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