Quotes
Feb. 2, 2005
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Kansas Head Coach Bonnie Henrickson
On the game:
“I thought we broke down defensively. We made it such a point of emphasis about how much they make the extra pass through the middle of the lane and when they (Oklahoma) would go to the baseline, we didn’t drop and take away the pass. We gave up so much middle penetration to kick out passes. It was disappointing that we couldn’t score off a busted play and they could. It’s not like they scored off all their primary looks. When opponents are on the perimeter we have to be more aggressive defensively. Aquanita (Burras) has to penetrate in the middle and make a pass. We have got to be better defensively. We took three more shots than them and got beat by 20 points. That shows how ineffective we were.”
On Oklahoma’s Dionnah Jackson:
“Dionnah (Jackson) can penetrate the middle and make a pass. If we deny the kick-out, which we tried, she can make a move and finish at the rim. Right now that is a struggle for us defensively. It is something we think Aqua (Burras) should be able to do, but is really struggling with. It’s a credit to her (Jackson) using her athletic ability to get to the rim and finish.”
On Taylor McIntosh:
“The main reason she fouled out was because she didn’t rotate fast enough to cover the middle penetration. She has a tendency to get her hands in and get a foul called. Her fouls came on penetration and over-the-back calls when she was rebounding. She has to let those go. It happens because of youth and inexperience unfortunately. She has to be older and wiser and play like a sophomore. We love her intensity and effort to get to the glass, but she has to be smart so she doesn’t pick up the fouls.”
On what Kansas must work on before playing at Missouri on Saturday:
“We have to work and execute better on both ends of the floor. It’s disappointing for us that we can’t create any offense from our defense. We just haven’t been able to create any offense in transition. We have to be able to buckle down and be better defensively and create some transition opportunities. In non-conference we averaged 25-28 possessions in transition. We are now down to five or six possessions in transition. We will get better and rebound from this. We will work for a couple of hours tomorrow to try get it all right. It will be a great opportunity for us to get a win on the road on Saturday.”
Junior Forward Crystal Kemp
On the Oklahoma first half run:
“We were not aggressive and we did not match their (Oklahoma’s) intensity. We held our heads down and once you get out of it mentally, there is not much that you can do physically. We have to be able to respond to runs like that and we did not do that tonight.”
Senior Guard Aquanita Burras
On the game:
“We have put ourselves in the position to come from behind in a lot of games. We hit a wall and then we try to make up the points. Then we start throwing up shots and we need to just take our time and be poised.”
On the energy level in the second half:
“When you leave the court in the first half, that is how your energy is going to be in the second half. We didn’t have any energy leaving the court in the first half.”
Junior Guard Erica Hallman
On Dionnah Jackson’s defensive pressure:
“She did a good job of pressuring me. Once I got the ball, she would be right up on me. I wasn’t knocking shots down, but she did a really good job tonight.”
On Oklahoma’s first half run:
“That run was a big factor. We have to do a better job of answering runs and we didn’t do that tonight. When we are not scoring, we have to stop people from scoring. We just have to find a way to get some sort of points, whether that means getting to the foul line or just making shots.”
Oklahoma Head Coach Sherri Coale
On the game:
“I was proud of our team because we needed a win in the most desperate way. It wasn’t necessarily pretty, but it counts just the same and we needed to see some success.”
On Kansas:
“The improvement of the Kansas team from last year to this year is nothing short of phenomenal. Bonnie (Henrickson) has been able to do (so much) with them. The first thing you notice is their conditioning, endurance and their strength. The second thing you notice is their discipline and their plan. It’s a good plan and you have to work to take them out of it. I think that is a hard thing to do in this league. She’s done a remarkable job. They really competed for 40 minutes.”
“KU is very methodical. They have a plan and they know what they want to do. We wanted to limit Crystal Kemp’s touches, and we did a good job on that. She only had seven attempts. We tried to speed them up a little bit by trapping them and running some half-court plays. We tried to get them out of their rhythm and we also tried to push them into transition. It was a key going into the game to not let KU feel real comfortable and have that adamant style about them.”
On Oklahoma’s momentum:
“We’ve been Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde from the three-point line. Sometimes we are unbelievable and sometimes we can’t throw the ball in the ocean off a boat. Last Saturday against Iowa State we were on the boat. We needed to see one go in the basket. It was kind of one of those things when you see one go in, you say `here we go.’ (Erin) Higgins hit one early and felt good about it. Kendra Moore coming in the game and knocking those two down was huge. I felt like there was about a six or seven minute run there that really changed the game. Great minutes were played by Beky Preston off the bench and great minutes were played by Kendra Moore, both on the offensive and defensive end. Our big run was the story of the game.”
On Bonnie Henrickson:
“I watched Bonnie’s teams at Virginia Tech and they always really guard you. She does a great job of recruiting and recruiting kids that can play the way she wants to play. You know at an institution like this, she’s going to have success.”
On Dionnah Jackson:
“She gets some national attention, but I don’t think that anybody knows what a complete player she is. Not very long ago, she had 16 assists against Texas A&M, just an unbelievable night distributing the basketball. Most nights she gets double-digit rebounds, and most nights she leads us in scoring or at least scores in double digits. People start talking about all of that and forgets what Dionnah Jackson really is in the heart of her game, is a defensive stopper.”
On Erica Hallman:
“Hallman is a heck of a player. She can really score. She can put it on the floor, shoot a pull-up jumper, she can shoot a three and get to the rim. Dionnah really frustrated her. I think two of the three (baskets) she made was while Dionnah was out resting.”
