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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 7, 2012Sam GroomsLon KrugerRomero OsbyKANSAS CITY, MISSOURI Texas A&M – 62 THE MODERATOR: We welcome the Oklahoma Sooners to the interview room, coach Lon Kruger and student‑athletes Sam Grooms and Romero Osby. Coach, your thoughts on tonight's game. COACH KRUGER: First of all, congratulations to A&M. I thought they did a lot of good things. All night they seemed to be quicker with loose balls, and then the offensive boards really hurt us as well. But at this point in the season this group, they've worked hard all year, despite the way it looked tonight. I think they've made some progress, and we've got a long way to go and a lot of work to do, and look forward to getting started on that right away. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student‑athletes. Q. Romero, you only touched the ball with a chance to score I think five times in the first half. What was A&M doing to keep the ball out of your hands? ROMERO OSBY: They were trying to do a good job of fronting me in the post, not letting me post up and trying to ride me off screens, not really letting me set a ball screen, kind of like Coach wants us to do with everyone else. They were really physical with me and trying not to let me get to the offensive boards as well. And I think they did a good job of it. I wasn't being aggressive enough and really getting low and getting my body into guys and being able to demand the position that I needed to. And they end up winning that battle. Q. After you guys tied it in the second half, both of you guys, I think you had two missed shots, two turnovers when you had a chance to really take the momentum back. What happened there? SAM GROOMS: Obviously we tied the game up, fought back. Missed two shots and had two turnovers and they converted on I think both of those possessions and they went back up four. And I don't know, when you miss easy ones around the rim and you turn the ball over, you give Big 12 teams the opportunity to go back the other way and to make plays, they're going to do it. So it's mostly on our part. You can credit Texas A&M for what they did, but we gotta finish plays and limit our turnovers. Q. Can you just talk about what this season was like with the new coach and then looking forward to next season, how you felt the season went? SAM GROOMS: It was great for me. Playing for Coach Kruger, he taught me a lot of things, him being a point guard himself. Broke down a lot of film and I learned a lot of things that this whole year that probably‑‑ I probably wouldn't have learned. And as far as the team, I was excited to play with these guys. It didn't go the way we wanted it to, but we have next year and we're going to get ready to go to work and get better. And playing for a coach like this, you don't have that long. ROMERO OSBY: Following up with what Sam said, it was great playing for Coach. I learned a lot. He put me in some situations to really challenge me, and that's what I needed. That's what I needed as a player and as a man. As far as playing with my teammates, I think it was great playing with them, I just hate to go out like this with the seniors we have, those guys, we're really close and we work hard. But I'm excited also to have Coach coming back next year and having us all coming back next year and seeing what we can do, and hopefully we can do some damage. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach. Q. Is this sort of indicative of the season, that it was always a five‑minute lull or tonight it was offensive rebounds, another game it may be turnovers or not shooting it well? Was it sort of like that all year long, you just couldn't quite get over the hump? COACH KRUGER: When you don't win a lot of games, as many as you want to, consistency is probably going to be a problem. And exactly like you said, whether it be maybe turnovers one night or offensive boards, generally it's a stretch in the ballgame we had difficulty in overcoming. But I just thought loose balls, offensive boards, I thought A&M was quicker in all of those than we were. A game that's pretty tight back and forth most of the way, oftentimes it will be the difference. Q. Got T.J. Franklin in the game for the last 25seconds or so. Could you talk about the importance of him for this program and just being able to do that for him? COACH KRUGER: T.J.'s attitude is outstanding. He's a guy that only cares about the program and whatever he can do to help his teammates get better every day, a guy that's been there consistently from the start, with very positive outlook and a lot of energy, and really highly respected by all his teammates and coaches for sure. Q. You constantly talk about learning to be a little bit more competitive, play hard for 40minutes. Talk a little bit about some of the newcomers, whether it's Amath or a couple of these freshmen, seems like that may be some of the guys that next year will help the entire team because there will be more energy, more effort? COACH KRUGER: The guys returning have to crank it up a lot for sure. And then the new guys coming in, new faces, fresh outlook. We've got to learn how to compete a lot harder and compete to get a winning result and can't settle for less than that. And, again, in a lot of different areas we've got a lot of work to do. And yet we know this group will get back after it and try to make the progress. Q. Can you just sum up your first season at Oklahoma, how it was for you, how you saw your players improve over the year? COACH KRUGER: Generally I thought they played with a certain level of enthusiasm, consistently worked hard every day in practice to get better. I liked that about this group from the start. We have to be more physical. We have to be more aggressive. We have to get after loose balls more, rebounding at the Big 12 level. A long way to go in that area. A lot of work to do. But, again, I like their attitude, like their work ethic and willingness to do that. We have to compete a lot harder, to get the result we want. Whether it be setting a screen or blocking out or getting on the floor after a loose ball, all those things we have to grow a lot in those areas. But, again, I like their approach every day in practice. They came with an energy. They came with an enthusiasm and know we have to get better and they get right back to work after it. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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