Postgame Quotes
Jan. 29, 2011
Postgame Quotes
Kansas 90, Kansas State 66
January 29, 2011
Kansas Head Coach Bill Self
On the energy in the building:
“It was great; of course you expected that for a lot of reasons. We played well; if we could have converted a couple of times in transition we would have played great. Really, we did play great but we could have played exceptionally well. We still didn’t rebound the ball defensively like we are capable of. Everybody played well, but what a night Thomas (Robinson) had.”
On Robinson’s play:
“He was unbelievable. He’s just got to make some free throws. But he was so fired up and played so hard and we all played pretty smart. Defensively we were really good in the first half. They missed open shots, but not a ton. In the second half, we weren’t great defensively but we were on offense. We were so efficient so I was proud of our guys. If we want to talk about Thomas, he was great. If we want to talk about the game, Markieff (Morris) controlled the game inside. He was terrific. Josh (Selby) lit it up. Everybody was solid. The one guy who kind of controlled the game from start to finish was Tyshawn (Taylor). I thought he was terrific tonight. Obviously he made shots and got the ball to the rim and made the game easier for everyone else.”
On defending Jacob Pullen:
“I have a lot of respect for Jacob, but we did a fabulous job on him. He had two stretches where he scored eight in a row and nine in a row. A few of those times, Tyshawn was on him. That’s frustrating to me when a guy’s focus defensively should be on him, and at the end of the game (Pullen) has 21. In large part it was because some other guys didn’t do their job. But I thought Tyshawn was really good.”
On Wayne Simien:
“He means a lot to a lot of people around here. He’s as great of a young man as there is. He deserves to have his jersey hung. I’ve been very fortunate to coach some bad boys in my career; he is the baddest college player I’ve ever coached. I mean bad as in good. We’ve never had anyone like him where we could throw it to him and we knew four out of five times something good was going to happen. As a collegiate player, there’s been none better. I’m real happy for him.”
On the week ahead:
“The schedule has been three and three so far. We are undefeated on the road and of course Texas got us at home last Saturday. This is probably the biggest week of the year for us. We haven’t won at Texas Tech since I’ve been here; we are 0-3 down there. Then we’re going back to Nebraska who handled A&M today, they are good. It took everything we had to beat them here, so we know that this is an important week. Then we have Missouri here that next Monday. In the next nine days, there’s a good chance we will know a lot more about our conference chances.”
Junior forward Markieff Morris
On attacking in the paint:
“Yesterday when we watched film, we saw they liked to play really high on the floor, so we just kept working it down low. We got a lot of high lows.”
On their play overall:
“We gave up a couple of easy baskets, but you could say [this was one of our better performances].”
Junior guard Tyshawn Taylor
On vision in the passing game:
“I think we did good setting each other up for passes. Because the way their defense is, they play so high up on the floor, we got a lot of backdoor looks. That was a good pass from Brady, I wasn’t even expecting it, and he hit me perfectly and I got a lay-up. We got that a couple times, I think Thomas hit Brady one time on a high low like that too, so it was open, because of their style of defense.”
On getting a win at home:
“It was definitely good, I think we were juiced about today, it was a big day. The fans have been here all day going crazy, so it was a big day for us, and I felt like we owed it to the fans. We came out last weekend and didn’t play as well as we wanted to and we lost, but we came back and we played as well as we could. We made a couple mistakes here and there, but I thought we played really good tonight.”
On the game by Thomas Robinson:
“He did really good, and I am glad he got off. I knew it was only a matter of time, because his intensity, and he plays so hard, so I knew it was only a matter of time before he made those easy ones that he was missing early. I am happy for him.”
On their defensive game plan:
“We just played our principles. Our coaches did a nice job of scouting them, and we did a nice job at practice the last couple days, just going over their stuff so we kind of knew a lot of their sets. We just did a good job defending them, I don’t think we did anything different than usual, we just played the scouting report well.”
Sophomore forward Thomas Robinson
On his feeling coming back to play:
“It was amazing, but coming into this game I felt that I owed it to all the fans and all the people across the country that have helped me get through this hard time. “
The reason why he played against K-State:
“I played tonight because I cannot sit around too long. I know my mother wouldn’t want me to sit around crying forever, but I keep going on and striving to reach my goals.”
On the first dunk he missed:
“I missed it because I jumped higher than I needed to and tried to pull the rim down and the ball came out. It was just a little mental mistake.”
On the crowd’s standing ovation:
“Like I explained earlier, it is beyond amazing and it was a good crowd. We have great people all across Kansas. This past month really has opened my eyes to how amazing this place is. It is beyond words to describe how I feel and the love that I have for The University of Kansas and the fans.”
On the feeling of being back on the court with his teammates:
“It feels amazing because I have not been playing basketball for a whole week, and that is unheard of to be sitting around for four days and not play. I was so anxious to get back on the court whether it is practice or the game. I just could not wait to be back in Allen (Fieldhouse) again.”
On what was meaningful to him:
“The support that I received was beyond amazing, and the support is still coming. I know that I cannot physically say thank you to every person that has helped me, but if this could get out I just want to thank people that have tried to reach out to me or thought about me.”
Kansas State Head Coach Frank Martin
On how hard it is to overcome the deficit they faced in the beginning:
“Well, we did it two years ago. Last time I checked, (Kansas) had (three) guys on that team that played in the NBA. We were down 18-0, we had the courage and the character to stay the course. We didn’t win the game, but I was proud that our guys, with a tough environment against a very good team, were able to put up a fight.”
On what impressed him most with Kansas:
“I’ve always said that Bill (Self’s) teams play as hard and as united as any team in the country – that is a credit to Bill and his staff. Obviously they did a hell of a lot better job than I did. Kansas is good, Tyshawn (Taylor) has come a long way, Josh (Selby) is a guy that just gets them baskets. Tyrel Reed and (Brady) Morningstar are grown men, they understand how to play, they screen, they pass the ball and they just played the game with a different tempo.”
On why they had such a hard time scoring:
“Kansas. They made it difficult for us and we were not disciplined enough. Everyone always wants to blame the guy with the ball and very rarely is it his fault.”
On being involved in the Coaches vs. Cancer foundation:
“It is huge for me. Cancer is that dreaded evil – as a society, we have been trying to fight it. Every other disease that has existed, we have found a cure for, but we can’t completely cure this. As coaches, we’re competitors, but we are very united to try and do what we can, given the stage that we’re on.”
Kansas State senior Jacob Pullen
On what he said to Thomas Robinson after the game:
“Basketball is basketball and the things that he is going through in life, and regardless if this is a rivalry or whatever, the things that he is going through right now are things you wouldn’t wish upon your worst enemy. I just told him that he has to use basketball as a tool for other things in life and to keep his head up at all times and things will get better. God will never put you in a situation that you can’t handle and right now times are tough on him but I told him that things would definitely get better.”
On what the hardest thing about falling behind early is:
“It’s something that you try to prepare for but, at the same time, it’s something that seems to always happen when you walk into this building. They usually don’t miss in the beginning and they capitalize on your turnovers and bad shots. For us, it happened again.”
Kansas State sophomore Rodney McGruder
On what they’ll take from this game:
“We have to do a lot. We have to be physical, have to make shots. We have to do a lot of things in practice.”
