Oklahoma State University Athletics
OSU Postgame Quotes
January 13, 2008 | Cowgirl Basketball
OSU Coach Quotes
Head Coach Kurt Budke
On the game
“Obviously, this is a pretty special night. We said before the night started that if we came in and played as close to a perfect game as we could play, we would have a chance. They are a great team with a great coach, and we knew that we would have to play our best basketball to get this done. I think if you look at these stats, it is probably as close to a perfect game as I have seen in my 23 years of coaching. I'm very proud of my team.
“It doesn't (get much better than this). Especially when you come in to a program and you go 0-16 (in your first conference season) and you have a couple hundred people up in the stands. You look at the Big 12 and you think, ‘Is it ever going to happen, because the Big 12 is so tough. To go from where we started to where we are tonight - I will never forget this night as a coach. It is a night that our players will never forget as players and that our fans will never forget. This is the kind of win that gives a program a chance to take the next step.”
On the sellout crowd
“Yesterday, we heard that 8,000 tickets had been sold and we thought, ‘Man, that is unbelievable and that is a great step for us.' Then I came out tonight and looked up, and I didn't see an empty seat. I'm sure there was one somewhere, but I didn't see it. I did see a lot of orange out there tonight. This is a very special night.”
On Andrea Riley's 45-point performance
“I've had great players over the years, but that is, without question, the greatest performance I've had from one of my players. She is just hard to guard, and she gets to the free throw line because you reach out and try to hip her and try to put two hands on her, and that is a foul. Her free throw percentage is great. She has taken such a step from last year. I think she is shooting 40 percent from (three-point range), her shooting percentage is up from (two-point range), her free throws are good, and she is just making great decisions. She is definitely one of the best guards in America. I'm sure many of you didn't see the Kansas game, but she just flat won that game at the end with the mid-range jumper.”
OSU Player Quotes
Sophomore Andrea Riley
On scoring 45 points
“I was really just thinking about the win. I wasn't thinking about scoring or anything. I wanted to help my team, but I'm not that type of player that is selfish. If I didn't score tonight, but somebody else stepped up and we still won, I would be ok. I was kind of in a zone. I went into the locker room at halftime and said, ‘Okay, the first half is over. We have the win, but let's not lose our intensity or lose our focus. This team is ranked sixth in the nation and they could come back at any time.' We just stuck together, played as a team, and just played.”
On her teammates
“It was all because of my teammates. My teammates pump me up so much. Without them, I would be so arrogant, so cocky, and so all of that. They just tell me to keep it consistent, be a leader, do all those things, and don't show negative emotions. They just stay by my side and that is what I love about my teammates.“
On the role that the crowd played in the game
“We always said, ‘If you all come out and pack this house and have at least 8,000 fans, we're never going to lose.' That is why I thank everybody for coming, because without those fans, I don't know if we would have got down or stopped playing or anything. They got us so pumped up.”
Senior Maria Cordero
On Andrea Riley's 45-point performance
“Half of their players were guarding her and she was still scoring. It is good having a point guard that can score and get you the ball whenever you want. She just took over this game. She was scoring, so you might as well let her keep the ball because no one could guard her. She had a great performance tonight.”
On beating OU
“We always say that we could be anybody, because we have a good team and, on any given night, anyone can get beat. It didn't matter that they were ranked sixth, it was about us being a team. We have six new freshmen, some new junior college players, and we are just trying to be a team from here on out. That is all we can do is just be here for each other. Of course we had a game plan, but we just think that if we stick together and don't have any negative emotions, we'll be fine.”
OU Head Coach Sherri Coale
On the game
“Oklahoma State was good. They were good in every phase of the game. I thought they came out with more juice than we had. They looked hungrier for 40 minutes than we did and that's a very tough thing for me to say. Truthfully I thought they fought harder possession by possession. You add that with the fact that Andre Riley made everything she shot. She was unbelievable. Those other role players alongside her did their role. They took care of business. Almost from the get-go you could tell it was going to be one of those nights the ball was going to be square for the Sooners.”
On guarding Riley
“Early on when you get a couple of fouls, you have to be really careful about what you do. When she gets an edge on you and leans in, it's hard to get out of the way. Our guys just had to throw their hands up and try to run backwards to keep from getting called on a foul. Her speed is very difficult to keep in front of. It completely changed our game plan.”
On Sooner's ‘lack of intensity'
“I don't think we were as hungry going into the game as they were. That's part of the position that we're in right now. We have to understand that's one of the reasons we built the schedule that we built. So that our guys wouldn't be satisfied with anything that we've done before. So that we would be prepared and that we would stay hungry and we would remember what it feels like to lose. It's important sometimes to remember that feeling deep in your bones. When you win and win and win it takes one like this to shock you and to remind you how fragile success is.”
