March 14, 2007

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OSU Basketball vs. Marist
First Round of the NIT
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Postgame Quotes

Head Coach Sean Sutton
On the game
"In that game, there was one team that wanted to play and that cared about this tournament, while one team had a few guys that would rather be on spring break.

"I knew they were disappointed (after the Big 12 Tournament), but I expected a much better effort tonight. I said I was going to play the guys that the game meant the most to and I probably waited too long on a few guys."

On Marist
"Marist deserved to win. They played with passion. They were having fun. They passed the ball around. They executed and they out-hustled us to rebounds. How do you out-rebound Texas A&M and Texas then get beat (on the boards) by 15? Effort. Anybody that saw us play in the Ford Center saw us hold Nebraska to 19 points in the first half, Texas A&M to 28, and Texas to 31. This team comes in and has 37 in the first half. They deserved to win. They played better and this game seemed a lot more important to their guys."

On the future of Cowboy basketball
"I think we will a lot better seasons in the future. I love the players that we have coming in. They are high-character, high-class kids. They are going to buy into this system. They are going to appreciate what it means to play at Oklahoma State. They are going to appreciate the tradition of this program. This group, as much as we talked about, just never appreciated what it meant to play here. It is an honor and a privilege to play at Oklahoma State. We will get out of this. Believe me. We made a few mistakes in recruiting. We misjudged some things, but I am very confident in the players that we have coming back and the players that we have coming in. They are going to be our types of players, and that is, kids with high character."

Oklahoma State guard Byron Eaton
On the game
"It was not tough to get up for it. We were kind of down because we did not make the NCAA tournament. That does not give us an excuse to not better prepare ourselves for this game."

On comparing this loss to last year's
"I would say it is worse because it was on our home court. Our fans came out and showed us great support. We let them get comfortable and hit some shots. We did not play defense like we did last week, until the second half. If we would have came out like that in the first half we could have got on them early. That is what happens when you let a team that can shoot get comfortable."

On next season
"For next season, we are going to try to have great leadership. We are going to have guys who have been here awhile. We are going to set the standard for the incoming freshman. I did not have a leader to step forward and tell me the way things were going to go. The guys that come in next season are going to come in under great leadership. Either you are going to get on the boat or drown."

Oklahoma State guard Obi Muonelo
On the game
"I do not think they caught us off guard. They came out with more intensity at the start of the game. They got off to the good start and we had to fight back the whole time."

On what he learned this season
"I learned that no matter what, you have to keep on fighting. It was tough for me to come back from injury. After you get hurt you start to get a little hesitant. I learned that I can bring some energy to this team. I just want to play hard and carry that over to next year. I am going to do what I can to help this ball club."

Marist Head Coach Matt Brady
On the win over Oklahoma State
"For our program and our conference this is a great win. To win on the road against a terrific team, and with the great history Oklahoma State has we are thrilled get this win."

On hitting 10 three-point shots
"It was a little disappointing that we only made 10 three-point shots. We are one of the leaders in the country with the most threes made. I am not being boastful, even though we do average 9.5 threes a game, but this was an average game for us. If you have not seen us play, we have one of the best shooters in the nation in (Will) Whittington. Whittington is first or second in the country with the most threes made, and he has also been one of the percentage leaders. He is a big shot maker, and we have been working on his shot all year. We hit around our average three's tonight, but we had to slow the tempo down a little to keep Oklahoma State out of the open court."

On matching up against major conference teams
"It is different when we match up against a power conference. We try and spread teams out because we are obviously not a very athletic group. I think we have a very good basketball I.Q. We also have a great senior point guard, Jared Jordan, who finds everyone when they are open. I think we have a bunch of guys who do not want to lose as they want to share the ball and the credit. I think we are a difficult matchup because we could have five guys on the court who can hit the three-point shot."

On preparing for this game
"We had another day or two to get mentally ready for this game. I think (Oklahoma State) was caught off with our zone in the first half. In the second half, the zone did not really bother them as they played really well. It takes a while to catch up with how we play. If you have not seen a bunch of guys run around behind the three-point line, it takes a little getting used to."