Postgame Quotes
Jan. 7, 2012
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Postgame Quotes
Kansas 57, Kansas State 63
January 7, 2012
Kansas head coach Bonnie Henrickson
Opening Statement:
“This was a missed opportunity. For us to struggle that much offensively is disappointing. When that happens there are two things that you have to do. You have to go to the offensive glass, which we didn’t. Then you have to grind it out defensively. There is not a lot of room for error when you play those guys (Kansas State Wildcats). Certainly, we made more mistakes than they did. We had a chance to get back in it and (Kansas State senior Brittany) Chambers killed us. Last year in the two combined games she was 7-for-23 and she had seven (made field goals) today. Branshea Brown got into us early and then hit one late and obviously felt good about herself. We didn’t get into her and challenge shots with her enough. Those two were the difference makers. We finally did a great job on (Mariah) White because she had averaged 12 (points) against us last year and she had averaged five (points) going into both games (last season). I felt like if we just slowed her down a little bit and got into her (then we could have been successful). They were both two possession games last year as well. Certainly we are disappointed that Chambers had those kind of numbers.”
On the momentum swing after a missed layup by Kansas’ Aishah Sutherland followed by a made three pointer by Kansas State’s Brittany Chambers:
“That’s a momentum play from one end to the other in a short period of time. That’s a kid you can’t let get loose. We just didn’t do a great job on her. She got too much separation through screens. I think when we go back and watch it, when she didn’t have the ball, we kind of relaxed and watched and then she takes off and gets a pretty good shot that is uncontested. We had lot of shots that were on the rim and then fell off. Before Aishah hits a couple of elbow jump shots we were shooting 21-percent. We finally made some shots and got into rhythm, but we didn’t get enough stops on the other end to get on the right side of it.”
On how Kansas keeps coming up short against Kansas State:
“We shot 35-percent here last year and I don’t understand that. I looked at it and watched film. We have some (shots) that are out of rhythm. When we talked to them at the timeout we said, ‘Do you feel like you are out sync?’ I said, ‘You have to go side-to-side and challenge them in rotation and try to get some rotational rebounds.’ We did for a stretch there and we knocked down some uncontested shots. We missed some uncontested shots as well. Some of the ones that were out of rhythm and out of sync, we don’t knock those down. They (Kansas State) challenge you and they protect that paint. They are going to give up the lowest percentage shot that they can. We didn’t knock down shots on the perimeter.”
On Kansas’ four-point lead going into halftime:
“I was disappointed that we didn’t have a bigger lead going into the locker room. They cut into it a little bit. We got it to six and I was hoping that we could get it to eight or 10, but then they cut it. At one point I thought that if we could get a little run (going) we could get it to eight or 10, but we didn’t do that.”
On if she felt any frustration from her team in the locker room:
“I didn’t feel it in the locker room and I didn’t feel it with them. In one timeout I felt a lot of frustration with not being able to get into a rhythm offensively and not knock down shots. I didn’t feel that in the locker room, not at all.”
On why Kansas freshman Natalie Knight was guarding Kansas State’s Brittany Chambers instead of Kansas junior Angel Goodrich:
“Considering how much Angel has to do with us—with Chambers, I told these guys, with football she runs 30 yards for a three-yard gain. Think about how much she runs to get that stuff. We felt like, would that be asking too much? You look at Natalie guarding (Chassidy) Fussell at Texas. She did a great job. It’s not like we don’t have confidence in Natalie to guard because she’s our second-best perimeter defender. Mariah White is hard to guard because if you make a mistake, she cuts to the basket on you and if you can’t contain, she drives it to the rim. That’s who Angel guarded last year and we had a different match up on Chambers. We felt like if we switched it up and let Natalie take Chambers in the first half and then we changed it a little bit. CeCe (Harper) guarded her a little bit in the second half. We charted touches and scores and felt like Natalie had done a decent job and Angel was really good on White because she understood where to pinch and help off.”
On if this loss is as disappointing as Kansas’ win over Texas was exciting:
“I believe so just because your kick yourself. There are some things we can control; the effort on the offensive glass—when you are shooting 21-percent and 30 in the second half and you don’t rebound the offensive glass. You can see it when we’re walking back and we have a lot confidence in the guy shooting the ball. That’s the guy that has to have the confidence. Everybody else has to think ‘that’s my next shot.’ We didn’t have the mentality today and we’ve been better. We’ve been a better offensive rebounding team, but we weren’t tonight.”
Kansas junior forward Carolyn Davis
On Aishah Sutherland’s jump shot that rolled in-and-out, which then led to a made three-pointer by Kansas State:
“It was a bad miss because everyone expected it to go in and for it to rim in-and-out like that and then they (Kansas State) came down and hit a three. It was a little bit of blow because it tipped the weight in their favor. They hit a lot of tough threes.”
On the feeling after the loss:
“A lot of frustration and disappointment, especially coming off a big win (versus Texas 1/4/12). To come in with so much confidence and lose like that is hard. It’s going to be hard to move on, honestly. It’s going to be hard not to think about it, but we have to. We play in a couple days. We need to learn from this game and move forward.”
On why the last few meetings between the two Kansas schools have been so close:
“They are a great team and they play together. They understand that they don’t have just one stud that can take over the game. They set Brittany Chambers a lot of screens and it’s tough to play through that. It was tough on our guards, but they still played very well.”
Kansas junior guard Angel Goodrich
On the team’s performance tonight:
“I think we came out, I wouldn’t say flat because we really didn’t, but I just feel like we could have attacked them more. I think when we miss some shots we tend to get down on ourselves and we get frustrated.”
On guarding Brittany Chambers:
“She’s very bouncy. She comes off a lot of screens and that’s what is tough because she has screens coming from left and right. She doesn’t stop. She runs the whole time and she’s always looking for the ball. It’s very tough guarding her because she can shoot, drive and she looks for open guys. She’s an all-around player.”
On who takes the responsibility to pick the team up after missed open shots:
“It’s a very collective effort, but you, as a player, have to be like, ‘where can I contribute somewhere else? Where can I make something happen?’ I wasn’t making my shots tonight, but I also wanted to be a factor on the defensive end or making a play on the offensive end by dishing it to the open man. You’re going to miss some shots during the game, but as a team you have to come together and say, ‘where can we score somewhere else?'”
Kansas State head coach Deb Patterson
Opening statement:
“I think you could say that was a classic rivalry game. From a coach’s perspective and possibly our players, we felt like it was ugly because there were so many hard-fought possessions that weren’t very productive at times for both teams. In the end, what separated us, was that we had a couple of big shots in critical situations. One was the big three, very late by Brittany Chambers on the upper right side of the arc. The other was the 17 footer by Brandi (Branshea) Brown. I thought those two were shots that are really hard emotionally in a game to recover from, but we gave KU every opportunity to lengthen the game with some fouls and defense that was not up to par. It just came down to a couple of great plays and enough stops and rebounds for us to come away with the victory.”
On how important the missed layup by KU’s Aishah Sutherland was for her team:
“It was huge and that’s what I meant by the emotion, because KU had made that little run. I did not feel like we were competing real well at that point offensively. We had gotten a little space and then we got into a little lull, which was what this game was sort of about. When Aishah’s spinner went in and out, that was a peak emotional moment for everyone on the floor and on the sideline.”
On KU’s junior forward Carolyn Davis:
“We have the utmost respect for Carolyn. She is a scorer and every trip up the floor your defense feels unbelievable pressure just because she is there. It changes everything, so we worked extremely hard to try to bring attention to her. She was still five for nine, but I do believe that in the second half we did a better job of limiting her touches, which was our goal going in.”
On Brittany Chambers’ three pointer in the final minutes of the game:
“That, to me, changed the end of the game. Everyone still had to make plays, but I think it put the ball back in our court, so to speak.”
Kansas State junior guard Brittany Chambers
On her three pointer that helped clinch the victory for her team:
“The crowd was going nuts, so we were trying to find a way to quiet them down a little bit. Brandi (Branshea) Brown came up with a player screen for me and she is an unbelievable screener. When she is up there, I really look to shoot even faster because I know that she is going to do her job, so I will have a split second to get it off.”
On KU’s defensive strategy:
“They had a lot of different players on me and KU is very athletic, so it is hard to get catches. I think last year I had a rough game getting open, so I knew it was going to be like that coming into this game.“
Kansas State sophomore guard/forward Chantay Caron
On returning to her hometown of Lawrence to play:
“I am still always nervous when I come back to Lawrence because it is my hometown. When I come, I expect a lot of emotion and all of my family is here, so I just know I have to put that aside, come in and play my game.”
