Postgame Quotes
Feb. 11, 2013
Recap | Final Stats | Notes |
Kansas 83, Kansas State 62
Feb. 11, 2013
Postgame Quotes
Kansas head coach Bill Self
On the team’s aggressive play:
“The crowd was unbelievable. Our guys really manned up. We have been so bad for about a week, but the guys showed up. They fought tonight. I was so proud of them. The stats are the same, except we got them on the glass. We were so aggressive early on. I don’t know how many layups we missed, but it was from guys trying too hard and going so hard to the glass. They have a good team and they didn’t go away, but I don’t know if I have seen us play with that much intensity and awareness than we did the first 20 minutes.”
On senior Jeff Withey breaking the career blocks record:
“Jeff was great. I’m not much into these personal records as much. I guess when you are old you can tell your kids about it, but by the time your kids are old enough, somebody has probably already beaten it. He was great tonight and he has been great all year long. He scored the ball, made his free throws and of course he is such a defensive presence in there. There we a lot of times we were beat, especially in the second half, and he wiped out mistakes. I’m happy for him, really the whole team, but him and Ben (McLemore) were on a different level tonight.”
On freshman Ben McLemore:
“He is a big time guy. These are just kids and they are facing different pressures than what they have ever faced in their life. I think that Ben, the last week or two weeks, hasn’t had that same smile, that same youthful exuberance that you would expect him to have. Tonight he just played. He is such a talented kid that when he just goes out and plays and has that bounce, he is hard to guard.”
On the team’s recent struggle:
“We looked athletic tonight. I would say the last three games, we have been the least athletic of the teams that we have played, from a quickness standpoint. I don’t know what went wrong, but I do know if we weren’t tough enough to grind it out and get through that stretch, we probably needed to have a knot put in our head and we certainly did. We are certainly better for it. It is going to be more difficult to win the league than it ever has been with where we still have to go and the games that we have remaining, but we’re in the game. I like the opportunity that lies before us and we have a really good team and really good players, but we have to play a certain way and tonight we played that way.”
On Saturday’s game against Texas:
“I think there are a lot of guys coming back. The most important guy coming back is Rio (Mario Chalmers) without question. We are going to hang is jersey in the rafters. I’m excited for Mario, certainly he deserves it. What a great three years and a great cap to finish off his career. For us, it’s (ESPN College) Gameday; it’s an infomercial for the University of Kansas for 12 hours. We can talk about some positive things and we won’t be talking about the three losses in a row, at least not as much. I’m excited for it. It’s always a great time when Gameday is here and we are playing a Texas team that has (Myck) Kabongo back and they are dangerous. We always have great games against Texas, always close, so it should be a lot of fun.”
Kansas senior Jeff Withey
On the crowd’s energy:
“The crowd definitely helped us tonight. The Fieldhouse was rocking tonight and we needed that. They helped us get more excited, even though we were ready for this game. There’s nothing like the Fieldhouse.”
On K-State’s early foul trouble:
“It was huge that they were in foul trouble early. Almost all of their bigs had two or three fouls pretty early. That made it easier for us to get rebounds. It was a pretty physical game.”
On setting the Kansas career record for blocked shots:
“It feels good. I’m not satisfied obviously. I want to break the conference record too. It’s cool, but I still have some work to do.”
Kansas sophomore Naadir Tharpe
On guarding Kansas State’s Rodney McGruder:
“In practice we already knew what we needed to do against him and it wasn’t just one person guarding him. Basically, in practice we talked about that everyone needs to be on him because we knew he was going to be coming off screens and getting open. It was everyone as a team doing it together. I feel that this is the reason he didn’t play as well tonight as he usually does.”
On the team’s rhythm:
“Coach (Self) has been getting on us about being fast a lot. He tells us to just go out there and play. I felt like a lot of times we really weren’t running any sets; we were just out there playing together and the game was flowing.”
Kansas freshman Ben McLemore
On how tonight was different from the team’s last three games:
“We just played as a team tonight, and we played Kansas basketball. We just went out there and gave it our all. We started on the defensive end by getting some stops.”
On his performance tonight:
“Coach (Self) told me to just go out there and play ball and not to worry about impressing him. I just needed to go out there and play my game, and that’s what I did. Naadir (Tharpe) helped me a lot. He gave me a lot of passes and saved some missed shots. It was great.”
Kansas State head coach Bruce Weber
Opening Statement:
“I think in the game of basketball it’s not always who you play, but when you play them. They had a very, very tough week. They probably hung their head for a little while. They got their head up and it’s always a good remedy to come back home and get the energy of the crowd. I thought we battled for the first seven or eight minutes and then they went on a spurt. Ben (McLemore) got going and we gave up way too many layups. It happens. We are still in first place and I told them if we win the rest of our games, we win the league. We know it’s going to be tough, but that’s how we have to approach it and we can’t let one loss become two losses. The only disappointing thing was our defense, our toughness, and our discipline were not there today. I thought we would have competed a little better. It should have been more of a game.”
On foul trouble:
“With Thomas Gipson in the game it gives us a better threat inside. Jordan (Henriquez) can do some things defensively that Thomas doesn’t do. We were kind scrambling when the score was 14-9 and they got going. Can’t have excuses. That’s part of basketball. Ben (McLemore) was in trouble at our place and we did not take advantage of it. They went and took advantage of the opportunity.”
On Ben McLemore:
“Today we let him roam too much and he got going and made shots. For all freshman you are going to run into tough games, but he got home and feeling good and got a couple down. I don’t think the threes were as much a factor as us giving up 34 points in the paint and 19 second chance points. That’s the difference in the game and it was the difference for us against Iowa State on Saturday. We controlled the paint, we controlled the second chance points. I thought they got us strung out, they got us in transition. We allowed way too many layups and we just broke down defensively, which we had been pretty good at.”
On the start of the second half:
“At halftime we just talked about pride and fight and you never know what can happen. We talked at the four minute timeout we wanted to cut it under 16 and we were right there. We talked about each four minutes, cutting four off the lead and we did a great job to start the half and I thought we tried to hit some home runs and grand slams without anyone on base. We took some tough shots and turned it over. You have to be solid and make easy plays. Put them on defense. Put a little pressure on them and we tried to get it all back too quickly.”
Kansas State senior guard Rodney McGruder
On his play in the second half:
“My teammates did a better job of getting me open and finding me. I came off screens a little more aggressively in the second half.”
On not winning at Allen Fieldhouse in career:
“It’s something I can dwell on when my career is over, but for right now I have to get ready for the next game.”
Kansas State junior guard Will Spradling
On the first half:
“When they pulled away they hit a lot of threes, but they also got a lot of easy dunks and that’s something we didn’t give up the first game. When they get dunks at home it gets the crowd going too and they feed off that crowd really well.”
