Catching up with Lon Kruger – pre Iowa State, Game 2
The one word Lon Kruger kept using over and over about Oklahoma’s Wednesday night loss was “disappointing.”
Oklahoma’s second-year coach also explained, though, that the key to moving forward so close to the end of conference play is just to regroup like they have the rest of the year.
The Sooners had two days of practices to prepare for Iowa State, a team that beat them by 19 the first time they played.
The media talked with Lon Kruger about the loss and moving forward. Here’s what he had to say:
MEDIA: Is there pressure as you get ready to take on another team that’s going to pressure you? What’s the game plan?
LON KRUGER: We’ve struggled with pressure all year. On occasion, those guys have handled it really well. (Wednesday) night those guys handled it really well. 32 minutes of good basketball went by the side because we didn’t handle pressure late. Very disappointing. We’ve got to be stronger with the ball but it’s not just the guy with the ball, it’s also receivers moving and being available. While the focus is on Sam because he’s got the ball, a lot of other people need to help Sam too.
When the team is trapping and Sam’s down in the trap 20 minutes there in the second half, receivers have to work a lot harder.
Do you worry about a hangover from one game to the next?
Oh, you always worry about it. We’ve handled that pretty well to this point. With the nature of conference play, you either have a big win or a disappointing loss and you have to come back and play three days later. These guys have done a good job of focusing on the next game. Tougher loss than normal last night because of the circumstances, but we have to bounce back for a very good Iowa State team.
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