Oklahoma head coach Lon Kruger
Opening statement:
“I thought we battled pretty well for a half and then opened the second half not like we needed to. I thought offensively we were very careless with the ball and we did not get what we wanted, which translated into transition points for (Kansas), going the other way. They are a terrific ball club and (Kansas head coach) Bill (Self) does a great job, but we just can’t give them that opportunity to get up and get going like we did, because they took advantage of it and finished it up pretty early in the second half.”
On what led to KU’s second half run:
“We turned it over a couple times on our end and our offense created offense for them, which you can’t afford to do in a ballgame like this. Missed a shot there early in the second half, then we turned it over a couple times, which I thought gave them life and energy.”
On the play of KU down the stretch:
“Kansas was great execution-wise and I thought we hit a wall there for a little bit, emotionally and fatigue-wise in the second half. But Kansas is awfully good and they had a lot of transition opportunities that we cannot afford to give them. They are good enough without those, so we added fuel to what they wanted to do.”
On OU’s Romero Osby guarding Kansas forward Thomas Robinson:
“Taking on a guy like Robinson is a great opportunity and experience to grow from. He appreciates how good Robinson is and wants to go to the challenge, so he will keep doing that and get better as a result of it.”
On the use of his timeouts early in the second half:
“They (Kansas) got six quick points, which is not the way we wanted to open the half. So we just reminded our guys to stay with the basics and go back to the things you try to focus on every day in practice. I thought we tried but our sloppy play offensively just gave them too many opportunities and they are so good that they don’t need the extra help.”
