Postgame Quotes
Jan. 22, 2011
Postgame Quotes
Kansas 63, Texas 74
January 22, 2011
Kansas Head Coach Bill Self
On rebounding from the loss:
“It’s one game. It’s a big game, but it’s just one game. Texas totally controlled the last 30 minutes of the game. In the second half they were terrific. Of course we helped them be terrific. We give up 51 points in our building in a half. They deserve the outcome that they got today. We’ve got to rebound from today and hopefully not let one become two.”
On Thomas Robinson playing today:
“He’s a stud. It’s amazing to me that he’s out there today. If you think about it, he lost his grandmother at the very end of December, he lost his grandfather on Sunday and lost his mother Friday night. For him to even be out there is remarkable. He wasn’t asked not to play. He wasn’t asked to play and I talked to some people and the best thing to do for him was to let him choose what he wants to do. He said he wanted to be out there and I didn’t fight it. It puts everything in perspective. He’s got a nine-year old sister left in his family and she’s half the country away. People deal with it all the time and he’ll deal with it like a man.”
On the emotional start to the game:
“I think you see teams get off to an emotional good start (sometimes). We played well too, but I felt like we didn’t have much gas left in the tank in the second half and a lot of it is because of Texas too.”
On there being any relief that the home court winning streak is over:
“I could care less about the streak. The only thing I was concerned about on the streak was I wanted our team to be the one that had the longest streak in school history. The media does a good job of talking about the streak, but it doesn’t weigh that much on my mind.”
Junior forward Marcus Morris
On Texas:
“Texas got to the foul line a lot this game and knocked down their free throws. They were very aggressive and were in the bonus with 15 minutes to go in the game. We definitely need to do better on defense and stick together through this hard time.”
On the team moving forward:
“We have to move on and not dwell on this loss as a team. We have to stay together and be leaders and get the team’s mind right and keep moving forward.”
On Thomas Robinson’s courage to play after losing his mother:
“It says a lot that Thomas came out and played. It took a lot of courage to play since Thomas only has his mother and his sister. It is just a sad situation because you do not know what to say to him. He is just a tough kid to even want to come and play after losing his mother; that really showed some toughness.”
On the team beating themselves:
“I think that we really beat ourselves this game. You have to give Texas a lot of credit because they came here and gave us their best shot. It is just a really tough loss, but we have to come ready and focus tomorrow in practice.”
Senior guard Tyrel Reed
On the game as a whole:
“It was a tough loss, but it’s just one game and we can’t let it become two. We know that Thomas (Robinson) is going through a lot right now. We all hurt and we all feel for him. He’s one of our brothers and we’re definitely going to be there for him. But like Marcus (Morris) said, we’ve got to regroup because we’ve got a game on Tuesday against a good Colorado team. We just have to be ready to play.”
On the winning streak coming to an end:
“It’s something you never put in your mind. You never want to lose and you always want to protect your home court. We can’t look at it like it’s the end of the world. It means a ton, but it’s just a game against Texas that we lost when we didn’t play our best. We’ve just got to move on and get better.”
On moving forward from this loss:
“This game is behind us now. There is nothing that we can do today or tomorrow that will change what happened. We’ve got to come to practice tomorrow ready to get better. We need to rally around each other. We are all brothers and we just need to be ready to play.”
Senior guard Brady Morningstar
On not playing well in the second half:
“We just didn’t execute offensively, that was a big key, and we didn’t get stops on defense. We had a couple of big turnovers-I had one of them-and they went down on the offensive end and took advantage of them. That helped them out.”
On the loss at home:
“They all hurt; you never like to lose. Obviously, we had a streak going, but we aren’t playing for the sake of a streak. All losses hurt, especially ones at home, but they happen to everybody. We just need to bounce back, be ready to practice and be ready to play. We’ve got other things to worry about now.”
Texas Head Coach Rick Barnes
Opening Statement:
“First of all, I would really like to offer our condolences to Thomas Robinson and his family. I can’t even imagine the burden and the weight that was on his shoulders today. When you have a team, and a player loses their mom, it affects everybody. I’m sure it weighed very heavily on Bill (Self); I imagine he is having a really tough time. Again, we only have one mom, and when you lose her, it affects everyone. I can only imagine what he is going through. Our condolences go out to he and his family.”
On what it is like beating Kansas for the first time in Allen Fieldhouse:
“Obviously, it was a great win for our program. I cannot tell you how much respect I have for Bill (Self), he is one of the best – he is a model of consistency. I have always said that being consistent is the key to being an outstanding coach. To come up here and get a win – and we have had so many great games with them where we came out on the other end – but I love the way our guys played today. We had some shots that we missed early, and that affected us – but we stayed with it. We got great plays from Matt Hill, Dogus Balbay, and what J’Covan Brown did at the end was great. I really think the single biggest stat in the game was Tristan Thompson’s five blocks, I think those were all huge plays. You look at Tristan’s line, and it is just what I told the team after the game, but what he did today, in 38 minutes was the key to the game.”
On the impact he thought the bigger lineup had:
“We had to do it because we were in foul trouble at times. We had a really good day from our guards, but (Kansas) is a hard team to guard because they do a great job of screening. They are the best team in the country at moving the ball.”
On the mindset the team had when they were facing a deficit early on:
“I know our team, and I do think there is a time in the game where they have to figure it out themselves. I told them during the first timeout, when we started the game with two missed shots we let that affect the rest of the game. I told them we needed to stay together, and stay with it. We know that we can put points on the board.”
Texas sophomore guard J’Covan Brown
On his play in the second half:
“Coach (Rick Barnes) talked to us at halftime, and told us that we have to execute plays. I just came off a screen, and it was open, and I shot it and it went in. That’s the look I needed, so now I can start being aggressive, and that’s what I did.”
On their second half effort:
“It started with Tristan (Thompson), he was great on the Morris twins. He made it tough on them by playing defense with high hands, and he was aggressive with them. That turned the whole game around.”
On beating Kansas and breaking the streak:
“I think it was a key win for us. Last year they came in our house and destroyed us. That was what was on my mind the whole time, but I didn’t tell anybody. I thought if we got this win, it would relieve stress, just to come back and get a win here, it was good for our team.”
On getting more comfortable as the game went on:
“We were down early, but we knew we had to keep playing. The Morris twins were getting hot and energetic, but we knew we just had to stay together and not break as a team. We had to stay together and keep grinding it out.”
Texas sophomore forward Jordan Hamilton
On their mindset after being down early:
“In the first half we didn’t execute and we could have played a lot harder. They came in on fire. I thought they did a great job in the first half and we did a terrible job. Then we came out in the second half and we played hard and Coach (Barnes) always said we are going to win this game.”
On J’Covan Brown’s second half play:
“He was great; he hit big shots. He made some threes, he got to the free throw line, he shot great free throws and he also got some key rebounds that we needed. I thought he did a great job tonight.”
On coming out strong in the second half:
“We shot bad; we only scored 20 some points. We just did a terrible job and in the second half we came out and just execute, and played as hard as we could.”
On whether he thought Kansas was getting frustrated down the stretch:
“Not really frustrated, but they knew they needed baskets and the game was getting real tight and the refs were making sure they were on top of every call. I think both teams were getting antsy and jitters going on, but I think we both played a great game and we are lucky to get the win.”
Texas freshman forward Tristan Brown
On their second half effort:
“We knew coming in that with the game [Kansas] had against Baylor they would be jacked up, and ready for the game. We knew we had to come in and match their intensity, because if they get started, it’s going to be a long night for us.”
On beating Kansas and breaking the streak:
“They’re a great team and a great program, but it’s a road game, it was one win and you have to keep building from that. We showed a lot of bad things in the first half; we didn’t play our game unfortunately, but we were able to bounce back and pull out the win. We know we have a lot of stuff to work on, but in terms of the record and what it means to Texas history, it’s impressive, but we have to keep working. It’s old news now.”
