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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 13, 2014Travis FordLe'Bryan NashMarcus SmartKANSAS CITY, MISSOURI Kansas – 77 THE MODERATOR: We're joined now by the Cowboys of Oklahoma State, Coach Travis Ford and student‑athletes Le'Bryan Nash and Marcus Smart. Coach? COACH FORD: We're really proud of our team's effort. I thought they played hard, really did. We came out kind of in a little bit of mud, which I expected a little bit after such a quick turnaround. I kept telling our guys in timeout, "We'll get into it. We'll get into it." And we did. Give Kansas credit. They played really well. They made big shots down the stretch. Wiggins made a big shot in the corner and he played a heck of a game. They're just a really good basketball team. But our guys fought really hard, just didn't have enough left in the tank there late. We fought a lot of adversity. Foul trouble, our 4s and 5s, obviously we don't have a lot of depth there. We were trying to sub offense and defense for a long period of time with LB and Murph was out. And we had guys cramping a little bit. But, hey, no excuses, Kansas deserved it. They made big shots and big rebounds against us. But our guys fought. I'm proud of them. I'm proud of them. Wish we could have rebounded the ball better at times, wasn't our best shooting night. You look at the stat sheet and it's amazing, we kind of went into overtime because we didn't shoot the ball very well. But these guys played with a lot of heart, they did. We got down, they fought back, took a lead. But give Kansas credit, they made some big shots and got some big rebounds. Q. Marcus, difficult defensive assignment tonight with Andrew Wiggins. Could you describe how that was? MARCUS SMART: Andrew Wiggins, coming out there 41‑point game against West Virginia, they played through him tonight and they made tough shots. He earned a lot, he earned all his shots, and you give him credit. He made the baskets when they counted and his teammates went to him. He was hot. He got the ball in the right spot. Q. Le'Bryan Nash, looked like you had a nice offensive night and taking it to them inside. Was a point with Embiid not in there? LE'BRYAN NASH: It is. Coach Ford just made an emphasis an Embiid is a great shot blocker. When he went out, it's a good thing. You attack the rim. They really didn't have no more shot blocks after that. So Coach Ford just made an emphasis on attacking the rim and that's what I tried to do this game, and then it worked out for me for a minute. Q. Marcus, a lot of people at Big 12 Media Day before the season asked you about Andrew Wiggins and what you thought about him coming to the conference. Now that the Big 12 season is wrapping up, assess his entire season and how he affected this conference and where he stood in the conference and where he stood against you, in particular? MARCUS SMART: Like I said before, you know, they said he was the best player. He came out and, like I said to everybody, it wasn't a shot or anything. He had to earn that. He came out as a freshman and took a slow bit to get used to it. He got used to it and he's doing what he's supposed to be doing for his team. He's leading his team. He led his team to a Big 12 championship and he led his team against really good basketball with us today. And as a player, you're supposed to be the best player on your team. That's what you're supposed to do. So more luck to him going on with his future. And he did what he was supposed to do tonight. Q. Marcus and Le'Bryan, if you could talk about the sequence in the second half where Markel got a jumper, then Forte got a steal and a 3, and then Marcus, you got a steal and bucket to pull within 1. How big was that and how did that get your team going to finish out the game? MARCUS SMART: That was huge. Phil and Markel, they've been making plays like that all season, especially late here in our season. They've been coming in the clutch for us. And then I just tried to affect the game, and I came up with a big steal to cut it to 1. But that's kind of what our team is. Defense. We didn't have a great defensive night tonight nor offensive night. We took Kansas to overtime. I'm proud of my team and Markel and Le'Bryan and everybody else. Q.  Marcus and Le'Bryan, can you talk about how tough it is to beat Kansas here? I think they've won four of the five Big 12 tournaments played in this building. How tough are they to beat here? LE'BRYAN NASH: They're extreme. Kansas City is probably like an hour away from Lawrence or something, and it's just a home game for them. Their fans can get into it. And it's Kansas and it's always tough to beat Kansas. They're a great team and. You know, we had our chances. We couldn't convert them but I'm proud of my team. We played hard and hopefully we can try and get one next year. MARCUS SMART: Definitely, like Le'Bryan said, I'm proud of these guys. It's always hard to beat Kansas especially in this building. Like he said, they have the fan base to back them up. So, you know, it's kind of hard. They have that energy and momentum from their fans and it kind of takes the opposing team out of it. But like I said, I'm proud of these guys. We fought to the end. And unfortunately, some plays there we drew up didn't go right for us. We didn't convert on them as a team. We let some slip, and Kansas capitalized on the plays that they made. Q. Marcus, it was a rough shooting night for you. Was it something that Kansas was doing defensively or were the shots just not falling tonight? MARCUS SMART: Actually, no, they were giving me open shots, but the shots just weren't falling tonight. I was getting to the basket and that's kind of what my coaching staff was trying to get me to do more, go to the basket. But I took some good shots, took some bad shots. But the shots I took were good, just weren't falling for me tonight. And as for everybody, Phil's one of our best shooters and he missed a couple of shots that he usually makes. Markel missed a lot of shots that he usually makes. And Le'Bryan around the rim, he led the Big 12 in field goal shot percentage and he missed a lot of shots that he normally makes. It's just a bad shooting night as a team, but that's something we can fix. Q. Marcus, guys have been a little snakebit in close games, especially in overtime this year. Going into the NCAA, how do you look at this team and how important is it for you coming back to do something special for Oklahoma State to kind of make a statement in the NCAA? MARCUS SMART: You know, it's nothing to keep our heads down. It's a great game by two great teams. It's a learning point for us, you know. One of those moments where we've got to close the game out and it helps going into the tournament. Because nothing's going to be easy. Mostly all games come down to the wire and it's who makes the more plays and less negative plays in the end. So this is a learning process for us. Q. Travis, you had the timeout, 54seconds left and tie game. What did you want to get out of that possession? Ended up with a Marcus jumper, but what were you trying to get out of that possession? COACH FORD: We ran a play, we got about three options out of it. Phil Forte coming off first, then a cross screen underneath the basket for Le'Bryan. We actually got it around to Le'Bryan in the post. Phil wasn't open. We go to Le'Bryan. Then after that, you've gotta go to your under 10 seconds offense, the same one everybody else has. You kind of spread the court out and either get a quick ball screen or you try to go one‑on‑one. But no different than their last‑second shot in regulation. Neither team probably wanted the shots that they got. Probably wasn't the best ones, so no different. But we ran a play that‑‑ because we had plenty of time, we ran a play with about three or four different options on it. And they did a very‑‑ it was their defense more than‑‑ it was very good defense on their part. Q. Don't know if you can go at this question maybe like you could after film study, but what's it like being out there while you got a couple of future lottery picks going at it going head to head like those guys were? It looked fun to me. I don't know what it looked like to you. COACH FORD: I don't know if you call what we do‑‑ I mean, there was a lot of great players out there. A lot of great players made some great plays. No question a lot of future NBA players out there. And they all competed. They all competed at an extremely high level. I mean competed at a high level. I'm not talking about made or missed shots; I'm talking about playing to win. And we did that. That's what I'm proud of our team. We played to win. We played‑‑ coming out of the gates, I knew we'd be a little sluggish. Been in this turnaround before and I kept telling my guys we're great. First time out, we weren't playing well, but we were close. Kept getting close. We didn't play particularly well as far as Phil Forte and Markel Brown, Marcus Smart, 14 for 42, but we competed. We competed, and that I'm proud of. I'm proud of. Q. Not a typical 1‑8 matchup in the quarterfinals, was this the tight game that you expected? COACH FORD: Yeah, we've played a lot of close games. I knew this would be obviously difficult, quick turnaround and they've had a lot of success here and they're a great basketball team. We knew it was going to take‑‑ it takes‑‑ you've got to play well in order to beat Kansas, you've got to play well. And we competed well. We competed really well. And again, Kansas made a lot of good shots, a lot of big shots. Wiggins played really well. When they needed a shot, he really made some tough ones. Marcus was right. He's gotten better and better and better as the year has gone on. He's really, really good. I think all of our games have been pretty good this year. Played some good games last year. But they're always good against Kansas. Kansas, you better play well. You better play well. Q. How do you feel about how your team's playing right now going to the NCAA's. Last night, you had some missed free throws. That's been kind of an issue, but just overall how do you feel about your team? COACH FORD: I like how we're playing. I like how we're playing. I think there's some things we can do to adjust to get better. I mean, there's some things tonight we did to ourselves, to hurt ourselves at times. We need to correct a few of those things. I thought we ran our offense tremendously yesterday for 40 minutes. We gotta rebound the ball better, but I think we're playing well. The last five or six games, two games we've lost, we lost in overtime. And there's a lot of fight to us. Both games on the road, both games just like road games. So I think we're playing pretty good basketball. There's some things we need to do better, but you guys have seen us play. You probably can answer it better. I think we're playing pretty good. Q. It looked like Kansas was playing really good defense? COACH FORD: They were. Q. But you went into overtime with three turnovers total. Can you talk about the way you guys protected the ball and secured the ball and ran your offense? COACH FORD: We came out, ran a play and scored. Phil Forte hit a 3. Kind of went back to a play, looked for something else out of it. But two turnovers, one came ‑‑ Markel Brown was cramping the whole‑‑ the whole overtime. And he drove and kind of stumbled, turned one over to LB, trying to throw it in the post. LB slip and fell one time. You know, it happens. But they did play good defense. But it was‑‑ you know, a few of our mistakes and give them credit. They made some good shots. They rebounded the ball in overtime and made tough shots. I think they scored one basket in overtime, too. Or where is it? Eight were field goals. Free throws, they made eight free throws in overtime. So I think both teams competed. We competed. They made a few more shots than we did and defended at times, but we put ourselves in a good opportunity, we just‑‑ you hit the nail on the head: We had a few costly turnovers you can't have in overtime and you gotta rebound in overtime. But our guys gave it up. They gave it up. We had some guys cramping and different things, but, hey, no excuses. We really fought through to the very end and Kansas played well, played really well. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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