OSU Hosts Winter Sports Media Day Cowboys and Cowgirls met with the media Monday to talk about the upcoming seasons.

Nov. 2, 2009

Oklahoma State hosted its annual Winter Sports Media Day on Monday as the Cowboy Basketball team, the Cowgirl Basketball squad and the OSU wrestling team previewed the upcoming seasons.

Meeting with the media for nearly two hours, it all started off with Coach John Smith speaking about his wrestling squad. It continued with Coach Kurt Budke, Megan Byford, Lakyn Garrison and Andrea Riley discussing the 2009-10 Cowgirl Basketball campaign.

It concluded with several Cowboy Basketball players -- James Anderson, Matt Pilgrim, Obi Muonelo, Roger Franklin, Keiton Page and Ray Penn -- talking about the new season and each other. Finally, Coach Travis Ford met with the media for about 40 minutes.

Below are the quotes from the Cowboy Basketball team:

Coach Travis Ford
Opening Statement
"This year has been so different than last year. Even though everything was new last year to everybody, this year has been totally different. First off, we've been torn up the first week of practice with sickness. The first week, we never had a full squad at practice. We had one day we had four guys out with flu-like symptoms. We've been hit with the injury bug a little bit. Marshall (Moses) was out for about three weeks and is back near 100 percent. Then you've got six freshmen running around trying to figure out how to play college basketball, much less Oklahoma State basketball. They're trying to figure it all out."

"This is the slowest I've ever been as far as putting in plays and defenses. We probably have in five plays at this point in time, and those are five plays that are being run very poorly. We've been trying to introduce just one half-court defense. As much as we love to press, we've just put our press in two or three days ago. It's just going very slow. With all that said, I love the attitudes of everybody. They work extremely hard and they're great guys. All the returning players are better than they were last year at this time, which is very encouraging because that is the backbone of our basketball team. We just hope we can stay healthy and injury free as much as possible."

"You can tell Matt Pilgrim, in his offensive play, has been sitting out a year. He is just as fast and athletic as any player I've ever coached and is a really good defensive player because he can cover so much ground so quickly, he's just very raw offensively right now. We're working with him every day trying to knock off that rust that he got sitting out a year."

"We've had very hard, aggressive practices trying to develop the mentality -- especially for these younger guys -- how hard this level of basketball is, as well as trying to teach them a little bit."

On Ray Penn
"Ray Penn is a very talented individual. He's probably a better basketball player than we anticipated. He can do some things out on the court that will impress a lot of people. There is no question he is going to play a lot of minutes for us this year and going to be a great player here at Oklahoma State. If he wants to play the point guard spot, he's going to have to figure out how to become a leader, he has to remember the plays. If you give him the ball, he's going to go score. He's tough to stop and he can really pass. That's probably been the biggest surprise with us is how great he is passing and getting guys open shots. He has all the physical abilities to be a great point guard. We have to get the mental part going for him."

On Keiton Page
"You might see Keiton playing the point early. He might start Saturday at the point if I want to go with some veteran guys. We're still looking at point guard. It's a concern right now who's going to do it. Keiton can do it, but it's definitely not the position we want him to play. As hard as I've always been on him, he's been playing about as well as a person can play at this point. He's improved a lot in a lot of areas and we need him to play the two (shooting guard)."

On James Anderson
"He seems quicker and faster. It seems he can jump higher. Last year, it was either a three-pointer, catch and shoot, or maybe get to the rim, but his 10- to 15-foot game right now is off the chart. He's really elevating on his jump shot and being explosive. He's really elevated the agility aspect of his game. He's in better shape than he was at this point last year."

James Anderson
On Matt Pilgrim
"He's like a smaller version of Dwight Howard. Just missing a couple inches. (It's impressive) just how athletic he is. He goes after every rebound. If he doesn't get it, he at least gets his hands on it. He just brings a lot of physical-ness to our team. That's something that we've needed in the past."

On playing internationally in the off-season
"It helped out a lot. It was a great experience playing overseas and just getting to go over there and see what it was like. That whole experience just helped me out knowing the international rules and just all the different stuff he (Wisconsin's Bo Ryan) taught us about the game over there, taking it from a different coach."

On this preseason opposed to last preseason
"It seems like with everything, once Coach Ford tells us to do something, we click more and know what he expects now. Last year at this time, we really didn't know what to expect and we had a whole different coaching staff. We just had to take a new role and follow his plan. This year, all the returning guys know what to expect, except all the newcomers. So we just try to help Coach Ford out and teach the new guys."

On how Coach Ford has helped him develop
"He's helped out a lot. Every since he got here, he told us he was going to make each one of us better as a player, and that's something he's stuck with his word to. Last year before he got here, I was mostly going left and now my ball handling is left or right. I'm more comfortable just playing instead of just thinking about the game."

Matt Pilgrim
On how Oklahoma State compares to Kentucky and if it's what he expected
"As far as the commitment, it's the same. You expect to do things and they put responsibility on you. It's in an amazing conference. It's a good school. I like everything about it so far."

On what practices have been like
"Run, run, run. He makes it fun though. It's just been getting used to the drills and learning the plays right now."

On the big men feeding off of each other's play
"I wouldn't just say it's me. What Coach Ford preaches is competitiveness, so he tells us to compete every play. Marshall (Moses), being the physical specimen that he is, we have our battles. Then when Torin (Walker) comes in, we have our battles. Everybody's got a big body so we all battle pretty much."

Obi Muonelo
On being a senior
"It seems like I've been here for a long time. Especially sitting out one whole year watching when I injured my leg. It seems like I've been here for a while now."

"I just feel more mature. I've got a more cerebral feel of the game. I know where I'm at on the court. Everywhere I need to be and what I need to do at all times. Off the court, being a leader, you have to just do things differently and show all these young guys the way to do things, so it's just different."

On how last year's season motivated him this off-season
"Big time. How close we were to beating Pittsburgh, I was real excited coming off of that. As soon as the season was over, I got in the gym immediately and started working for next year. Since we lost to Pittsburgh, I've been excited about this season. Now that it's here, I'm real excited."

On developing as a leader as the only senior
"I think I've developed a great deal, to be honest. I just lead from the heart and do what I feel is necessary at the time. I'm not the only leader. Me and James (Anderson) and even these freshmen can be leaders at times, when they do things that even we as leaders can't do by showing the other freshmen that they can do it. Being a leader for me is just doing everything that I can do, the best I can do it, and hopefully they follow."

Roger Franklin
On what he can do to make a contribution
"One of the things that I know that I can do for sure is that, they expect every single freshman to come in and be able to work hard. I know that having great captains, Obi (Muonelo) and James (Anderson), what I can do to contribute to the team is to work hard every single day and do my part when playing `D' on these guys in practice, make these guys better, make them feel like they're in the game. That's how they make me feel, so my main thing is I just want to work hard and do what I can for the team to make the team a better team."

On Ray Penn's ability to shoot quickly
"I think he just works at it. Hard work does pay off. I think that's what it really is. He just works at it. He loves to work. I can tell you that."

Keiton Page
On the difference between this time last year and now
"I think we have six freshmen and Matt (Pilgrim) that came in, so we have seven new guys. I think right now, we're going through a lot of the learning process. We're trying to get everything down, trying to get Coach Ford's offense down, trying to get Coach Ford's defense down. Right now, I would say it's just a little bit more of a learning process than it was at this time last year."

On Ford's intensity in practice
"He has his days. I think he understands with all the new guys that right now it's a lot of learning. He's more relaxed right now and trying to teach us the basics. I'd say he's a little bit more calm at this time than he was last year."

On losing Byron Eaton
"I think last year the role was a little bit different, especially with Byron (Eaton) on the team. He was a tough player that just made everybody better. Last year, he created for a lot of us and this year we don't have Byron. It's more of a team effort because he can't replace a guy like Byron overnight. So I think not just one of us, but all of us are trying to fill that role."

On Ray Penn
"He's real good. Coming in, we all knew how good Ray (Penn) was, so he does have high expectations, but right now, Ray's playing great."

Ray Penn
On if he or Keiton Page is taller
"He has his days, I have mine."

On asking Ford questions in practice
"Coming in, he had a lot of expectations for me. If you don't know anything, you've got to ask questions or you're going to be out there looking lost. Coach Ford, I'm comfortable with him. I'm comfortable with the whole staff and my teammates. I just feel like, when in doubt, just ask a question and it will get answered."

On how he gets off a quick shot against taller players under pressure
"I would have to say just naturally scoring. A lot of times when big defenders are on me, they like to play off and if they play off, I'll shoot it. If they play up, I'll go around them, so it's kind of an advantage from my point. I just go out there and play, really. I don't think about anything else but playing."