Head Coach Lon Kruger |||||||||||||||||||||||
Opening comment:
“It was a good start of the ball game defensively. I thought our guys really came out pretty sharp and pretty focused, good effort. Offensively it was a little slow paced there early, but then we got that going a little bit. It was a pretty good defensively from start to finish. We had a lot of different guys making plays for each other. After the emotional win on Saturday it was kind of interesting to see how we would bounce back. I thought we handled that very well, which they have done for the most part of the season. A lot of guys played well and that’s a good thing."
On the injury status of Buddy Hield:
“It is not good. He has a fracture in his fifth metatarsal of his right foot so we will discuss the options tomorrow or later tonight. But it will be a while before Buddy gets back. Buddy loves to play, obviously and it hurts everyone when that is taken away. So we are disappointed by that.”
On remaining consistent on the offensive end:
“I thought they moved the ball well and shot it consistently as they have, about 50 percent I believe. They made the extra passes and ran the ball well. I thought our guys handled all that very well.”
On the importance of having a deep bench:
“It is important anytime you have a guy out whether it is injury or foul trouble to have other guys able to step up and pick up the slack. This group, as you know, all year we have had different people different games make the difference. So our depth is good. You don’t like to see injury of course, it is an unfortunate part of the game but having good depth helps if you do have injury or foul trouble.”
Senior F Romero Osby |||||||||||||||||||||||
On taking control defensively:
“We were just trying to step our defensive intensity up and keep it going from game to game, not having any letdown. They beat Kansas and they are a really good team. So we just try to keep them out of their stuff. They missed shots too. So it was a little of both.”
On keeping the game from being a letdown:
“You want to come out and have the same intensity every game. Coach [Lon Kruger] always preaches to have more intensity than the other team no matter who we are playing. We wanted to make sure that we did not have a letdown. We want to come out and establish that we came to play. We do not look over anybody, and we are going to play our hardest.”
On the injury to Buddy Hield:
“It could not have happened to a better person. He is one of the first people in the gym every day and one of the last people to leave. We just love him. I look at him as a little brother and it always hurts to see a family member drop down. He is in good spirits and hopefully he stays in good spirits. He is one of those guys that he is going to contribute to the team no matter what he is doing. We are just going to try to continue to win for him and continue to play hard for him.”
Junior F Amath M'Baye |||||||||||||||||||||||
On staying focused the entire game:
“I thought it was pretty good that we were able to come in and take care of business right out of the gates. It can be a trap game, we can underestimate them and they can come out with more will and more intensity than us. I think that everybody did a good job staying the course and it was the game plan all through.”
On the injury to Buddy Hield
“Buddy [Hield] is a terrific guy. We all love him to death and I think everyone on campus loves him to death. He has done such a great job of giving us energy that we’re definitely going to miss it. Knowing Buddy, I know that from the court or from the bench he is still going to have that same production energy wise to get us going. He is still going to take care of us. I am looking forward to seeing him back on the court and I am very saddened by his injury and it affects me a lot too.”
Head Coach Trent Johnson |||||||||||||||||||||||
Opening comment:
“I had some concerns coming into this week because Oklahoma is very skilled and very talented. One through nine can get their own shots, left and right, and force you to guard. I think they’re playing as good as anybody in our league and make no mistake about it, that’s in the NCAA tournament, too. We obviously didn’t give them any type of fight and got off to a horrible start. This is our third game in about seven days and we’re not deep enough to make a push on a team of this caliber.”
