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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 10, 2011

Cade Davis

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI

Texas Â– 74
Oklahoma - 54

THE MODERATOR: We're joined now by the University of Oklahoma and coach Jeff Capel and student-athletes Carl Blair and Cade Davis. Coach, your thoughts.
COACH CAPEL: Congrats to Texas. They're a great basketball team. They put us in a very, very tough position early. We felt like we got some good looks, just didn't finish them. And we couldn't keep them off the glass.
I thought our guys fought throughout, though, and that's the one thing I'm really proud of with this group of guys. Faced a lot of adversity, faced a lot of different things this year, but they stuck together and they fought for each other.
Really happy and proud of the career that Cade had. And especially the way he ended his career, playing hard, competing, fighting throughout. It's a great example to the other young men in that locker room of what a Sooner should be.
Also want to give special thanks to Bob Barry. What an amazing man he is. It's been an honor for me just to have an opportunity to be around him, as it is for our guys, to be around him, hear his stories, his wisdom, his outlook on life.
I don't know if I've ever seen the man have a bad day. Even last year when he was battling some physical ailments, just was always incredibly positive, and he's a great example for our guys of just how to live and how to look at life.
So a lot of good happened with this team this season. It didn't translate into the amount of wins that we wanted. But I'm really proud of how these guys fought for each other and how they represented the university and our program on and off the floor.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Cade, can you talk about what happened there in the first 10, 15 minutes of the game when they really hit you? You sort of stabilized after that, but what happened early in the game to sort of get you out of it?
CADE DAVIS: I think we just kind of rushed ourselves. Their pressure got to us. We were kind of forcing shots. And just weren't able to make open shots that we did get, and they knocked us back on our heels.

Q. Cade, would you talk about Texas's bench overall and what Jai Lucas brings when he comes into a game for them?
CADE DAVIS: They have tremendous staff when he comes in. There's really no drop-off on the post play and even in their guard play. Jai Lucas, he brings something to their point position when he's more of a scorer than Balbay is and he can shoot the ball like he showed tonight.
They have threats everywhere, and their bench came out and stepped up and helped those starters a lot tonight.

Q. Cade, can you just talk about this year for you tonight being out there, your last game. Obviously the game wasn't going well, there were times you were frustrated, but seemed like you played really hard, even were kind of exhausted at times out there.
CADE DAVIS: Just overall the year, we've had our ups and downs, team-wise, individually-wise, but I love my team, I love my teammates. I love how hard we've all fought throughout everything that we've gone through. I love my coaching staff.
I love being a Sooner. It's a sad day for me, this being my last game. But even out there, you know, the guys -- Coach always talks about this, these guys being able to control what they can control, working hard and competing, and we went into halftime knowing we were still confident that we were going to come out and still play hard and had a chance to compete and fight and get back in the game.
So that's something that I'm very proud of, to say that hopefully I showed that and displayed that in every game this year. And likewise for my teammates.

Q. Carl, your first season at Oklahoma, coming in as a transfer, just your thoughts on the season in general?
CARL BLAIR: I felt we worked hard as a team. Me personally, it was just a real -- it was a great learning experience for me, my first year in Big 12 play, learned a lot of things. Just know what I have to do to work to get better for the off season and prepare for next year, and just take everything in and take these losses as fuel for next year and try to not let this happen again.

Q. Cade, it looked like you caught Jordan Hamilton on a bad day. Looked like the first half he had something to prove; he was playing like a madman. Can you talk about the way he played?
CADE DAVIS: Well, he's a very talented player. He's very good offensively. The kid, he loves to score no matter how he's going to put the ball in the hole, he just wants to do it.
So anytime you play against somebody like that, you always gotta try and contain as best you can, limit his touches, contest all his shots.
He's a very good player. He's going to look to go out like that every game, look to help his team and score buckets for them.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach.

Q. I appreciate what you said about my father; I know he feels the same way about you. What now of Jeff Capel from here on out? You get ready, work, continue to do what you've been doing? Or what do you do from this point on?
COACH CAPEL: You work. You get better. We go on spring break, I think, when we get back. So the guys are going to get a little bit of break. We'll get back, we'll start meetings. We'll start individual workouts.
We'll be out recruiting, and we work to get better.

Q. Can you talk about what makes Texas such a tough matchup?
COACH CAPEL: Well, for us, if anyone has watched our team all year, anytime we play against teams that can really pressure, we have problems. Didn't matter who it was. We struggled against teams that can really pressure.
I don't think -- I don't think, I know, we didn't have anyone this year that's a good breakdown, play-off-the-bounce kind of guy. We were a team that we have to run our stuff to be able to be effective.
Texas can really pressure defensively. They're one of the best field goal percentage defensive teams in the country. And it starts with their ability on the ball with Balbay, and then their length with Hamilton, with Joseph, Gary Johnson with his energy. Then Tristan Thompson down low. They obviously have depth, where they can keep coming at you in waves.
I think the area where they've improved, in my opinion, the most from over the years, since Durant left, I think they're better offensively. Jordan Hamilton has been scoring all year. He's averaged right around 20 a game all year.
So what he did tonight wasn't anything different than he's done all year, especially against us. Tristan Thompson's been a force down low. If you look at the last, I think, six games he's averaged about 19 and 11.
So they have those two weapons. Balbay's a guy that can get out in transition and create some opportunities there. They're a better offensive team when Balbay's not in the game, but they're a better defensive team when he's in.
I thought Jai was terrific tonight. Jai Lucas is a good player, maybe hadn't played as well as he's capable of throughout his career, but if they can get that production out of him and J'Covan who can really score, I think they have a chance to make a deep run.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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