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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 14, 2013Sam GroomsLon KrugerRomero OsbyKANSAS CITY, MISSOURI Iowa State – 73 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Oklahoma Coach Lon Kruger and student‑athletes Sam Grooms and Romero Osby. Coach, your thoughts on today's game. COACH KRUGER: Tough ballgame to lose. I thought our guys played a lot of good minutes in the ballgame. Had a stretch there in the second half where Iowa State made some shots and did a good job to get into the lead and cut into our lead and then take the lead. And, again, I liked the effort of our guys. I liked their thoughts throughout. Again, we just had that stretch. Iowa State made some good plays, to their credit, and did a good job and played better than we did down the stretch. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student‑athletes. Q. Romero, it looked like Iowa State was getting a lot of loose balls that accelerated down the stretch. Was that the way it felt to you as well, and can you talk about just how you guys didn't seem to have quite the step today? ROMERO OSBY: Yes, you're exactly right. They got a lot of loose balls down the stretch. A lot of loose balls that we were getting in the first half they ended up being quicker to them in the second half. Even when we were up 12 or 13, they were still getting those loose balls and putting them back in baskets or putting a lot of pressure on us. And I think that ended up being the deciding factor because they weren't shooting as well in the first half, but getting those loose balls and those easy buckets kind of got them in the rhythm and started to spark their shooting in the second half. Q. Sam, what happened the last seven and a half minutes that turned the game? SAM GROOMS: Just like Ro said. They were quicker to the loose balls. They played a little bit harder. And, I mean, point‑blank they made shots towards the end. Shots they were missing in the first half they continued to shoot and they made them towards the end of the game. Q. Got off one shot in the last nine minutes. Did you guys kind of‑‑ did Iowa State do something to keep you guys from getting the ball or‑‑ SAM GROOMS: They put a little more pressure on it. I think they tried to take him out of the game as much as they could, and you gotta credit them for‑‑ gotta find ways to get on the ball. He needs to have it. He's our leader and we've got to find a way to keep him going, keep him into it. But as far as what they did, gotta commend them. They did it well. Q. Ro and Sam, you guys, most people say you're clearly in the NCAA Tournament, but losing the last two, is there any trepidation going into Sunday and waiting on that announcement, or are you still confident you're in? ROMERO OSBY: We're always going to be nervous about it. We've got a couple days to sit down and just really think about it. But you can't really worry about it. We've got to get back to work and get prepared for wherever we're going to be. We're fortunate enough that we know we're going to be playing in the postseason, whatever tournament it is. We just need to make sure we stay focused on that. But we hope we're in. We think we should be in. But it's not about us, it's about the committee and what they feel. And we have lost two straight games, so they're going to look at that. But hopefully we're still able to make it. SAM GROOMS: I agree with Ro. I think we did enough to be able to be in. But at the end of the day the committee makes that decision. And we did good enough to play in some kind of post tournament and we gotta get back to work and prepare for whatever lies ahead. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach. Q. I was wondering: Do you feel like after what happened at Texas and then today that they're just not able to close it out? COACH KRUGER: Well, we had a couple of bad stretches there for sure. Of course, the other six, seven games we won in the last ten they did close it off. So, yeah. This group played good basketball. The last half of the conference season especially we've had those moments that we'd like to be able to change. Probably most teams do. But our moments are pretty glaring when you consider Texas and then at TCU and today in the conference tournament, liked to have been able to play better than we did in the last seven minutes. But played a lot of good minutes of basketball today. And we're very active, very aggressive. Got the loose balls early. The last eight, nine minutes they got them. They got loose balls and converted some of those to buckets, second‑shot opportunities. And that's the difference in the ballgame. Iowa State did a good job. Credit them. But we've gotta do a better job. Q. Coach, do you feel like you have to call all your buddies on the committee say, Hey, remember us, or not, or do you feel like you're in? COACH KRUGER: That doesn't do much good. That doesn't happen. We played good basketball. We made good progress. Don't have anything that we can affect it with at this point. Like the progress they made, like the play that they've turned out. Obviously a lot of it depends on upsets and other games. But I'd like to think this group's deserved an opportunity. Q. When Iowa State made that run midway through the second half, you have Romero on the bench, do you regret not getting him back in there quicker? COACH KRUGER: Well, it coincided with taking Ro out. I think we were up, what, 7 maybe when we took Ro out, and a minute and a half later it's an even ballgame. So we tried to get him a couple or three possessions there, and they made the run at that time. I don't know if that‑‑ we had a couple of plays there when Ro was out that we would have liked to have done differently. But like to be able to play him 40minutes for sure. He's had such good results for us. Q. I know you like the guys to play through stretches when things aren't going well. But given the noise the Iowa State fans were making and how quickly they got back in it with that 12‑0 run to tie it at 60, would you have liked to have, looking back, maybe used a timeout to stem that momentum a little bit? COACH KRUGER: Yeah, we had a TV timeout there under eight, thought we were okay there. But, yeah, you can always look back say liked to have made this shot or liked to have had a timeout here, liked to have run something differently. No question, that's always going through your mind. Q. In addition to Romero not getting a lot of looks late offensively, Cam Clark came on, got hot, scored a lot of points, and late in the game he didn't get a lot of looks offensively. Was that a defensive thing by Iowa State, guys hurrying through possessions, not getting it to the hot hand? COACH KRUGER: Iowa State did a good job getting physical late and getting into bodies a little bit more, dictating it more defensively. Cam had a good run. Cam had a good stretch. Gave us a good lift, as Ro did earlier. But you've just gotta do things to try to keep your guys that are making plays involved a little bit more. Iowa State did a good job to fight that off. Q. Was it disappointing that if you play Iowa State and they just get hot and sink a ton of 3s, that's one thing, but they actually hurt you on second‑chance points a ton, got a bunch of points in the paint. Not a typical Iowa State script. Is that even more disappointing to know that you got beat that way? COACH KRUGER: I thought we played them pretty well for‑‑ defensively doing things we wanted to do. Made some shots late. They got the loose balls late. Combine those two things together, it was a difference in the ballgame. That swung our lead to them. But they're a good shooting team and they made shots at critical times late in the ballgame, and some of those came off of second‑shot opportunities, loose balls that they got to that we didn't. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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