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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT


March 8, 2007


Jeff Capel

Nate Carter

David Godbold


OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA

CHARLIE FISK: We're joined by the Oklahoma Sooners. Coach Jeff Capel and his student athletes David Godbold and Nate Carter. Congratulations on the victory today. Your assessment of the Sooners' play.
COACH JEFF CAPEL: I'm proud of our guys. It was a good win. We feel very fortunate to be able to move on and to play against an incredibly talented Kansas team. We felt we get off to a good start today. I'm sorry, this morning. And we had a very good first half which ended in a three-pointer by Bobby Maze and a good decision by Tony Crocker.
In the second half we came out and we knew they were going to make a run, which they did. Mike Taylor and Hubalek were in foul trouble most of the first half, and they came back and Taylor got going. They took a lead.
But I was proud of our guys. We came back. We executed. Some guys made some big plays. David hit a big three for us off of a set that we ran and our guys made a great decision off of different options off of that play.
And then we were able to make some free throws down the stretch. We feel fortunate to win and we look forward to moving on.

Q. Nate, how did it feel early in the game, you guys got off to a great start and actually got a big lead. How did it feel to have success at this particular point in the game, something you have been striving to get, the last three, four games haven't been able to. In this game you got up by double digits early and played well early. How did it feel to get off to a great start?
NATE CARTER: We felt great. We came out there as one and we left it all out there on the floor and that's what helped us win the game.

Q. Did you guys get tired at all playing all the minutes?
NATE CARTER: No, can't be tired now.
DAVID GODBOLD: No. You know, we did a lot of running and a lot of conditioning that's kicking in right now. And it is helping us for the last push through. Coach said if we get tired, we're not going to win so we push through and all the guys came out and gave us sparks. It was a pretty good game for us.

Q. With 4 1/2 minutes to go they took the first lead of the game and then you guys were able to keep them scoreless for the next four minutes. They didn't score a free throw until 33 seconds to go in the game. Talk about your mind-set when they took the lead?
NATE CARTER: We knew they were going to make a run. We just had to clamp down on defense. It was just how we were going to respond, and we responded well.

Q. David, with a couple minutes to go, I think it was, you were encouraging the crowd to get involved or possibly more involved. Your thoughts on that?
DAVID GODBOLD: Yeah, I saw the fans were getting behind us. I just wanted to make a little bit more noise.
I felt that we kind of needed that extra push to finish the game off correct, so I tried to get the fans involved. We are going to need that as the tournament goes on because we feed off our fans. The more they are backing us, the better we play.

Q. David, it looked like -- and Nate for that matter, neither one of you guys wanted to wrap up this season which very well could have happened had you lost the game. Talk about your plays, David, down the stretch, not just the three, but when you dove in there and got the steal and called time out and you got the big offensive rebound on the free throw. Talk about not wanting to quit playing. And, Nate, I wish you would respond as well.
DAVID GODBOLD: Just like Coach has been stressing to us, if we don't get the 50/50 balls we won't have a chance to win. Coach told us if there's something on the ground, just go get it. If we knew they beat us to the ball, they would get the win.
So I just had in my mind -- let me go ahead and get my ball for the team. We didn't have Mike Neal out there. I didn't want the season to end when he's not out there playing with me. Any close ball that was close, I was going to go get it for the team.
NATE CARTER: That's right. I mean, we just -- we don't want to go home right now. We just want to keep playing, keep playing hard.
We believe that if we play together, we can beat anybody.

Q. Last time you guys played Hubalek, he had a career night against you guys. Coming in what did Coach Capel tell you to look for? You did a good job in slowing him down.
NATE CARTER: Coach was just saying he will go over his left shoulder. Everything he did was over his left shoulder. We were trying to take away the left shoulder together as a team, not just one person. We did that. So ...

Q. Any general thoughts about playing Kansas again? Do you take a lot of confidence because you played them so well last time? How much confidence will that give you?
DAVID GODBOLD: Even though we played them really well, we didn't get the stops we should have. We know they are coming in with a lot of confidence. They are the No. 1 seed in the tournament. They are coming in with a lot of confidence. They are ready to play. They will watch this tape. They will see how to break us down or whatever.
What we have to do tonight is prepare for them. They have a lot of great players. We have to prepare one by one, one step at a time to hopefully stay close in the game and hopefully we can come out on top.

Q. Jeff, two questions really. First, do you think you sewed up an N.I.T. bid with this victory? And secondly, if you can talk about what happened to Mike Neal and why he didn't play?
COACH JEFF CAPEL: I don't know, to answer the first question. That's something in the hands of someone else.
We want to do everything we can to try to continue our season right now. When we get to that point, our conference tournament is over with or if we lose, then we will start thinking about that. But right now I'm not sure.
As far as Michael Neal, Mike was sick. Last night about 1:30 -- there is a stomach virus going around here and Mike caught it. He wasn't able to keep any food down, any liquids down. We put an I.V. in him before the game, tried to get some fluids in him and some food this morning. Because of how early the game was, just wasn't able to go.
And so that's a decision that we made and hopefully he will be ready tomorrow.

Q. Jeff, you have been playing pretty good defense most of the year. Another great defensive effort today. Talk about the strategy of Hubalek and holding Iowa State to 42% shooting?
COACH JEFF CAPEL: I thought first half we did a very good job defensively. Holding 23 points. They shot 31% in the first half. A big part of that is that we had their guys in some foul trouble, some of their main guys.
In the second half, they were able to get going a little bit. With Hubalek one of the things we wanted to do, when we played them in Ames, we didn't do a good job of guarding them, not just one or two guys. We didn't do a good job. What I mean by that, when their guard set screens, we didn't check cuts. We didn't do any of those things. Our guys did a better job of that.
The other thing we wanted to do in watching tape, and watching film on Hubalek, we felt he was more effective when went over his left shoulder. We wanted to take that away. In saying that, I think two of the three field goals he hit were little left-hand jump hooks. We told our guys we will live with him making those. At their place they were 11-16. If they goes 11-16 shooting left-handed jump hooks, then we don't have a chance anyway.
The other thing with Michael Taylor, we knew he would get some points but we didn't want him to be efficient getting points. He got going in the second half. But to get, what, 10 points -- or 18 points, took 16 shots. That was pretty good for us. I thought we did a pretty good job on him.

Q. Jeff, I was wanting you to comment on David Godbold's play down the stretch. It seems like when you win these type of games, you need somebody to step up. It seems like you got that out of David Godbold in the last four, five minutes of the game?
COACH JEFF CAPEL: David is one of our most experienced guys as far as playing. He is our most experienced guy as far as playing. He is the guy that has been off and on, three-year starter in this program. He is a guy that has played a lot, played in big games and played well in big games.
I think you saw a guy that's been in this environment before and he played well. He had a huge three for us. Getting on the floor and getting stops, getting 50/50 balls, playing pretty good defense, harassing their guys, getting key rebounds and also David is the guy -- if you watched toward the end of close games, he is the guy that we usually always have taking the ball out because he is a pretty good decision maker. He is a guy who understands what we want to do. He understands when to call a time out and when to look for certain things.
He is a guy that doesn't get panicked a lot. He is very important to our team and has been a good player all year.

Q. Coach, can you talk about what impresses you most about Kansas and also about your second half two weeks ago and the pressure you are able to use and to hurt Kansas in the second half?
COACH JEFF CAPEL: Everything impresses me about them. They are very, very good. They are very talented at each position. They have depth. Great athleticism, very good size. Had some guys that can shoot it. Good defensively because of their athleticism, well-coached. They are very good.
And it is the reason why they are ranked as high and they won our league. So it is going to be a tough challenge for us. I thought we did a very good job against them in the second half. We just haven't figured out how to guard the free throw line yet. Maybe if we can guard the free throw line and they don't get 32 free throws in the second half, maybe we will have a better chance.

Q. Jeff, along those lines, what has Nate Carter's ability to make his free throws meant to your team this season?
COACH JEFF CAPEL: It means a lot. It is a big weapons for us. I think the thing that's probably even more important is his ability to draw fouls. He is a guy that you can put him on the perimeter. He can drive it and hit a 17-foot shot with consistency. But he is also a guy that is very crafty when he gets the ball down low and is able to draw fouls.
Most of his big games this year where he scored well, you look at it, the one common thing is he usually gets to the free throw line a lot. I think tonight he was there 13 times. It is a big weapon when you can have a guy that's kind of become your go-to guy and can make free throws down the stretch.

Q. Jeff, how important was it to win today? No matter what happens tomorrow, if your season ends -- if you lose today, your season ends. But in front of the home crowd, you are in the losing streak, how important is that?
COACH JEFF CAPEL: It is important. It is important to win every time you step on the floor for me. I don't ever know when it is not important, but it was -- it was important for us because we wanted to continue our season.
We have confidence in our ability. Even though we had lost those games in a row, I think our guys did a good job of really embracing the fact that we're 0-0. This is a neutral floor. This is no one's home court. So we feel like we have as good a shot as anyone. No one else probably believes that. That's okay.
We're excited about the challenge of playing Kansas. We know it will be awfully tough because of how talented they are. But we're excited about it. And we will get some rest and hopefully we will be rested up enough where we can make it competitive tomorrow and have a chance down the stretch.

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