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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: OKLAHOMA

March 18, 2016

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Oklahoma-82, Cal State Bakersfield-68

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by the Sooners of Oklahoma, Head Coach Lon Kruger, Buddy Hield and Isaiah Cousins. Coach, your thoughts about this afternoon's game?

COACH KRUGER: Well, very, very hard fought game. I thought Bakersfield, for 35 minutes, if they didn't outplay us, they certainly played even. Coach Barnes always does a great job. His teams are always very well prepared. They do a terrific job defensively, and today was no surprise.

It's a good first round win. I told our guys afterwards, I said, hey, they caused us to play less than what we'd like to. But Bakersfield did that. Appreciate winning. Appreciate winning and playing again, because it's not easy to do that, and proud of the guys for doing that.

Got to figure out how to get better here in the next 48 hours to play a very good VCU club.

Q. Isaiah, after they take the lead there in the second half, you hit a three and then you guys come up with the turnover and get back to the free-throw line. You guys really had that spurtability after they threatened. Can you talk, especially with the three guards, just what you guys kept talking about to try to keep building that lead?
ISAIAH COUSINS: With the three guards, we just wanted to move the ball and make plays for each other and find the open man because they were trapping a lot. Just having a lot of energy all night.

Q. I'm curious, Buddy and Isaiah, if you could talk about closing out this game. They get within 4 and you guys really played great for 2:30 and closed out the game there at the very end. Isaiah, if you would start, that was a great job closing out the game tonight. What did you think about how you went about that?
ISAIAH COUSINS: I think as a team we handled their pressure all night, and we just focused on getting stops and coming down to it. Just trying to make plays on the defensive end to lead on the offense.

BUDDY HIELD: Yeah, we've been playing in close games all year, in the Big 12 and even non-conference. So I feel like we have a little more experience. So guys just stepped up and made right shots at the right moments. We needed everybody to make plays for us, and everybody stepped up.

Q. Buddy, you put about three or four different 9- to 10-nothing runs on them, yet they kept answering and kept sticking around. Were you surprised with how resilient they were?
BUDDY HIELD: Yes, it's March. Teams are going to keep fighting and nobody's going to go away really. You've got to really put somebody away and just keep making shot after shot. They're a team that wouldn't go away. They just kept fighting and we respect that. We just had to find a way to win. Guys like me and Isaiah were able to make shots and everybody was able to make plays for each other, and we made plays when we needed to.

Q. Buddy, Michigan State lost as a No. 2 seed, more or less while you guys were playing your game. Did any awareness of that filter down to you guys? Was there any reaction for you if it did?
BUDDY HIELD: No, somebody just told me that after the game that Michigan State lost. I know a couple guys at Michigan State. But we can't worry about that. We can only worry about what we can control. It's tough that they lost, but we're on a mission. We can't worry about any other team.

Q. You guys got off to a pretty slow start. How much of that was fighting nerves and just getting used to Bakersfield?
BUDDY HIELD: Yeah, it was kind of weird. I respect it, and you just got to go out there and find ways to make plays happen. Isaiah got to the bucket and after that we got a couple transition buckets and everybody got a little comfortable. But that's how some games start like that. You've just got to find a way to fight through adversity and find a way to put the ball in the basket.

Q. Buddy and Isaiah, you guys and Jordan combined for nine three-pointers. Can you describe how important guard play is in March Madness in this tournament, and did we kind of see the evidence of that tonight?
ISAIAH COUSINS: As guards, we just put a lot of pressure on the offense, when they drive and kick. Ryan and Dante, they find open guys. We've got to go able to step up and make the shots down for our teammates who found us open and play with a lot of enthusiasm for each other and just play together.

Q. Game 35 tomorrow. What does it mean, Buddy, to your team to be able to play in your own backyard, so to speak?
BUDDY HIELD: It means a lot. We worked so hard for this all season by competing in the non-conference and in the Big 12 Conference, and we put ourselves in the position to come here and play in front of our fans. So having the fans here, we got stagnant a little bit in the second half and we needed them.

Isaiah was able to make that three and we just feed off the energy. So having their energy in the building, we feel the energy around us, and that gave us momentum to pull out games like this.

Q. That sequence at about 3:00 minutes, Jordan hits the three on an Isaiah assist and you go get a block and then that stepback three. Can you just talk to me about what you saw in that play and that moment right there for you guys?
BUDDY HIELD: That was big. Isaiah was able to see it with the defense and make the play. I think he was kind of trapping, trying to get the ball in Isaiah's hands all night, and trying to make the other players make a play. But Isaiah was able to find Jordan. That block was really my fault anyhow, because I got back door and I had to make up for it. So I was able to make a shot. Coming down, Coach said put it on my back, and I was able to step back a little bit and it was a good shot.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Kruger.

Q. Talk about your use of your big men tonight. Manyang had gone in and played more minutes than he probably has in a while. And you talked about you might do that before the game. What did you think of how they did?
COACH KRUGER: I thought they did fine. I thought AK played his minutes well. I thought Dante came in and played his minutes pretty well. Christian got the early fouls and didn't have much impact on the game, but I think he'll learn from that and bounce back and play better on Sunday.

But, yeah, the big guys stepped in and played well. Khadeem got in early foul trouble and AK stepped in, picked him up.

Q. Coach, kind of my same question to you. Game 35 and you're in your back yard playing a couple of games here, how much does it really mean not to have to go to the East Coast and come back here and go to the West Coast? How big of an impact is that?
COACH KRUGER: It was great. We loved driving down the road 20 minutes and playing. That's much better than getting on a plane and changing time zones, for sure. It's great for our players, staff; it's great for the fans. Guys have worked hard all year to maybe earn that opportunity to stay close to home, and they did that. I thought the crowd was great today. I thought it was fantastic today, and hopefully it will be similar on Sunday.

Q. You've obviously been playing with those three guards that are veterans all year. But to have them in tournament play like today, Coach Barnes made reference to the fact that that was what he was most worried about when he saw you guys pop up, that you guys wouldn't break. How much of a benefit is that to you guys in tournament play?
COACH KRUGER: Three guys being able to handle the ball, being able to drive and kick, being able to make shots is always comforting because it really doesn't matter who has the ball. They're capable of either making a shot or driving and kicking and making a play for someone else. Two of our seniors and Jordan has played a lot, so that experience helps as well.

Q. We've seen it before, we've got a steady diet of Buddy Hield down the stretch of that game, a lot of defensive rebounds, a lot of blocked shots. He was very active. One time he got the ball poked away from him, and he got mad at the ref and walked over to the ref and did this and kind of gestured like, God, that was bad. Talk about how much this game meant to him. It was evident that he's decided we're not going to lose this game.
COACH KRUGER: Buddy is passionate about everything he does, but certainly when you get to the point for all those seniors, one bad game or one loss and it's over, it probably takes on even added significance. That's typical of tournament play, especially for seniors.

Buddy's no different. He's got great passion for it and great passion for his team. He wants to see the team play well and advance.

Q. You had six days to prepare for them against that press. How much did that help? You're getting ready to play another press team on Sunday. Does that help you going into it?
COACH KRUGER: In the first half, I think we had four turnovers, yet I didn't feel like we took advantage of attacking the press like we need to. I thought they had us out of step, out of rhythm a little bit with that. Didn't think our spacing was what it needs to be coming out of practice. Had four days -- it wasn't like they turned us over, but it wasn't like we attacked it as well as we need to or can do. Hopefully we'll learn from that and get better by Sunday.

Q. Coach, you're kind of tested right off the bat by a 15 seed and you're down the last four minutes is close there. How much can you gauge senior leadership kind of helping you fight through that and not getting tight down the stretch in a close game like that?
COACH KRUGER: It's hard to put a number to that in terms of gauging it. Obviously you'd rather have the experience than not. It means a lot to our guys, having lost last year in the Sweet Sixteen. I think that's motivating. They're going to fight as hard as they can, there is no doubt about that, to avoid going out early in the tournament, certainly in the opening round.

I thought they responded well when they were pressured there in the last few minutes both offensively and defensively. So, again, we'll try to do what we can to play better during some other stretches.

Q. The question I asked Buddy, you went on three or four runs over the course of the game until it took to the last 3:00 minutes to put them away. Was there a point where you thought, okay, that's the one, that will be enough to decide the game?
COACH KRUGER: When you go on a little run to get up 10 or 12 or whatever, you hope that you can get the opportunity for a chance to widen it out.

But to Bakersfield's credit, it seems like every time we were in that position, they would make a shot or get a steal or whatever. Again, Coach Barnes' teams have always played with poise, composure. He's a terrific coach. We've seen his teams play a lot over the years, so not surprised that they played with that composure and discipline.

Q. I'm going to imagine you weren't aware that another No. 2 seed in Michigan State had lost prior to you guys. But I want to know would it have been a mistake for someone to tell you while the game was going on.
COACH KRUGER: I don't think anyone was concerned about that while our game was going on. We had our hands full. No, we didn't know about it nor that concerned about it.

Q. Talk a little bit about VCU and how you're going to try to prepare your team. You're deep into the season, and I know you're concerned about fatigue at times. How do you prepare for a team on Sunday?
COACH KRUGER: NCAA Tournaments, you've got a day in between and not a lot of time in preparation, but I think Coach Hill had our preparation for VCU and Coach Henson had the preparation for Oregon State.

So we'll get back to the hotel now and sit down. I haven't seen VCU at all, so Coach Hill's seen a bunch. So I'll sit down with him and the rest of our coaches and we'll map out what we think gives us a chance to get a good result. So it's like every other team in the tournament does, we're delighted to have the opportunity to play. Again, it's not easy to win tournament games, and any time you can win one and advance, we appreciate that opportunity and look forward to working to get ready for it.

Q. A little bit on the back of that question. For them to get back in the game late, I think they converted 7 of 8 possessions, and the one they missed was a blown dunk. I'm just wondering, they made shots, but was your team struggling to play defense as long as it was still scoring? Was that a real lapse for you guys defensively?
COACH KRUGER: We didn't do defensively what we needed to do to get stops. But, again, the other team's trying to score too, so if they wouldn't try as hard we'd probably be better off. But, yeah, always when people score on you, you feel like it's a little combination. We didn't do what we needed to do, but sometimes you have to credit them for scrapping in a possession or getting an offensive board. But, yeah, again, that's why I think we couldn't go ahead and blow the game open because we just couldn't get enough stops. We had those double digit leads.

Again, credit Bakersfield. We've got to figure out how to do it better.

Q. Coach, it's been mentioned a couple of times about Michigan State and Middle Tennessee. How much is there an advantage, if at all, for the lower seeds coming in and not having the expectations that a 1 or a 2 seed has?
COACH KRUGER: That's the nature of being the underdog, swinging away and not having anything to lose. That contributes to upsets. The pressure is especially getting later midway in the second half, six, seven minutes to go with that higher seed team. There is an expectation there that adds to the pressure on them and perhaps not so much on the underdog. But that's the sport. That's the way it is. We've been in both roles, and sometimes you play a little freer as an underdog. That's just the way it works. You try to get that higher seeded team to play with that freedom and play with that confidence as if you're an underdog. It's not always easy to do, but that's the ideal situation.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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