UCA Postgame Quotes

Head Coach Brad Underwood

On his general thoughts on the game:
"Well, I think you shoot 60 percent in a half, you shoot 56 percent at home, I'll take that most nights. Seventy-five percent from the free-throw line, 35 percent from the 3-point line, and you score 102, we did some good things. We need to do a better job of not fouling. I've got to work them in practice and I have to do a better job of helping or guys come in at the timeout and find out who our match ups are. That's on me. A guy can't dribble down the court three times and shoot an uncontested layup and we just have no idea who we were guarding. And those were veterans. Ton of credit to Central Arkansas, that is a veteran team. They have been together and I have seen Jordan Howard work many nights. The Southland conference, he is a good player. Russ had them prepared. They were typical of what most teams do against us. This team, our team, has to be able to communicate. We have to become more vocal. We went something we haven't even practiced, which is switching ... Just simply because we actually talked. I'm a little miffed, but tomorrow is a new day and we will keep working."

On needing move the ball better without Jawun:
"Well we won't pass. We just dribble the ball. You can't do that. I don't care what league you are in, who you are up against, you have to move the basketball. We ended up with 20 assists on 34 field goals, which is a decent percentage, but we didn't run anything. It gets some match ups. You have to move, you have to cut, you have to create the mismatch, and you have to move the ball faster than the zone does. And then give yourself opportunities. Right now, as much we are working on it, that's what we are doing right now."

On Phil Forte:
"Phil is playing great. Phil is probably as good a defender as we have out there. He is doing it at that end as well. Tonight I think he got a good opportunity against the match up. Just with some opportunities to hit some threes. He missed some good looks. That's going to happen. The thing I'm really happy with Phil is he isn't settling for long threes. Driving the ball and getting fouled, when you are a 90 percent free throw shooter, you should drive to the hole. He was outstanding tonight. three assists, one turnover, we will take that most nights."

On Lindy Waters:
"I think Lindy was really good. He got off the offensive glass, he created some opportunities for us. I think one of the first times out there, we had four offensive rebounds on our seven misses. Lindy is going to be a really good basketball player, and I'm excited about his future. We had a great challenge at the wing spot. Those two guys big and physical, they are really athletic, and they are guys that I know from past experience that could put us on the boards. One of them had eight rebounds against Wisconsin the other night. It's one of those things where he will grow into it, he will understand it and learn, he is a smart guy. He is going to have not just a great career, but a great season."

OSU senior guard Phil Forte

On foul trouble:
"We have to be smart. Some of our fouls were kind of careless. We're going to play aggressive, we're not going to change that. The fouls 40-50 feet away from the basket are going to have to stop. We gotta get better because every team from now is going to get better. We have to continue to adjust."

On 20 assists for the team:
"That's kind of the thing for this team. We try to be very unselfish. We just try to move the ball around as much as we can. We got a lot of different ways we can score."

On second half run:
"We got a couple stops, got some turnovers. It was good to get tested a little bit, but we have a lot of work to do. Obviously you'll take a win, you don't want to take those for granted. But this team is going to get a lot better.

On Jawun:
"He's one of the best point guards in the country, so he makes everybody else better around him. Just to take the court with him, he makes everyone's job so much easier.

OSU junior guard Jeffrey Carroll

On coming off the bench:
"I'm just doing what the team needs. I just want to come in and provide that spark off the bench and continue to play well and help the team. My teammates set me up great. Jawun [Evans] is a great passer and playing with him spreads the floor a lot."

Central Arkansas Russ Pennell

On the improvements from game one to game two:
"Well, I appreciate that. Let me say first of all, I'm really proud of the guys and I'm proud of the effort they put forth. I told them I had so many mixed emotions because boy I hate losing. I don't believe in moral victories. It's hard for me to even say, 'wow, we played pretty good.' But when I really think about it, we competed at a high level and that's one of the things I've been wanting our guys to do. We were on the floor for loose balls and I thought we turned them over. We bothered them with our pressure and when we got behind, we fought back. All the stuff you want to see a team do. And if we're going to accomplish our goals, we have to be that way. So I was happy."

On the fortitude of the team:
"That's one of the things I told them. It was time for us to quit being the doormat. It's time for us to not be the punching anymore. We need to be the boxer coming out of the corner. I think we're showing that and you've almost got to get to a point where you're so sick of losing that you'll do anything to not lose. I thought tonight we gave ourselves a chance and if you really look at it, I told the guys this is how important starts are. We lost the game in the first three minutes of the game. Because the score really never changed. We got close but my point is, yeah I think we were down 15-4 or something like that, and we lost by 12 points. So that's kind of it in a nutshell."

Oklahoma State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Jeffrey Carroll

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