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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: COLUMBUS

March 22, 2015

Jordan Woodard

COLUMBUS, OHIO

OKLAHOMA - 72
DAYTON - 66

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Oklahoma head coach Lon Kruger and student-athletes Jordan Woodard, TaShawn Thomas, and Buddy Hield. Coach, an opening statement.

COACH KRUGER: Obviously great moment for the guys, my program, the fans. Couldn't be more proud of them. Beat a really good Dayton ball club in a tough environment. I thought Dayton played great. Coach Miller does a fantastic job. And yet our guys hung in there, and Dayton made their run. I thought our guys made some stops defensively right there. They converted into offense. And again handled things well down the stretch. So guys did a great job. Proud of them.

THE MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. Jordan, you and Buddy, could you talk about the play where they made the steal late and the guy goes in for a layup, and Buddy blocks it. Jordan, tell me what happened with the ball and what you saw in terms of Buddy, and Buddy your block?
JORDAN WOODARD: I should have took better care of the ball in that situation, late game, but they made a great play on it. And Buddy, he made a hustle play, winning play for us down in the stretch. We got a chance to get back, get the ball back and close it out from there.

BUDDY HIELD: Yeah, Jordan take the blame but he's the point guard, but it's really my fault. Coach had me set up for a long time. I thought I was open for a little ability. I felt him on my back. But I should have done a better job setting up, but when the ball was stolen I had to get back and made a play on the ball. I either had to foul them, don't let them get a shot up, but I made a good hustle play. But he put the ball right in front of me and I just blocked it, and it turned out good and Jordan got fouled, and he made two free throws to put us up six, so it was a good deal.

Q. Jordan, when you're in the tournament bubble, obviously focused on Dayton, how much attention can you pay to the rest of the region, 1 goes down, 2 goes down in front of you, how aware are you guys of that situation when you go into a game?
JORDAN WOODARD: Definitely, like in our off time, we watching all those games, and we get to see who all is playing. But for the most part we're really just staying focused on our opponent and taking one game at a time, one weekend at a time, and that's really the only way you can advance in these tournament situations. But yeah, we got a good matchup with Michigan State, and we're excited to battle it out with them.

Q. Buddy, what were the huddles like when you were down seven, they went through the second half, and then all of a sudden the defense just goes up about nine notches?
BUDDY HIELD: I thought it was crazy. We was getting after each other. And we didn't play like how we wanted to play defensively. And Coach, we just stuck with the process, trust the process. And Coach did a good job getting us together. We stayed together, and Tay and Ryan were speaking up, and Isaiah was speaking. We were all speaking up and we just trusted each other. Shows a good sign for our team, trusting each other. Made big plays, you know, Frank stepped up, made a big 3, went up nine. We did it together as a group. It was fun.

Q. TaShawn, last part of the first, early part of the second half, your defense was not very good. What happened there midway through the second half where you guys shut them down, I think they went nine minutes without scoring?
TASHAWN THOMAS: I think everybody buckled down took care of their assignments helped each other a lot more. I felt there were a lot of plays where it would be, like, one person had to help and the second person had to help, and the second help man was feeling like they didn't have to. That's when they kept on getting a lot of open shots. And I felt we did like the little extra things that just got us a little more stops and just being more physical through screens and stuff like that.

Q. Jordan, how big a factor do you think the crowd was today?
JORDAN WOODARD: Yeah, credit to them, they had a great crowd coming out. And you could tell when they hit big shots, when they hit 3s and got off our turnovers, and the crowd was going, but we just had to shut them down even though they got the lead late in the game, shut it down and play our ball.

Q. TaShawn, can you talk about the start the team had? You guys just sank I think your first four baskets with 3-pointers, stayed red hot. In the second half you seemed to go more inside. Was that by plan, by design, or what exactly happened with the offense?
TASHAWN THOMAS: I think going inside was our plan coming in because we knew we had a little size advantage. But I felt like that most of those beginning 3s that we hit came off like inside, kicking it out to the wide-open 3. When we seen that happen, everybody was like: Keep going inside and trying to find the open 3-man, because they were doubling, but then they started switching it up, and that's when I kind of started turning over the ball.

Q. Jordan, I think you had that big steal. You had one big steal, then there was another steal in back-to-back possessions and Coach Miller was saying that was a particularly pivotal part of the game. Were you guys trying to extend the defense a little more? Was it just a matter of telegraphing a pass? Was there something that you saw?
JORDAN WOODARD: I feel like that might have been, we might have been coming out of a timeout early. And the coaches challenged us to step it up on defense, because we had to get the stops. And as a team I feel that's what we were talking about, the first to win the game, we had to get stops and turn it up a little bit. And I just wanted to make a play for my teammate on defense. And I felt like Frank Booker got a late steal as well and that just helped us get rolling on offense, too.

Q. Did you watch Michigan State beat Virginia earlier; if so, what were your impressions of that game?
JORDAN WOODARD: Yeah, I got to catch some of it. And I feel like they're a great defensive team, well-coached team, and they play solid. I feel like it's going to be a good challenge for us. But we've got to come out and play our ball no matter who we're playing, Michigan State or Virginia. We've just got to play the best ball we can play.

TASHAWN THOMAS: Like Jordan said, I agree with that. I watched a couple of the games. I mean a couple of, the end of that little game. And I just seen a lot of energy. Michigan State playing with a lot of energy. And they kind of took advantage away from Virginia. And I feel like if we let them do that, they'll probably do the same thing. So we have to make sure that we stay together as a team and just keep fighting with each other.

BUDDY HIELD: What TaShawn said.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach.

Q. I know this might not be the biggest blip on your radar screen, but it's seldom a coach can say he's done something that no other coach has done. What's that mean to you?
COACH KRUGER: It obviously doesn't make a lot of difference in people's lives. Certainly won't in mind. But it means we've had a lot of good players, a lot of good programs and certainly proud of this group today. Kind of tough conditions right there. We weren't playing the way we wanted to. I thought Dayton was playing extremely well to dig in right there when they did. I thought they showed a lot of growth on their part. And it's hard to do.

Q. When you as a coach and you have a region where a 1 and 2 goes down in the opening weekend or with a conference that's had some teams lose games in the first couple of days, is that something that weighs on a coach's mind? Is it a concern? Is it something that enters your thoughts at all?
COACH KRUGER: Not at all. We're going to play who is there. And we know it's going to be tough. When you get to the Sweet 16, everyone deserves to be there. They've gotten there for a reason. Obviously Michigan State is a terrific program and Tom does a great job and they've got that NCAA success culture. And our guys respect that. They know that the seeds really don't mean anything. It will be a big-time battle, and we'll have to play really well to have a chance to win.

Q. For lack of a better word how much damage control were you having to do in the huddle there after Dayton made its run early in the second half?
COACH KRUGER: We were a little fired up, a little excited. I think that's normal at that time. I think the key is to calm down and stay poised and stay within understand what each other's doing and stay together. And yet this group, seeing a little fire out of them, a little emotion, is kind of good. For them I think they've been more talkative in the last -- today and during the game than probably I've ever seen them in terms of taking ownership and taking the initiative and it's not a real talkative group by nature. So it's good to see that. I think that's a little bit of growth that's good for us.

Q. What was the key defensively to when they just quit scoring at all, about ten and a half minutes left in the game?
COACH KRUGER: I thought our guys stepped up to the challenge a little bit, fought the individual battles. I thought Pierre and Pollard are really tough to guard in the post. I thought our big guys at that time had some really good stops, stood their ground in there, did it without fouling, and that's hard to do. Obviously on the perimeter. We had a couple of steals as well. Jordan is very quick out there. Frank came up with a big steal. I thought we just took on some individual challenges a little bit within the team concept at that point.

Q. I think we first talked at the end of last year's NCAA Tournament game about the need for this group to transform defensively to sort of take the next step. Is today sort of fitting in the fact that that's really sort of what turned the game and sort of got them where they couldn't go a year ago?
COACH KRUGER: I think very fitting, because last year's group we just didn't feel like we were made to get stops at critical times in ball games. We talked about that. We could score, and obviously at critical times in this game our guys come together and make several stops back to back. So the makeup of this team, they're older, they're more understanding of what has to happen to win tough games. And I thought that showed today.

Q. Buddy kind of makes the play of your guys' tournament so far with that blocked shot, speaking of defenses, is that just him elevating his game over this point last year?
COACH KRUGER: Buddy is very athletic. He and Jordan were unhappy with the play at mid court. So I thought Buddy's response, he's not going to give up on it. He made it with effort and did it without fouling and obviously a key play in the game.

Q. Last part of the first half, early second half, your offense wasn't very good. But you scored on six of seven possessions after you got down nine, got back in the game. What happened offensively to get you back sort of in gear?
COACH KRUGER: A little bit like what happened defensively in terms of being a little stronger with the ball, being more aggressive on the attack. Reading -- seeing the defense. Finishing the opportunity. You gotta compete as hard -- sometimes we talk about competing hard on the defensive end. You have to do the same thing on the defensive end. I thought we competed a little bit better for the result right there during that stretch.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, congratulations. Good luck next week.
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