Kansas Postgame Player Quotes
Nov. 1, 2006
Recap | Final Stats | Notes |
LAWRENCE, Kan. –
Kansas Postgame Player Quotes
Kansas 80 Fort Hays State 55
November 1, 2006
Head Coach Bonnie Henrickson
On the game:
“I thought our defensive intensity was real good in the first half. I thought our shot selection was good in the first half and we had some poise in the half court. I saw a lot of good things from a lot of young kids and that is exciting. What is disappointing is our attention span is about a hour and fifteen minutes and that is what it looked like tonight. I won’t let that take away from the fact of how good we were at times tonight. We had a lot of good things that happened for us tonight and a lot of things that we need to work on. They were able to win the second half because we weren’t as aggressive.”
On the freshmen:
“I thought to begin with it was Sade (Morris) eight and Fort Hays State two. I thought she went to the basket aggressively and attacked the offensive glass. Danielle (McCray) did a nice job on the boards. She is a tough matchup. She got a little tired in the second half and some of her shots came up a little bit short, but physically she is at the next level for a young kid. Both of them played confidently. Lindsey (Ballweg) played confidently and I was glad she hit the three from the corner. I thought Kelly (Kohn) played confidently and it was nice to get her some work in at both the one and the two. Porscha (Weddington) didn’t stick out in a bad way and often times when you a freshman that is a good thing. She played aggressively and ran the floor well. LaChelda (Jacobs) was like a blur out there and speed kills.”
On Junior Taylor McIntosh:
“I thought she was more aggressive. She tried to put it on the floor more and get to the rim and I thought she did a nice job of that. She had some problems in getting into foul trouble last year and she needs to get smarter in that area. We need her to be aggressive.”
Junior Forward Taylor McIntosh
On the second half:
“We had a lot of early fouls, but we still wanted to play aggressively. We got a little timid because we didn’t want to foul. We were turning the ball over and we weren’t getting any stops, and they weren’t turning the ball over; I think that was the main issue. I think we were more mentally tired than physically. That’s something we have to work on because we have another game coming up on Sunday.”
Comparing this team with previous teams:
“I think we are more aggressive and more energetic. We have more bodies so we can press and get out and run. This style of play is to my advantage because it’s what I am used to playing in high school.”
On the freshmen:
“They looked really good. At the beginning we ran a tip play, and our freshmen started out really well making rebounds and put-backs. I think they all did well and came in ready to hit shots.”
Freshman Forward Danielle McCray
On the second half:
“Our defensive intensity went down in the second half. Overall I think we played well. We have to work on keeping our defensive tempo up all 40 minutes of the game. We need to keep getting out in passing lanes and limit our opponent’s offensive rebounds. If we keep up the defensive end our offense will come.”
On her first game as a Jayhawk:
“It felt really good. It seemed like it took forever to get here since January of my junior year (of high school). I was really excited and I think we played very well tonight.”
On the freshmen:
“I think we all played really well, both the freshman and the returning players. I was impressed with how we bonded and played together on the court. I think we are going to be really good this year judging from the first game and how we played.”
Freshman Forward Sade Morris
On playing at the college level:
“The intensity is different. In high school you can get by with jogging and still being able to get into the lanes. In college you have to be sprinting constantly. You can’t afford to take a break because if you do you’re going to get beat.”
Fort Hays State Quotes
Head Coach Annette Wiles
On the game:
“They (Fort Hays State players) did pretty well once they got over the `wow’ factor of playing KU–a division one program. Early on in the ball game we took a couple of timeouts to settle the nerves a bit, but we really dug ourselves a hole to start the game. At halftime, I really challenged our kids to see if they were going to battle or if we need to go out there and lay down. But, I was really proud of our kids to fight back like they did because this was a situation where it could have been easy to let the game get away. I was so incredibly proud of the effort of our kids and how they just kept fighting back.”
On play in the paint:
“We felt like there were times where we were just getting shoved underneath the basket to where we were getting pushed out of rebounding positions. We talked about maintaining space and attacking the boards instead of just boxing out. I thought our guards did a much better job of helping us rebound in the second half. In the early scrimmages we have been able to get the ball to the inside and our post players have been able to dominate. The other night at a scrimmage our post players nearly had 40 points in the ball game. But tonight helped us realize that we have to be a balanced team with both our outside and inside game. KU can go with such a tall lineup and some physical post players that is makes things more difficult for us.”
Senior Forward Ashlee Gustin
On the game:
“We started off pretty rocky, but we knew we had four specific things to work on in the second half–two on offense and two on defense. I think coming back from 30 points at halftime to 15 at one point showed what we could do when we listen to coach. I thought we did a very nice job in the second half. There are eight new players on our team and one is out with an injury right now, but all of the new girls did an awesome job tonight. I thought the returners did a pretty good job.
On playing at Allen Fieldhouse:
“Allen Fieldhouse is a really intimidating place to play. I think it just took us awhile to get use to the atmosphere and how big it actually is. I think after we got over that, I think we cooled down and finally started playing better.”