Postgame Quotes

Jan. 10, 2007

Recap | Final Stats | Notes |

Kansas Postgame Quotes
Kansas 87, Oklahoma State 57
Jan. 10, 2006

Head Coach Bill Self
On team chemistry:

“It was pretty good. We’re not going to play that well, making shots and having things fall right for us every game, but there was certainly great intensity. Guys were ready to play and we’ve been getting better. Now we’ve got to take our show on the road. Brandon (Rush) is the only player that played over 26 minutes. Our bench was terrific, our pressure was great. From the first half stand-point, they hurt us the last five minutes when we trapped ball screens then they threw it underneath us. Then we just fouled too much, but when you’re that aggressive, you’re going to foul some. I was really pleased. I thought we did a great job of running, I thought everybody contributed. It was certainly a fun night for us.”

On the game plan:
“The game plan was to give their big guys something to guard, but we got a couple of easy baskets early off of screen plays and then when Sasha (Kaun) had a two-to-three minute stretch where he kind of took over, then we were making a conscious effort to go inside because (Mario) Boggan had two fouls. He’s a terrific player and we did a great job on him tonight and JamesOn (Curry) is a great player and we did a terrific job on him. If we see them (Oklahoma State) again, they’ll be ready for us because they have a lot of guys that can score the ball. We just played really well tonight.”

On the second half:
“I didn’t think we played great to start the second half, but the biggest thing was that our depth was really important tonight as far as wearing them (Oklahoma State) down. Give those kids a lot of credit, they’ve got seven guys out there. We played through foul problems, but Rod (Stewart) gave us great minutes, Darnell (Jackson) was terrific and Sherron (Collins) was great. Even though they cut us to 13, you could really sense that fatigue was starting to set in.”

On foul trouble:
“Probably not a smart play by me, but we were playing so well, I didn’t really see any reason to put Russell (Robinson) or Mario (Chalmers), Shady (Darrell Arthur), Julian (Wright) or Sasha (Kaun) on the bench. Brandon (Rush) was aggressive and in attack mode the whole game. The one thing we told them at half time was that we have fresh bodies. The second half wasn’t fast-pace like the first half, but we got the ball where it needed to go.”

Sophomore Forward Brandon Rush
On the win over Oklahoma State:
“This victory was a statement. OSU broke the top 10 on Monday, and they are a great team. This was a statement game for us.”

On building an early lead:
“We jumped on them early. They were warming up before the second half like the game was over. It looked like they didn’t have any confidence.”

On his overall performance:
“Yeah, I got extra fired up. We knew this game was going to be tough. We came here tonight and broke the game open early. I think every time we play a big game we step up.”

Freshman Guard Sherron Collins
On the play of the big men:

“We have a lot of bigs that can run. I would be a tough job to keep up with our bigs right now.”

On his growing as a player:
“I just need to slow down and not go so fast. I need to drive and look to dish. I made some shots, but still made some bonehead plays. I just tried to get the ball to the bigs, I wanted to get Sasha (Kaun) involved.”

On his first conference game:
“It was a lot of fun, this was the loudest I have heard Allen FIeldhouse. All my teammates were telling me how loud it was going to be and I enjoyed it.”

Junior Center Sasha Kaun
On the quick start:
“It gives me a little more energy out there. For me it helps on the defensive end.”

On the first Big 12 game:
“It was a big game for us, but to me it was just another game. We came out and played well.”

On his health:
“At the beginning of the year, it slowed me down a little bit. I am just trying to get better everyday, but I would say I am 100 percent healthy.”

OSU Head Coach Sean Sutton
On the game:

“That was an old fashioned butt kicking. Our guys just didn’t compete. This has always been a great rivalry and a game that the players always look forward to playing in and the fans always enjoy to watch and I felt like we set the series back tonight. We just didn’t rise up and compete like we did the first 16 games of the season. I will take the blame for that. I just didn’t have them prepared well enough for the environment.”

On the keys to the game:
“I thought two key areas were not turning the basketball over and then trying to win the battle in terms of fastbreak baskets. They outscored us 41-8 in fastbreak. Those are the two areas we stressed the most coming into this game. We could not turn the ball over and we could not give up fastbreak baskets. We had to push the ball because we are at our best when we are in transition. We also could avoid lining up against their great man-to-man defense if we ran. They did a good job of taking that away from us and we just didn’t respond. We started going one-on-one and quit sharing the basketball.”

On Mario Boggan:
“They did a good job of frustrating him with their size. I didn’t see that coming. I thought he would be fine against their post players. He missed some shots early and that frustrated him. They did a good job of collapsing against him and he didn’t do a very good job of kicking the ball out. He just tried to bull through them. That is something he is going to have to learn from because he is going to see this same type of defense 14 more times in conference play.”

Junior Guard JamesOn Curry
On the game:

“They (Kansas) have a great sixth man here. We didn’t respond to adversity as well as we should have. This is a loss that we have to take and get better from it. The two things that killed us were points off turnovers and transition points. It was a bad night for us, but they are also a great team.”

On transition points:
“If we had 10 points in transition and maybe force some more turnovers the game would be a little tighter. It’s the small things that carry over in games like this. Everybody has great athletes, everybody can shoot the ball and drive, but it’s the small stats on the stat sheet that you have to pay attention to.”

Junior Forward Marcus Dove
On the inside game:

“They (Kansas) did a good job containing (Mario) Boggan. They really limited his touches and when he did touch it they doubled him and really frustrated him. They did a good job and other players had to step up and we just didn’t do that.”

On playing zone:
“We worked on that a lot. We did away with the 2-3 and put a 3-2 in and I think we did alright with it. We haven’t really got a lot of practice time in it, but for the most I think they hit one three-pointer in it, but we have to rebound better. We just mixed it up. Everybody knows that we come out and play man. We just wanted to give them a different look and change the tempo of the game.”