BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 11, 2021

Brady Manek

Oklahoma Sooners

Postgame Press Conference

Kansas 69, Oklahoma 62

Q. Just wanted to ask you about late-game offense there, sort of some recent struggles there. Wanted to ask your opinion on that.

BRADY MANEK: You know, saw a mismatch with Austin, and I can't remember his name, little guy. Saw a mismatch with him, tried to take advantage of it, got a few of them. Maybe some questionable calls, on calls, but other than that, just got to finish those plays.

Maybe we could have moved the ball more, I'm not sure. I'll have to go watch it. But fought hard there in the second half and came up short.

Q. Losing five of your last six games, where do you feel like this team is going heading into the tournament now?

BRADY MANEK: Hoping we're learning from these. You know, just tough games. They're all really close, all five of those losses, really close. Probably should have won most of them if not all of them. We had multiple opportunities every single time, so hopefully we're learning. Can't really learn this late in the season. You've just got to come out ready to play. But just got to fight back and push hard the last however many games we get.

Q. How frustrating was that first half with all the turnovers, and what do you feel like was behind turning the ball over 13 times when y'all only had just a handful of games of that in a full game this year?

BRADY MANEK: I just felt like we were out of it. I didn't feel like we came ready to play, I don't know why. I missed a few shots, maybe could have got up on the ball a little bit more, but you know, they came out ready to play that first half, and I think we did that to them in the second. We've got to put a whole game together. I think that's our problem now, just not putting whole games together, half, three-fourths of games, and coming up short. We've got to play all 40 minutes and we've got to play our hardest, and I didn't think we did that the first half. Maybe could have moved offensively more, maybe we could have cut down the turnovers, cut down the dribble in the paint and turning it over. I had a couple, post-up and three, four guys on me, made a bad decision. We've just got to come out ready to play.

Q. How do you get refocused after halftime after that kind of performance, and what can you take from the last 20 minutes of this game moving into the NCAA Tournament?

BRADY MANEK: You just get pissed off after that first half and come out ready to play. That's really what we did. We were mad. We didn't like where the game was going. We were embarrassed and we really just came out wanting to make a statement there, and I think we did. We play well that first half, we win that game. It all comes down to, like I said earlier, putting a whole game together.

I don't know, it's tough.

Q. I know you're beating yourself up a little bit because you missed a couple shots in the first half, but I thought you moved without the ball better. Didn't you feel like this was one of your better games offensively since COVID?

BRADY MANEK: Yeah. Like I said, I was mad after that first half. I wanted to come out and help us any way we could, and came out, hit a couple shots, guys found me, and we had guys cutting, I caught it in the post, hit a couple guys. Same with everyone else. We started moving the ball, making that extra pass. Just some great basketball. There were a couple plays back-to-back-to-back and we were scoring every last one of them, getting an offensive rebound and putting it back in. That stuff needs to happen the entire game.

Q. Is there any sense of missed opportunity tonight with Kansas being without a player as important as McCormack? Did you let one slip by in that regard?

BRADY MANEK: No, they're a good team. They've got a lot of people. You know, he played well at Kansas when I was out, and they came back to Norman and other guys stepped up and we came out on top on that one. I mean, same kind of situation, he was in foul trouble then. We had an opportunity now, but I don't think it was a missed opportunity. I think we've got to learn from this. We came really close, but it's that first half. It's that first half of offense, defense, everything, turnovers, every single thing that happened. It's just a big game. We wanted to win that one, ranked team, get to the semifinal of this tournament and try to make a name for ourselves again. We're down right now, and we've got to come back.

Q. With the way you guys had to come back, did fatigue set in at all?

BRADY MANEK: No. I think we hit them first that second half. We came out, we played strong. You know, I don't think fatigue really set in. We were -- we got up to five, six, seven points away and we were chipping away then. We got up real quick on them, and I think they kind of hit that second gear and stepped back up. I don't think it had anything to do with fatigue. I think the first question, we could have moved the ball a little better there at the end or done something like we were when we first came out in that second half. I don't think fatigue had anything to do with it. I just think our initial hit that second half kind of wore off on them, and they started getting their flow back on offense.

I mean, it was back and forth there at the end the entire time. We were both scoring, so I don't think it really had anything to do with that, they just kind of stepped their offense back up.