Cincinnati 87 Oklahoma State 68: Postgame Quotes

Cincinnati advanced to the second round of the Big 12 Tournament on Tuesday afternoon with an 87-68 win over Oklahoma State.

 

Everything Wes Miller and Josh Reed said following the win:

 

(Photo: Denny Medley / Big 12 Conference) 

 

 

 Wes Miller opening statement:

 

 Well, thought our guys played with great effort tonight and great activity.  You know, we got our hands on a lot of balls and I think that's why you see the high steal numbers.  I thought we had good pop. Then you look down at the lines.  I think when you play with great effort, you play with great energy, you give yourself a chance to do other things on the offensive end and you look down and a bunch of guys had some really
 good nights.

 


 One of the things I'm excited about is Jizzle and Simas
 didn't play their best basketball and that's a good sign for
 our time, that we have so many guys contributing.  You get
 to 87 and two of your better offensive players, had off
 nights.

 


 Oklahoma State is a difficult defensive team.  They make it
 difficult.  They push you way out on the floor, and I thought
 our guys had some moments where that frustrated us or
 we struggled, but we did a great job of getting back and not
 letting those mistakes compound.
 Again, pleased with the effort, and excited to get back and
 do this tomorrow.

 

 


 Miller on game prep and adjustments following Saturday's loss at Oklahoma State:

 

We didn't do a ton on the court just
 because of the quick turnaround, but we did a little bit -- I
 thought getting home was helpful to kinda reset, right? 
Give our administration a lot of credit for that.

 


 It would have been easy to say get on a bus and drive four
 and a half hours to Kansas City, but we were able to get
 home because it was an afternoon game Saturday and let
 the guys get in their own beds, reset, and we flew out here
 Sunday night.

 


 We met Sunday night, so they got a good 24-hour
 breather, which I thought was important.  We met Sunday
 night in the hotel and started to got through -- you don't go
 through the scouting report because they just did that, but
 went that you go the adjustments and things.

 


 We didn't focus on what we didn't do.  We focused on the
 things we needed to do moving forward.  We had a short
 but I thought spirited practice yesterday to try to prepare.
 I thought the guys did a nice job of making some
 adjustments, but our activity I thought was the difference
 between the way that we played as a result and today.  We
 just got our hands on so many different basketballs.
 You make those plays by doing some little things to put
 yourself in that position.

 


 So, again, give our guys a ton of credit for turning the
 page.  They've been pretty good at that all year.  Like I've
 said, not always as swift as I would like, but these guys,
 they have been able to turn the page and respond all year. 
They did that again over the last couple of days.  I'm proud
 of them.

 

 


 Wes on Dillon Mitchell and Dan Skillings and their activity defensively:

 


Yeah, I think when our team is aggressive,
 active, and confident we play our best basketball.  I thought
 early in the game offensively, Scott, we were really
 aggressive.  And some of those possessions maybe we
 would shoot a quick shot or make a more difficult play than
 we needed to but they were aggressive plays.


I liked the confidence and the aggressiveness.  When our
 team is active, they're confident and aggressive and they
 play their best basketball, and I thought we had that from a
 lot of guys tonight.

 


 Josh is sitting here, and I thought he got back to playing
 the way has been playing well, confidently, making plays.  I
 thought his cutting off the ball in the first half was a
 separator for us.

 


 I thought Dillon's cutting off the ball was a separator for us.
 And then Dan has been consistent in coming into the game
 and giving us great energy and great pop, and I thought he
 did that again tonight.  And all of the sudden on the fast
 break there the game opens up for them above the rim.  I
 thought a lot of guys contributed tonight and I thought,
 again, it started with the little stuff.

 

 


Miller on his team holding Bryce Thompson to 6 points on 3-of-9 shooting:

 

Well, he had about 8 I think in the first four
 or five minutes of the game.  In our first game.  So I
 thought our guys made a really nice adjustment at
 Oklahoma State.

 


 But, again, defense is collective.  Josh had the match-up at
 this start of the game, and I thought he was terrific at
 fighting through screens and challenging his shots.  Again,
 when all five are that active are moving to the basketball
 that way and that connected, you have to give your team
 credit.

 


 Again, Josh did a great job starting on him and guys did a
 good of getting to help.  We were better defending the
 bounce tonight, not just the guy on the ball, but collectively
 when the ball was driven.

 

 


Josh Reed on his team playing together and competing with one another throughout the game:

 


We were just sharing the ball well, having
 fun, playing as a team.  You know, taking advantage of
 every match-up we had and just playing free throw line,
 playing confident.

 


Wes Miller on why is team is so difficult to defend when Dillon Mitchell is rebounding the way he did today:

 


 It hasn't always been this way, but we play
 great when we are on the offensive board and the
 rebounding battle has been a great litmus test for us this
 year.  We were aggressive to the rim early.  We were
 aggressive offensively and made some confident plays,
 and when we missed them we went and cleared the
 basketball or tipped the basketball out.

 


 Give Dillon a ton of credit and Josh a ton of -- I thought
 Josh's tip out in the second half really loosened us up and
 got us confident again.  I thought that was a game-winning
 play.

 


 Aziz, you look down and he has zero offensive rebounds,
 but if you watch his crash tonight, like the attention he gets
 and the way they're blocking him out, his effort to the board
 was great.

 


 So it's like a collective thing, right?  When everybody does
 their offensive rebounding responsibility at the same time -
AZ might have taken two with him and cleared a lane for
 Josh and that type of thing.

 


 I thought when Dillon and Josh and AZ and these guys and
 Dan, when they are keeping the ball alive, I think that's
 important and we set a tone there.

 


 Wes Miller on preparing for Iowa State in the next round:

 


I haven't had a chance to dive into that one
 yet because, gosh, we were so concerned about this one. 
I'm not just giving coach talk, but I mean it.  This is a
 one-game tournament.  We have a couple of assistants
 and guys that have been working hard on the next game,
 so I don't know if I'm prepared to answer that yet.

 


 But as soon as I'm done with you guys the next thing I will
 do is start working on Iowa State.

 

 


Wes Miller on his team's defense on Abou Ousmane, who had 24 points against UC on Saturday in Oklahoma State's win over UC in Stillwater:

 


I tell you what, I think our guys were aware
 of the game he had and they were -- I could tell in practice
 yesterday the way they were talking, we were going
 through their stuff that they were very attentive, because
 they understood what happened in Stillwater.  I thought
 they were geared up.  The other thing, he gets in foul
 trouble early and that probably affects it, too, so it always,
 kind of goes both ways, but we did a much better job on
 him today than we did in Stillwater.

 

 


Josh Reed on the challenge from the coaches and staff to play at the level that is expected at Cincinnati:

 


Yeah, I mean the coaches and us as a team
 we've been talking about it a lot, just focusing on the next
 game, focusing oncoming back and getting better the next
 day.  And like Coach was saying, just take it one game at a
 time and go from there

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