to put us over the top.”
On trailing at halftime:
“I don’t want to say we played bad because that takes away from OU. I think other than Travis Releford -- he kept us in the game -- I thought some of our guys were still in Lawrence the way our heads weren’t into it. In the second half, for whatever reason, the lights came on and the guys seemed focused and intense and did a much better job.”
On KU’s 2-0 start in Big 12 play:
“Any time you win on the road is great. It’s a prized possession to win on the road. At home, you’re expected to win at home. Even though those feel good, but I think locker rooms on the road feel better than home wins do. I’m not giddy about it at all, we still have 16 games left, but we’re off to a pretty good start.”
On how the Sooners are different under Lon Kruger:
“To me, they’re really good defensively. We got easy baskets. We didn’t shoot the ball great against them if you take away layups but we got some easy baskets which helped a lot. I think they’re good defensively, they’re so sound and they’re going to be very solid in everything they do. I followed Lon at Illinois so I have a pretty good feel of how he coaches because I coached the guys that were prepared to win when I took the job there. I’m sure he’ll get these guys to that point real, real soon.”
Junior Forward Thomas Robinson
On winning on the road:
“A win like this adds up to winning a conference championship. Coach told us we have to go undefeated at home and be able to scrape up some wins on the road. Wins like this are definitely what we need to achieve to win the conference. It’s definitely a big deal for us to come in here and get the W.”
Junior Guard Travis Releford
On if he was bothered by OU’s zone defense:
“No, not really. We didn’t get the ball moving and weren’t running the plays that Coach was drawing up, so that’s where we got twisted up in the game.”
On if he changed how he was guarding OU’s Steven Pledger in the second half:
“No, Coach was trying to switch it up and give him different looks with size and putting length on him, and then he started off with Elijah (Johnson). Just give him different looks on the offensive end.”
