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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 9, 2011

Keiton Page

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI

Oklahoma State Â– 53
Nebraska - 52

THE MODERATOR: We're joined now by Oklahoma State. Coach Travis Ford and his student-athletes, Marshall Moses and Keiton Page will be here shortly. Coach, opening comments.
COACH FORD: Very proud of our basketball team. It's a always great to win, but it's great to win when your whole team contributes, your whole team does something positive. Jarred Shaw and Roger Franklin, everybody got a chance to play.
And I was very proud of the overall team effort. I thought we got off to an incredible start. I thought our defense the first eight to ten minutes of the first half was as good as you possibly could play defense, not as well as we played, but I don't know if you can play better defense than we played in the first eight to ten minutes.
I thought we got a little bit tired in the first half. I think it affected both ends of the court, especially our offense, because we were really executing the first half of the game, first eight to ten minutes. But the second half, the second eight to ten minutes of the first half we just quit scoring, we quit executing and doing the things that got us the lead.
And I thought we came out the second half a lot flat, but I think it had more to do with Nebraska earlier in the second half when we were a little bit flat.
And then we obviously finished very, very strong. But I thought we did a great job on what I would consider one of the best players and best point guards in the league in Jeter. The more tape I've been watching on him, the more and more impressed you get of what he means to their basketball team.
A great win for our basketball team. Nebraska is a team that gives us problems. The way they play defense, do some things, gives our teams a lot of problems. But it was just a total team effort. And we just figured out at the end got a great stop.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Keiton, take us through the missed one and one what you were feeling then and the last ten seconds when you guys had to play defense.
KEITON PAGE: I was definitely feeling horrible after that last free throw. I had confidence in my teammates that the last play we were going to come down and get a stop. Jeter came down and got a switch on Matt Pilgrim, and he did a good job staying in front of him, tipped the ball away, and we came up with a loose ball. It was just fortunate.

Q. Marshall, I think you hit your first five 3s and missed your next seven or whatever it was, then Keiton hit the 2 at the end. Can you talk about how much easier and better the offense flows when you're able to make 3s? Does it open up stuff for you guys inside?
MARSHALL MOSES: Definitely. I love it when we're hitting 3s. And like I said in the last game we played that our guys can make shots. We've got guys we believe in. I don't care how many shots they missed in the past whenever. I know our guys can make shots.
We've got that confidence in them. I know Coach does, and they have the confidence to take the shots.

Q. Keiton, you missed free throws so infrequently I imagine you analyze it when you do miss. What happened on that one?
KEITON PAGE: I think I was just anxious to get to the free throw. I didn't take as much time as I usually do. I was a little nervous walking up there, wanted to knock them down real quick. I think I just rested my shot a little bit.

Q. Also, just take us through the two 3 point. You guys are down four, it's a crunch time part of the ballgame, kind of got ice water in your veins on those shots?
KEITON PAGE: The last couple of practices we've been stressing screening, screening a lot, on our guards, screening better, and our post guys screening better. That's something we did a good job tonight is screening, and our posts Marshall and Matt did a great job screening for me on those last two 3s gave me a little bit of room to get it off.

Q. Keiton, I heard you say on the TV interview that you turned down a couple of 3s early. And then Travis, I guess, got on you pretty good in the huddle. Can you share with us what he told you in the huddle? And did you realize you were turning down 3s or did they just not look open to you?
KEITON PAGE: I noticed I did a couple times. That's something he's been telling me the last couple of games when I get good looks and have a little space I should take the shot when I'm open, and I did turn down a couple tonight. He didn't say too much in the huddle, just told me I need to get them off when I'm open and just take the shots when I need them. And the last couple of times, like I said, Marshall and Matt did a good job down screening for me, and I just got a little bit overlooked, and I was fortunate that they went in for me.

Q. Marshall, looking forward to tomorrow, what did you take away from the game in Lawrence?
MARSHALL MOSES: Took away that Kansas is probably the best team in America. They're efficient defensively. Offensively they've got two really good guys inside. They've got shooters. A great point guard. They've got depth on the bench. Basically what I took is that in order to have a chance against winning them, it's going to be a team effort and we all have to be ready to play and give our best effort for 40 minutes.

Q. Keiton, Kansas game upcoming tomorrow, what do you think your team has to do to win that game?
KEITON PAGE: Exactly what Marshall said. We weren't too happy when we left Lawrence last time. Like Marshall said we'll have to regroup tonight, get back to the hotel, go over some stuff and see what we can do tomorrow, team effort and see what we can do to come in and get a win.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach.

Q. Travis, looked like down the stretch that Markel did a pretty good job on Jeter, and then there at the end of the game he got hurt, whatever happened to him. Can you tell us what happened to Markel, and also what your defensive philosophy was, I think you had JÃ©an-Paul on him, and how you thought that last ten seconds with defending Jeter?
COACH FORD: To back up, I think Jeter's just the key to their team. Every film you watch he attributes. I think they score 65 points, he attributes to every game over half those points.
Markel sprained his ankle against OU, I think, or it might have been the Baylor game, I'm not sure. He's had a little bit of a bum ankle a little bit and he resprang it. I'm not sure how serious it is right now.
But then we discussed -- I brought Nick in. I was going to put Nick -- let's try to get some size on him, make him shoot over us.
I thought he would be probably the guy at least to try to create and make something happen. We wanted to switch all screens there at the end and not give him any angles. I thought we did a great job switching. I thought Matt Pilgrim did a great job of switching off on Jeter going to the middle of the paint. And I thought Nick did a great job of switching as well. You go back and -- I've got to picture it in my mind. You watch film and I think we switched perfectly, every single person switched perfectly.
The possession before that we were in the same what we call the five switch and they got us on a flare screen slip. And so we reminded our guys, when you're five switching always got to switch below, can't switch on top. We said make them shoot over you. Whatever happens make them shoot over you.
And I thought we just did a great job of holding our ground, being aggressive but not fouling, because a lot of teams you can try so hard not to foul, and I've been in these circumstances as players and a coach where you try. It's not something we ever mention to our players, don't foul or anything.
We didn't mention that. That's the last thing you want to do. We just told them be tough, be aggressive. Switch and talk and keep them in front of you. And then challenge the shot. It's going to come down to a rebound, but you'll have to rebound it, but they never get a shot off. We remind them it's going to come down, and make sure you get the rebound.
Luckily they just didn't get a shot off.

Q. I noticed after the game you went right over to Jeter alone. Can you share with us what you said to him?
COACH FORD: I told him, I said I think for what he does for a team is what every coach looks for.
He is the ultimate point guard. I told him he's going to have a chance. Any person I talk to at the next level, that guy -- but you gotta watch as much tape as -- he's just amazing. In the open court there's not a better player in the open court with the basketball at scoring, at getting to the rim, in America, that I've seen.
You go back -- I don't think he missed one tonight. We actually told our guys if you don't think you can get in front of him, foul him, because he's going to score.
But I just told him how impressed I've been watching film these past days, the point guard in myself and what he does, we talked about it the last couple of days, I think he's a carbon copy of Byron Eaton, the way he finishes at the basket, the way that he gets other players' shots.
And one of our biggest goals today was to not allow him to get other players shots. And I thought we did a great job of that. Great job.

Q. Travis, yesterday you kind of jokingly said you didn't know what to expect from your team from one day to another. Was today another one of those illustrations?
COACH FORD: It was, but I thought -- I even commented to my coaches in our coach's locker room -- we're ready to play today.
A lot of times you get a feel for your team addressing them before the game. I haven't this year. Sometimes I thought they were ready and they weren't. Sometimes I didn't think they were ready and they were. I thought we prepared really well yesterday. And I walked in to the coaches and said: We're ready to play this one.
But what my concern was, I told them, we're going to get off to a great start. I hope we can sustain it. And we got tired. We were a very tired basketball team. We used up so much energy in the first eight to ten minutes that the second ten minutes of the first half was very poor. I think we scored five points in the last eight minutes after coming out gangbusters.
And we came out sluggish, too, in the second half, which was pretty much what we didn't want to do and talked about at halftime. I thought we were ready today. But, again, it's impossible to read this -- this team has been the toughest team to read mentally I've ever coached. Toughest team for us to keep their concentration, whether it be in practice or whatever it be, we've just struggled with that, with this basketball team, to keep their concentration level up the way they need to be to succeed at the level we want to succeed at, it's been a challenge. It's been a challenge.

Q. Your 56 percent free-throw shooter hits two on a one-on-one and your 90 percent free-throw shooter misses the front end. What was going through your mind at the final moment?
COACH FORD: I knew we had the ball with the guy we wanted it with. I'd turn around and do it again any day of the week. Markel's been working on his free throws. I thought he showed -- as a freshman showed some guts to step up there and knock those two down. And Keiton Page won't hesitate to get the ball again in that same situation and we want him to have the basketball.

Q. They got up 48-44 right at the six-minute mark. And from that point on they didn't do hardly anything on offense. The only basket they got was that slip screen you were talking about in the last 30 seconds. What happened in those last six minutes that you shut them down and you were able to find that energy you lost?
COACH FORD: I'll tell you, it's what I've been talking about all year long a little bit. We talked so much about we've got to find that energy level, we've got to find that mentality to just get the ball back from a turnover, rebound. Not through the net. Let's get that ball back and not through the net.
But what I've talked about all year long is if you can make a few 3s, make a few shots, it fuels you on the other end. And those last six minutes what did they come off? Keiton Page's two 3s. It fuels your team. I've seen it a million times. You have a big lead. And a nine-point lead is a lot on Nebraska. A lot at halftime.
And for us to come out and play as well as we thought -- we were playing well offensively early, and to lose that lead, I've seen it so many times in teams, just then they quit, they get deflated after leading so long, then you're just deflated. And we lost the lead and got down four and then all of a sudden we got the lead back, reenergized. It was crucial, and we played with the lead very well as far as getting stops.
But I thought we were hanging our head. In the time-out one time when we got down, I don't know if it was when we were down four exactly, but I told the guys, you know, there's an eternity left.
Out of 16 conference games, I think six or seven came down to the last possession. I said we've been here before. It's going to come down to this. But don't hang your head, because I thought they were tired. I don't know if they were hanging their head because they were tired, which they were, which is a concern right now, or they were hanging their head because we played so well and then we're down four. I don't know which one it was, but we told them: Get your head up. Let's come out of this time-out fighting, let's come out of this time-out and let's get a stop every single time. Every single time let's get that ball back, off the rebound or turnover, let's get it back.
And then we made some shots.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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