Sooners talk Louisville

No. 6-seed Oklahoma head coach Jeff Capel and Blake Griffin, Longar Longar and David Godbold discuss their NCAA Tournament second round matchup against No. 3-seed Louisville.

Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel
On the challenges Louisville presents:
"They made shots from the three-point line at a high rate yesterday. That's something they haven't done all year long consistently. They are very capable shooters, but that's something, especially as they headed into the Big East tournament, that they struggled with a little bit. If they're making shots like that it makes them even tougher to beat from beyond the arc. One of the things they do, they do such a good job of harassing you and pressuring you and creating scoring opportunities from their defense. We're really going to have to value the basketball, be strong and make good passes. We're going to look to attack their pressure, but we'll attack it in a smart manner. And we can't take bad shots. We have to understand the tempo of the game and understand what's going on in the game to figure out what kind of shots we get, if and when we break their pressure."

Oklahoma freshman forward Blake Griffin

Blake Griffin

On the Louisville Cardinals:
"They're definitely a tough team. They get after you and play great defense. They have some big bodies and they also have some talented guards. We're going to have our hands full, but I think if we just do a good job of staying together and playing as a team and controlling the tempo a little bit and handling their pressure, we should be all right."

Oklahoma senior center Longar Longar
On Louisville's David Padgett:
"He's a really good player. He's really big and he can really pass the ball. I think he's the guy that makes them go. He runs their offense real well and their guards are really athletic, so they're always cutting in and going to the glass. He can score down low, rebound and he runs the floor. We are just going to have to do a good job of containing him."

Oklahoma senior guard David Godbold
On the Louisville Cardinals:
"They're a really good team. They bring a lot of defensive pressure and they're not afraid to push it on offense at any given moment. We have to come out and be aggressive and try to get them to play at our tempo. They like to play fast and we want to pound them inside, so we're going to just try to execute our game plan as best as possible."

On how he expects Louisville to defend OU:
"Just looking at our team, I know the strength of our team has always been the big guys inside. So as another head coach, I would say you're still going to have to stop the big guys inside. They're obviously going to be a presence. Hopefully, they'll still demand a double team. If that does happen and I do get left open again or any guard, hopefully we're all ready to step up and make shots. I just got lucky the other day being wide open and the post men did a great job passing it out. But maybe we'll see something different from Louisville."