Quotes
Jan. 21, 2006
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Postgame Quotes
Kansas 96, Nebraska 54
January 21, 2006
Head Coach Bill Self
On the game:
“We played great offensively. We made shots. The offense looks alot better than it has all year. Defensively, (Nebraska) shot a bad percentage, but we didn’t play as good as that percentage. They got the ball where they wanted to in the first half. We made shots, and they missed easier shots. In the second half, we got up and down and kept the pressure on them. I was really pleased with our guys. I thought everybody that played substantial minutes contributed. I was really pleased with how we came back and played.”
“Nebraska didn’t have a chance to shoot too many shots (early in the second half) because we kept fouling. We put them on the free throw line. We certainly fouled too much. We caught Nebraska on a day that they didn’t play well. This is the same team that went to Manhattan and won and beat Oklahoma.”
On Kansas’ turnovers:
“That has been one of biggest weaknesses of our team, taking care of the basketball. Against Missouri, we had 11 turnovers — 10 at halftime — and then we did a fabulous job of taking care of the ball in the second half. Tonight was very similar. We are running a better offense and we are getting the ball where we need to. We have gone from a guard-scoring team, to a big guy-scoring team, and now back to a guard-scoring team. We have to get our big guys to be a presence and to give us points inside. Darnell (Jackson) did the best job of our big guys tonight.”
On KU’s forwards:
“I think Christian (Moody) and Sasha (Kaun) are giving us points in the post like they can. We need to make improvements with guys on our back. Julian (Wright) is not scoring that way. Darnell (Jackson) will, and C.J. (Giles) can. I think they are all doing some good things.”
On the upcoming schedule:
“It is great that we were able to bounce back today after a disappointment, but we are going to go play a Texas A&M team that is tough-as-nails. They should be 5-0 in the league. And then we go to Ames, and everybody knows how tough it is to win at Ames. It is a tough, tough week for the Jayhawks.
Sophomore Guard Russell Robinson
On the game:
“We made our shots today. We didn’t let them [Nebraska] get too comfortable, and we converted on the offensive end.”
On defensive pressure:
“Playing good defense gives us confidence on the offensive end. It leads to easy baskets and helps us get into the flow of the game. Pressure on the ball can create momentum for us.”
On Darnell Jackson:
“He’s done a good job of being a presence down low. He is also scoring and doing exactly what Coach wants him to do.”
Senior Guard Jeff Hawkins
On his defensive pressure:
“I use it to try to make them feel me so that they will get nervous and start to speed up. I try to make them feel me everytime they bring the ball up. My main focus it to try to pressure him and mess him up.”
On the last two losses:
“We fought hard in the last two games. We wanted to play today with unbelievable energy. This was the toughest week of the year. We needed a win to get us out of the funk of our two losses. Coach Self tried not to mention the losses to help us focus on Nebraska. We can’t have those games back. We just focused on Nebraska like Coach wanted us to do.”
Freshman Forward Brandon Rush
On his performance:
“My shots were falling, and I was getting open looks. We got out and ran on them [Nebraska] which is what we always try and do.”
Ccontrol today. Coach is making us accountable for our mistakes. We try to get better every day by not turning the ball over and pressuring the ball. I think we did that today.”
Head Coach Barry Collier
On the game:
“I thought that Kansas was really agressive defensively. Their pressure turned many of our possessions into fast breaks. In the first half, their shooting was really aggressive.”
On seeing this coming:
“I didn’t see this coming. I thought we would be able to handle the ball better. We were 4-of-19 inside of eight feet in the first half.”
On worst loss while at Nebraska:
“We aren’t really interested in by how much. We are trying to win ball games. We got out-played and hustled. Their bench came into the game and did a great job. Whatever defense we threw at them, they were on top of.”
Senior Guard Jason Dourisseau
On the game:
“If you have a brain, you can just look at the score and see we got beat by 40. That speaks for itself. They knocked down a lot of threes and got a lot of transition buckets. They got basically whatever they wanted, and there is no defense for that.”
On Kansas:
“They are pretty good. They played pretty well today, and it seems like they didn’t miss. They executed well.”
Senior Forward Wes Wilkinson
On the game:
“It’s frustrating. They did shoot the ball well, but we didn’t play very good defense. It’s tough to get things going when you shoot a poor percentage down low like we did. We had some layups that we missed and some second chances that we din’t take advantage of.”
On what they expected from Kansas:
“We expected them to come out fired up like they did, and they did play well.”
