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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 10, 2010

Keiton Page

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI

Oklahoma State Â– 81
Oklahoma - 67

CHARLIE FISS: Okay. We're ready to begin with the Cowboys of Oklahoma State with Coach Travis Ford and Obi Muonelo and Keiton Page. We'll call on you first for your comments.
COACH FORD: Very proud of our team's effort in the first half. I thought both ends of the court was terrific. I thought our offense, we were really passing the ball. Had ten assists at halftime. Obviously Keiton made some great shots and deep shots. It gives your team great confidence on both ends of the court. Defensively I thought we were great. We gave up a few 3's in the first half, and in the second half I thought our team came out a little bit flat, but you've got to give Oklahoma a lot of credit.
They had a lot to do with making some deep shots and played well in the second half. You know, it can be human nature at times to let up a little bit. You would hope your team wouldn't. Obviously, we didn't play the best second half, but you learn from it and you move on at this point in time. But I thought for the most part we did what we needed to do to win and to move on. But the first half was very, very good for us.
CHARLIE FISS: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Keiton, could you talk about the zone you seemed to be in. You were swishing every shot, and then when you missed one, it hit the rim and bounced up and came in.
KEITON PAGE: We've been stressing in practice ball reversal, moving without the ball, and when a play breaks down, making sure we don't stand around that we keep moving, and that's what we were doing tonight. My teammates were giving me good open looks, and fortunately they were falling.

Q. Travis, the first ten minutes of the game, is that as good defensively as you guys maybe in a ten-minute stretch when it was 24-5 at that point?
COACH FORD: It was very good. I don't know if it was our best. When we shoot the ball the way we are, it kind of overlooks our defense. We've been a very good defensive team this year for the most part.
We take a lot of pride in our defense. We spend more time in practice on defense. When you make shots like that, it makes everything else look so much better. But we've had some stretches this year where we've really, really defended -- Nebraska, last game, we held them to 19 points in the first half.
We've had our moments defensively, but, yes, it was very, very good, no question. I thought our guys did a terrific job on scouting report, knowing what was coming from Oklahoma. Making them -- when they did score, they scored tough shots.
We made them earn all the points they got. In the second half I thought they scored a little bit easier shots. In the first half I was -- again, I was really pleased with both -- that was a good half for us, no question. One of the better halves we've played this year.

Q. Obi, when they cut it to ten there in the second half, you had a little spurt where you took over. There was one where you got the drive and the 3-point play. Were you trying to attack the basket a little bit more in that situation? Seems like you guys were missing a lot of jump shots up to then.
OBI MUONELO: Offense was looking really dry at that point. I wanted to get something going, try to get my team going with a lay-up or maybe a steal or something, anything we could -- anything I could do to get my team going at the time, I was trying to do.
So I was trying to be aggressive to get a drive or find somebody for a shot and maybe we can get going by that way.

Q. I was actually going to ask you that. So, Keiton, I'll just ask you, one of the plays that kind of was symbolic of the game was when you stole the ball from Tommy Mason-Griffin. Had you been playing low and looking for that opportunity?
KEITON PAGE: Yeah. Couple possessions before that, I mean, he was kind of dribbling down the floor looking at coach a couple times and I was thinking about doing it then I didn't. He started to do it again, and I took a chance and luckily I got it.

Q. After you got off to the quick start, it seemed like everybody started having fun. And you were throwing the ball all over the place and dunking and trying to get all ten plays on ESPN's top ten of the night. Could you talk about that stretch where everything was going great, and it's almost like -- almost like a street game for a while?
OBI MUONELO: We were having fun. Coach said at this time of year we've already worked hard. We've worked on everything we need to work on. At this point now it's just time to have fun. And we were playing hard. We were playing as hard as we could out there.
We were having fun together. I mean, we made a couple of mistakes out of those plays, but we're just having fun while we were playing. That's all that was.

Q. Keiton Page, unbelievable first half. From a shooter's standpoint you had your ups and downs this year. Talk about the first half, what it meant personally for you and for your ball club obviously.
KEITON PAGE: Felt like I got us off to a good start. We needed to jump on them early. For the most part it was our defense that was leading. We were getting in transition. Like I said earlier, we were moving the ball real well, moving without the ball. Like I said earlier, my teammates were just penetrating, getting me open looks.

Q. Keiton, you had a good game last year against them in the Big 12 tournament last year. You got a great game in Stillwater, this one. Anything about playing Oklahoma, did they just kind of forget about you at some point? How did you get your offense against them?
KEITON PAGE: I don't know. Like I said earlier, it was my teammates tonight, James did a good job, Obi did a good job, Nick did a good job. Everybody did a good job tonight penetrating and finding the open man, and I was just trying to move without the ball and find the open spots in the zone and even against the man.

Q. Keiton, in addition to the scoring, you had three assists and four steals. You even had a blocked shot. Can you tell that the rest of your game has fallen into line pretty good besides your shooting?
KEITON PAGE: Yeah. That's something that Coach has been stressing to me the whole season, is that I don't need to just rely on my shot. I need to try to get in there and do the other little things. That's what I've been trying to do, is get in there, get a couple of assists, couple steals. I don't know about the blocked shot part. But I've been trying to do other things other than scoring.
CHARLIE FISS: Thank you. Questions for Coach.

Q. Travis, Gulley hit a 3-pointer. You gave it a big fist pump. That was probably the most demonstrative you were in the game. Just talk a little bit about that. He almost had another one. Is getting him going offensively, is that going to help you guys, maybe, in the tournament?
COACH FORD: I was excited for him for the fact that if you look at his percentage, not the best 3-point field goal percentage. But I keep telling him shoot it. Shoot it. If you're open, shoot the basketball. You're not going to make it unless you shoot it. And he makes them in practice.
I was excited for him, and I thought it was a big shot. I thought -- actually, when he made that, I thought that was it.
I was excited for him because I thought he had been passing up a few. But we needed him to shoot it. I'm one of these guys, I just always think the next one's going to go in.
I was glad that he shot it. I'm glad that it went in and I'm glad it was a big one. So if that's what I did, I'm sure that's the reason. I don't remember half the things I do. So if I did, that's why.

Q. I was wondering, you have a game against Kansas State tomorrow, two pretty good guards when you go up against playing them. Is that where it starts in preparation, those two guys?
COACH FORD: Yeah, you hit the nail on the head. Those are two great guards, two of the best guards in the league. Two guards that can control a game, two guards that are capable of getting 30 a night. They apply great pressure.
But they've got a complete team. I've said all along, I said it after we played them the first time, I said it before we played them the first time after watching film, they're the type of team that can make it to Final Four. They've got great high-level athletes. Very well coached. They've got a lot of good players. But I think you would probably start with those two.
But then they've got Curtis Kelly who gives you mismatch problems. They're just a really good basketball team. There's a reason they've been ranked in the top 10 most of the year. Very good basketball team.

Q. The mantra, of course, win and advance, win and advance, talk about the significance of this victory moving on to the next round here in the Big 12.
COACH FORD: It's always important, first game, especially when you've got six freshmen on your team. And yesterday when we came in, you know, we have a pretty loose group that likes to have fun. Just a really neat group of guys, fun to be around.
We walked in here yesterday for the shoot-around and nobody -- we walked on the court, nobody said two words for 20 minutes. I'm like, oh, they're scared to death right now. I mean, it was the quietest we ever had anybody. I didn't know, ah, either they're focused or they're just in awe, and the experience.
So first game it's good to get it out of the way. And, you know, when you play bedlam the first game of the tournament, there's no question you know it's a big game.
It adds to being the first game of the tournament. I don't know if it's added pressure, but there's extra meaning to it, no question. It's a tough first game to play. Very tough game to play.
So we're just glad to get it over with. Proud of the effort our guys gave. We have a lot of respect for OU and Jeff. But, yeah, glad to get it over with, move on. And I don't want to say the first game's always the toughest because now we've got Kansas State. That's not the case, but it's good to get the first one out of the way.

Q. Coach, you might just elaborate on how good it must have made you feel to start off as well as you did, because you go into a game like that, you're supposed to win. But at the same time you know that it could be open for you.
COACH FORD: As you all know, when you play bedlam you can throw the records out the door. You don't worry about wins and losses of the other team either way. But we wanted to get off to a good start. Something we talked about, you know, try to go with these guys early. Let's try to establish -- we wanted to get off to a good start defensively. We didn't talk a whole lot about offensive end. We wanted to break down all their plays and tried to do certain things to certain guys and try to let our defense get us off to a great start.
And I think they worked well together. I thought our defense was playing extremely hard. I thought we were cutting off some of their play. We were a step ahead of them when they were doing things. All of a sudden we're making shots on the other end. That just gives you so much confidence and energy to play defense on the other end.
But, yeah, it's good to get off to a great start. But, you know, you just hope you can sustain it. We've all seen many, many times when teams get off to a great start like that, at some point they deflate. It's usually in the first half.
We sustained it in the first half. And kind of, you know, we were a little bit flat in the second half. But we made enough runs in the second half to close it out.
CHARLIE FISS: Thank you, Coach.

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