Oklahoma State University Athletics
Postgame Quotes
March 01, 2011 | Cowboy Basketball
March 1, 2011
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Oklahoma State Cowboy Basketball
Postgame Quotes vs. Baylor
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
OSU head coach Travis Ford
Opening Statement
"I am really proud of our team. I am proud of our seniors. I thought that they did a terrific job tonight and that they all really did a lot to help us win. I thought Nick Sidorakis did a tremendous job getting us started. He had an incredible start defensively. We wanted to be very active on defense early in the game and try to get some steals and take them out of their comfort zone. I thought we did that. We got a little relaxed in the last eight minutes, but I thought we got off to a great start. I thought defensively, when you look at the defense they did on (LaceDarius) Dunn, one of the most prolific scorers in the league, I thought it was a great defensive effort overall. The guys really stuck to the game that we wanted to do certain things with certain guys. We took some chances on some things and our guys played really hard on defense and executed on offense."
On how the game was balanced
"Everybody did something positive, every single person that went in. Jared Shaw gave us some good minutes, everybody played hard and everybody contributed. Everybody did something positive on both ends, and we haven't had that all year long. I am very proud of our guys. I knew Baylor was coming in here focused and wanting to win this game, so we knew what we were going up against."
On LaceDarius Dunn not getting his record
"I thought it would be tough to keep him from getting the record. I thought it might be tough because we have great respect for him. I thought we did a good job defensively and that is what we wanted to do. We wanted to make sure we made him take tough shots and not leave him. Nick Sidorakis and Jean-Paul Olukemi guarded him for 99 or 100 percent of the time."
On Markel Brown's performance
"Markel's statistics line was off the chart, other than the four missed free throws. Some of the rebounds he got were what we expected Markel to get. Markel is going to be an elite player here sometime, it just takes time. He has the physical tools to do it. Five blocks is incredible."
On the seniors getting this win
"It is a great win overall and a great win for these seniors and this team. It is a great win because Baylor is a really good basketball team. It was a great win when it hasn't been the easiest season, and our guys are still playing along and that says a lot about these guys. I am proud of them. The seniors, I thought they just got us off to a tremendous start."
OSU senior forward Marshall Moses
On his game
“It feels good to get a double-double on senior night, but it feels even better to get a win, especially against a team like Baylor. I want to show the most love and appreciation to my team because for me, Matt (Pilgrim), Nick (Sidorakis) and Songo (Adoki), we wanted to play hard and win because this was our last home game. I was very thankful for that.”
“If this game was a couple of years ago I probably would have been acting crazy. Even though this is my last home game here and I love Gallagher-Iba (Arena), this is not our last game and we're going to fight until that last game. So I wanted to take more of a business approach instead of an emotional approach. You can't think like that because you'll go out there and take bad shots or things like that. I just wanted to focus on beating a really good team on our home floor.”
On Markel Brown
“Markel is a freak athlete. Sometimes he makes coverage on a shot that other guys just can't. When a guy is beat, a lot of times that's a basket, especially guarding a guy like LaceDarius Dunn, who is about to be the all-time leading scorer in the Big 12. Markel is a gifted guy. He mixes with that the heart and desire to want to get stops. He likes getting stops. He's a special kid. I've never seen anybody jump like that or make plays like that, especially as a freshman.”
OSU junior guard Keiton Page
On the game
“Tonight, it was a complete team effort on the offensive and defensive end. Most importantly, I think, were the guys on the defensive end. Not all the guys who scored in double figures, but all the stops we had on the defensive end. Markel (Brown), J.P. (Olukemi) and Nick (Sidorakis) did a tremendous job on LaceDarius Dunn. Marshall (Moses), Matt (Pilgrim), Jarred (Shaw) and Roger (Franklin) came in and played their butts off on those post guys. They didn't give them any easy looks and we didn't send them to the foul line as much as we did down there in Waco. It was a good team effort.”
“We knew we were probably going to have to use several guys on LaceDarius. The three guys we did put on them did a tremendous job. Markel came up with five blocks and he got a couple of them late in the game on LaceDarius. Those three just did a greatjob.”
Baylor head coach Scott Drew
On the game
“I really thought (Matt) Pilgrim set the tone down low and did a great job controlling the paint area. We didn't really respond to their physical play like we'd like to. You've got to credit them for their defense on Lace(Darius Dunn). Two-of-16 is outstanding defense on him. We tried to drive, tried to get him to the free-throw line and unfortunately we couldn't get him going that way either. Again, Oklahoma State deserves a lot of credit.”
On if LaceDarius Dunn was pressing for the record
“If he is, hopefully he gets it over with quick. I think with him being a senior he'd rather win the game because he knows what's at stake for each and every game. I attribute that to him being a team player and he obviously cares more about postseason aspirations because he's going to get the record at some point.”
On OSU's defense
“Your two leading scorers go 4-of-24, you're not going to win a lot of games. I thought really what hurt us was the first half we scored 30 and second half we scored 30. The difference is offensively, Keiton Page hit some big shots, (Jean-Paul) Olukemi hit some big shots and Oklahoma State really did a good job of getting to the free-throw line and making free throws. They shot 19 free throws the second half and shot 74 percent. That's what you want to do and credit them for doing it.”
On it being a game Baylor needed to win
“You need to win all of them so this is just like the rest of them in my mind.”
Baylor sophomore guard A.J. Walton
On Baylor's shooting struggles
"You have to credit Oklahoma State. They played a good defensive game in the second half. They held us to 35 percent shooting on the night. They did what they needed to to get the victory."
On NCAA Tournament hopes
"We still have hopes. We still have one home game left and the conference tournament. We're going to keep playing Baylor basketball and just looking forward to what's going to happen postseason."
Baylor freshman forward Perry Jones III
On what OSU did to take him out of his game
"They played strong and played hard. You come in on senior night and you're going to play with a lot of energy — it's your last home game. They did what seniors do on senior night, and that's just play hard."
On OSU controlling the paint in the second half
"I guess just breaking down the press at the free-throw line kind of slowed things down on the inside, mostly because I was out on the perimeter. When I was inside, I was able to get my teammates open looks on the double team."
