February 24, 2012

Postgame Quotes

Feb. 24, 2012

Kansas 45, Baylor 76
February 24, 2012
Postgame Quotes

Kansas head coach Bonnie Henrickson
Opening Statement:
“You talk about, in basketball and probably other sports too, being quick but don’t rush, but boy once we got some uncontested shots we shot it out of rhythm. They are who they are and they do to you what they are capable of doing to you. It’s disappointing because we didn’t execute, we had people in the wrong spots and we can’t waste possessions. We didn’t screen the whole first half. The (Brittney) Griner effect was some of that. Aishah (Sutherland) is a good offensive player, but she struggled tonight and a lot of it was uncontested. Offensively, we were a mess early on.”

On if the players weren’t in the right spots on offense:
“We had people in the wrong spots and we really only put in one thing, which was to get Aishah(Sutherland) some baseline shots to get her loose a little bit. At their (Baylor) place we tried to post her because she had the 4’s, but the problem is (Brittney) Griner is in there looming somewhere and she’s (Sutherland) quick-shooting everything down there because she knows she’s (Griner) around. So, we thought if we got her out on the perimeter, which Aishah has a good face-up game, but not let her play one-on-one (we would have some success). We probably messed that up twice in the first half and then we tried to run another play for her, but she (Sutherland) was in the wrong spot. Everybody’s got to be on the same page. We talked about being opportunistic in transition if we had good numbers, but if we were not efficient we wanted to slow it down and get into some screening action to help us with all the length and athleticism. Really, until the second half when Natalie (Knight) drives it middle and Angel (Goodrich) finally back cuts her guy, because they stare at the ball – they do a lot of good things defensively, but they’ll get caught watching the ball – but it wasn’t until like the 12 minute mark in the second half that Angel’s guy stares at the ball and (Goodrich) back cuts her and gets a shot. Now, she doesn’t score it, but she gets an uncontested look. We just tried to play five games of one-on-one on the offensive end and you can’t do that with them (Baylor). They are too athletic and too long.”

On how much Carolyn Davis’ absence hurt tonight:
“She scored six field goals at their place, but they were all face up because we didn’t post her. She hit two with her heels on the three (point line), so we tried to post the 4’s and Carolyn gave us offense facing the basket. She got one over the top in transition in the second half. Post players have to score on the perimeter most of the time against Griner. So, yes, Carolyn’s perimeter offense is what helped us at their place.”

On what the approach is moving on after tonight’s game:
“You have to accept responsibility and hold yourself accountable because when we call plays you have to know what you’re doing. You have to be dialed in and focused and do the things you have to do from a discipline standpoint. There are some things that let us down today that will affect us if we try to do them against Oklahoma State. There are some things we have to be able to clean up and execute on Wednesday. Then there are some things that change how you play offensively when you have Brittney Griner in the paint. It is what it is. As soon as she (Griner) went out, we ran a play for Chelsea (Gardner) and she got a layup. Well, she came right back in. I guess Kim (Mulkey) didn’t like that so much. We ran something in the paint as soon as she subbed her out, well as soon as we scored, she subbed her right back in. We have to accept responsibility for things in the game that we can control. I’m too competitive to just throw this game out the window. There’s too much that was on us that we’ve got to be better and we will be better.”

On who has stepped in, in Carolyn Davis’ absence:
“The person who has added the most in the post is CeCe Harper, which she doesn’t play the post. Chelsea (Gardner)’s done a decent job. We didn’t ask Chelsea to be Carolyn Davis over night, but what we’ve gotten from CeCe is a little competitiveness, some toughness and she’s made some plays. She played really well the other night against Texas Tech. It may not be the same guy every night, as long as it’s a couple guys. It may not be at Carolyn’s position, it may be somewhere else. Asia (Boyd) gave us some good possessions here and she made some young mistakes. At least she competed and gave us a little bounce.”

Kansas junior guard Angel Goodrich
On the slow start to the game:
“I felt like we did a pretty good job in the first couple of minutes, but when they went off on that run so fast it hurts and it can get you down; but you can’t allow that to happen to you. When a team goes on a run like that, you have to try to get out and you can’t dig yourself a hole, especially the large hole we dug ourselves in.”

On slow play on the offensive end in the first 10 minutes:
“Almost every possession is where we let it go down to the last shot. We were chasing our shots up and we were rushing our shots, which is not our team. We needed to focus more on our form and the way we shoot it every day rather than focus on the team we are playing and their ability to speed up play.”

On playing a number one ranked team:
“It always fun to play a team like that; it becomes a challenge to our team and you have to love challenges. You do not want to go in with the attitude that they are going to dominate you, but you want to come and compete as best you can. Getting the opportunity to play the number one team makes you try to give your all, which you have to do, because everyone in this league is so good.”

On Chelsea Gardner taking Carolyn Davis’ spot:
“I feel like she has done really well, even though she is young. We didn’t ask her to be Carolyn, she just has to be her and focus on her strengths.”

Kansas freshman post Chelsea Gardner
On playing against Brittney Griner:
“I just had to adjust my shot. I usually work on the inside, but tonight I had to work on my jump shot, instead of driving to the goal.”

On feeling comfortable on the court:
“I felt good and relaxed, and I didn’t feel any pressure on me. I felt that I had to go out there and not think about Brittany (Griner) and just play my game.”

On improving for the last couple of games:
“I just need to just go into the gym and get some shots in. I had a lot of missed jumpers and I need to clean them up for the coming games.”

Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey
On what she feels like the team needs to fix before postseason:
“Well I could probably give you a bunch of things that we need to work on but it’s not something that’s necessarily going to be exposed in tonight’s game because we’re playing everybody. You mainly want to make sure you have your rotation get enough minutes to stay in shape and get them off the floor. I thought we did that again tonight; we got (Brittney) Griner and some others off the floor around the nine minute mark and allowed different people to play extended minutes. Late in the year it’s important when you can rest players and we’ve been able to do that a lot as of late and we’ll just keep gauging that but we’ve got a lot to work on. You don’t ever become content; you don’t ever become satisfied but just stay hungry. I think this team has achieved what they have because we remember what happened last year.”

On what she thought of her team’s defense:
“If you look at NCAA stats, we’re up there in field goal percentage defense and we take great pride in that. You’re not going to play for me if you’re not going to guard people; if you’re coming out of a game you’re usually coming out for something you did wrong on the defensive end of the floor. If you’re not doing something defensively, you’re going to be coming out of the game and they understand that. You can come to our practices and see that there are days we don’t even do anything offensively and we take a lot of pride in that.”

On finishing the season undefeated:
“That hasn’t been a goal of ours; it’s not on the goal board. I mean, you certainly want to win every time you play but if we lose one of the next five – two regular season games and three tournament – it’s ok. It’s the last six games we’re focusing on and those are the last six games of the NCAA tournament.”

Baylor junior center Brittney Griner
On how much easier it was to play inside without Carolyn Davis:
“I don’t think it was really any easier because the post players Kansas has guarded me just the same as if Carolyn was out there.”

On if the undefeated season is something that is motivating the team right now:
“I don’t think we’re just going through the motions at all; we want to finish this season out strong. We’re just focused on finishing our conference first and then we’ll think about the tournament.”