Postgame Quotes

Nov. 10, 2009

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Postgame Quotes

Kansas 103, Pittsburg State 45

Nov. 10, 2009 – Lawrence, Kan.

Kansas Head Coach Bill Self

On the KU freshmen:

“They are better than I thought they would be. Everyone thought Xavier (Henry) would be a great prospect and he is. I don’t know that anybody thought Elijah (Johnson) and Thomas (Robinson) would be the players that they are this early. I was seriously thinking a month ago that Elijah was a perfect redshirt candidate. Now he’s a guy that can be a 20 minute a game guy. Thomas is going to be good. I think all three have performed at a higher level than anyone of us thought they would.”

On Thomas Robinson:

“I thought he played with a good motor tonight. He can run. He’s strong. He keeps balls alive. He’s not as tall as maybe some other prototypical power forwards but he goes after balls and has nice touch on the ball. His free throws are soft.”

On what the team can improve upon before Hofstra:

“Everything. We haven’t gotten in everything that we need to know. The next two days we’ll have to get some repetition and put in a few things, and really, every team in America at the beginning of the season doesn’t have everything in and of course we’re the same way. You know we’ll play at home and hopefully the crowd will be really into it. I thought the crowd tonight was great for an exhibition game. We were up big and they stuck around. We were playing Pittsburg State, and nothing against Pittsburg State, but it was a division two school and we had over 16,000 people in the stands.”

Junior guard Connor Teahan

On recent redshirts:

“Travis Releford, Mario Little and I play the same position and with those two redshirting we didn’t have another three besides Xavier Henry because Brady Morningstar is sitting out this first semester. Coach Bill Self and I thought it was the best decision for the team in case anything should happen throughout the season I can be there for the team to give support in the three spot.”

On playing in the game vs. Pittsburg State:

“It is always fun playing. I got a couple minutes in the first half and I was happy with that. I am constantly trying to get better and I am never really satisfied. I just want to help the team and today I think I did a pretty good job.”

Sophomore forward Marcus Morris

On how he improved his vertical jump:

“My vertical changed to 34 inches this year from 28 inches last year. To workout I had to get up at 6 a.m. in the morning and that stuff made my legs hurt so much that I had to take a week off. We did a lot of squats and we did a dance for it, like the arcade game, because it helps with your feet quickness. I wouldn’t do that dance in front of people though.”

On teammate Thomas Robinson:

“His energy is great and that’s what separates him from a lot of players. If I don’t go as hard as he does then coach is going to look at me and wonder why I’m not going as hard and now we are all going hard. He brings a lot of energy and passion to our team.”

On how he improved in the off-season:

“My teammates, coaches and trainers helped make me better. I was thinking to myself Cole Aldrich wasn’t as good his first year and he made a drastic change and now it was my brother and mine’s turn to do the same thing.”

Pittsburg State Head Coach Gene Iba

On the game:

“I would have liked to have played better. For one thing I would have liked to continue to think that we bring teams in here that can give them a college experience better than, say, an AAU team. Tonight we did not give KU much help, but they are a very good basketball team and to be honest about it, our kids are not quite ready to deal with the kind of perimeter defense as well as the rebounding that we had to come by. We played against a very good team at K-State and this is a very good team over here. We are not going to be able to rebound teams like that, but the good news is we don’t have to.”

On the difference between KU and K-State:

“I am not going to compare the two of them because they are both getting started. I do think that K-State is going to be a much better team than they have been. I told Coach Self when I talked to him that I think this team is going to be very good. It is going to take some time to get the young ones in the direction that they need to go.”

On holding on at the beginning of the game:

“They broke (the game) open with two things; they started trapping on the high post pick, to be honest with you we had not practiced that, but I don’t think that would have made much difference. That really hurt us and broke the game open. The other thing is that they did a really good job on the boards and we didn’t. I thought we blocked out well for the first eight to 10 minutes, but after that I don’t think we did much else.”

On playing KU:

“First off, it is a big thing for everybody now that KU is ranked where they are. They have two great players and they will remember playing them for a long time. Also, it is good for our fans to have a chance to come into Allen Fieldhouse.”

Pittsburg State senior guard Spencer Magana

On the team’s strong start:

“We came out and played hard and competed at the beginning. They started pushing their defense out and speeding us up. We just kept getting quicker, turned it over and gave them easy points.”

On playing KU:

“They are very tall, very athletic, and very long. They are quick in all spots, and they are really good.”

On playing in Allen Fieldhouse:

“The Phog is enjoyable for any basketball player, especially if you are from the Midwest.”

On the score:

“For us it is an issue of pride. You want to go out have a good showing, do your best and play your best. It was kind of embarrassing, but I think that this game will definitely help us in the long run.”