Opening Statement…
“The biggest thing was to play hard and to defend. Those were the two things that got us over the hump and gave us a chance. Obviously, we gave up a little bit of a lead. We got a little casual and not very smart down the stretch, but they played their butts off. We won the play hard 60-59. That is the second time this year we have been in the 60’s, and then we defended one of the best offensive teams in the country. I think Nino (Williams) had 13 on the play hard. I challenged Wes (Iwundu) before the game, not only about guarding Buddy (Hield), but also he has not really been on our play hard as a major factor but he had 11. He was very, very active. Those guys kind of set the tone. I think they got us in transition early, and we settled down and started doing a better job. When we limited them in half court, I thought our guys really made the next play on the defensive end. Defending them, holding them to 37% and 56 points, and they got what, seven or eight in that last stretch there? That gave us a chance to win the game with only shooting 26% and only having 13 field goals, especially against a top-20 team. That is not going to happen every day of the week. We got to the free throw line, we attacked, and we made them accountable on defense.”

 

On OU’s foul trouble…
“We had foul trouble too. Thomas Gipson was in foul trouble, and we had a couple guys with two in the first half and had to have them out. Lon (Kruger) took a gamble with (Ryan Spangler) and put him back in with nine minutes left. I do not know when he fouled out but it was pretty early. We have not had a lot of good fortune go our way but maybe this time some things did. That was one of our emphasis down the stretch there, to isolate Thomas in the post because I do not think either one could really guard him.”
On Wesley Iwundu’s defense…
“He did a great job. He did that with Kenny Chery in the second half the last time. Like I said, I challenged him. We have watched a lot of film and Wes has been brought up many times and probably not in the best tone of voice, so he reacted well. I thought his reactions were much better. I do not know what Buddy had in the second half. I know he got one on Justin (Edwards) when he was being casual in transition and he might have had one other, but [Wes] did a good job.”

 

On Marcus Foster’s defense…

“I had met with him last night, and Malek [Harris]. One thing I told both of them, obviously, it is disappointing the situation, but now the best thing you can do is let the game come to you. Play hard, defend, show the crowd and the people that you care. I think he listened. He made that first shot and he kind of flicked up that next one pretty quick. We just kind of challenged both guys to guard. The disappointing thing with Marcus last year, I told him this last night, at the end of the year he was guarding the best players (Juwan) Staten, Buddy, all the best players. So we are hoping the light is on, and he is going to come with great effort as we finish this stretch run.”

 

Forward Nino Williams

On Marcus Foster’s night…

“He is a prolific scorer. Since last year, since he has been in college, he has hit big shots for us. Like I told you all a while ago, we lean on him toward the end of games. We live and die by Marcus. He always takes the big shots for us. That is a shot he hits all the time, and he just jumped up and hit it for us.”

 

On winning a big game…

“We had lost five in a row so any win would be great. It just happened to be against OU. Like I said, any win is great. It was a great team win.”