KU QUOTES

Nov. 15, 2006

Recap | Final Stats | Notes |

Head Coach Bill Self Postgame Quotes
Oral Roberts 78, Kansas 71
November 15, 2006

Head Coach Bill Self

On the game:
“Our defense wasn’t any good, that was pretty evident. We weren’t any quicker than them. They were quicker to balls than we were. They played to their post-man a lot which nullifies defensive pressure. When the guy posts 10 to 13 feet because you can’t front him that far out. Our defense wasn’t any good. I don’t want to take away from the fact that they played really good, they played great. Their two big guys were 9-of-11 from three. One cat (Marchello Vealy) was 1-for-13 last year, and was 7-for-8 tonight from the 3-point line. We didn’t make adjustments and get to them. I have said all along we have some serious things we have to address and they exposed us in a lot of ways.”

On Green:
“He was by the far the best player in the game. We are talking about Wright, Rush and Chalmers. Caleb Green was the best player in the game. Any NBA scout would tell you that Caleb (Green) was the best player out there.”

On the ranking:
“I knew that was going to happen two months ago. We didn’t deserve that (the ranking), what have we done to deserve that? Everybody keeps saying all this about our team, but what have we done? All we did last year was play pretty well for the first part of the season, but we got beat in the first round at the NCAA Tournament last year. This team hasn’t done anything to deserve the accolades before they’ve earned it. Sports Illustrated didn’t have anything to do with us losing tonight. ORU had alot to do with us losing tonight. I do think there is this general mindset though, that no matter what, everything is going to be okay, and that is not the way competitors and great teams are.”

Sophomore Forward Brandon Rush
On the game:
“They did not catch us off-guard. We went into the game a little loose. We let them get comfortable and they started making big shots toward the end of the game. That really ended it. They were not doing anything different, we were just trying to get to the paint more in the second half. In the first half we relied on the jump shot and turned the ball over a lot.”

On Oral Roberts sophomore forward Marchello Vealy:
“In the scouting report, we went over that he was a good shooter, but we did not think he was a shooter like that. After the first couple three’s, we should have buckled down a little bit more on him, but he was still shooting right over us and making them, so give credit to ORU. We trapped down on (Oral Roberts forward) Caleb Green and he dished it out for the wide-open three.”

Junior Guard Russell Robinson
On the game:
“Give ORU a lot of credit. Anytime we made a push at them, they always responded. They had a lot of key guys step-up for them and hit shots when they needed to. We just could not get that one big stop we needed to get back into the game. I just think they were a little quicker to the ball than us. They just out-hustled us in the first half. We responded, but they hit big shots when they needed to.”

On the team morale:
“After the game, the lockerroom was completely silent. That just shows that everybody felt this loss. I think this loss will benefit us though, later in the season. This is not like the losses we had last year in Maui, this one hurt a lot more, and I think we are going to respond to this one. Everybody is a little bit more experienced this year. Coach Self warned us before the game that these guys are capable. For some reason, we could not lock-down defensively in practice and it carried over to the game. I think that is the biggest reason for why it hurt so much.”

ORAL ROBERTS QUOTES

Head Coach Scott Sutton
On the game:
“This is all about the players. I am really proud of how they competed and kept their composure and how tough they were. When you play a team coached by Coach Self you know they are going to be tough. I thought we really stepped up and competed hard. I am awfully proud of our kids. This may be the biggest win in school history. When you come into a place into Allen Fieldhouse, the visitor doesn’t win very often especially teams at our level. It is just a terrific win for our program.”

On Senior Ken Tutt’s big three-point shot late in the game:
“I kept telling Ken not too worry about it when he was missing his shots. He is a great shooter. Ken is one of the best shooters in the country and I was confident he was going to step up and make a big play.”

On Senior Caleb Green:
“Caleb was unbelievable. He was terrific. He was forced to face double teams and go against big strong guys. He had some great shots, but I thought his passing was unbelievable as well.”

On Sophomore Marchello Vealy:
“He has the potential to shoot the ball and after he made his first couple he started to really gain some confidence. The rim looked like a big ocean to him and he kept firing it up there.”

Senior Forward Caleb Green
On the game:
“I have always wanted to play Kansas. This is a big day for our University. I knew we had a bunch of good players, but Marchello Vealy — nobody knew he was going to come in here and shoot like that tonight. He put it over the top tonight. All the pieces were there for a big upset.”

“We played with those guys tonight, and we got some big buckets at the end.”

“When you beat the No. 3 team in the country, you have to feel well. Kansas didn’t have the best of nights tonight. I don’t know if that was due to us, or great players just having an off-night. You really don’t know how to take these kinds of wins, because (KU) was an awesome team. I bet they will regroup and you will see an awesome team the rest of the year.”

On his emotions before the game:
“Any time you come into an environment like this, you can’t do anything besides enjoy it. This is one of the top environments to play in. You can’t come in scared. You have to come in and enjoy every minute of it, because you may never get a chance like this again. I can’t say I wasn’t nervous, but I had no fear.”

“I have played in front of a lot of big crowds, but I have never seen anything like this. It was shocking at one point. But at the end of the day, it is a basketball game. (Kansas) puts its shoes on the same way. Everybody has to do everything the same.”

Sophomore Forward Marchello Vealy
On his performance:
“Every time I caught it, I shot it. (Our team) just kept yelling at me to shoot. Caleb (Green) kept telling me to shoot, Coach (Scott Sutton) kept telling me to shoot, and Caleb kept getting me the ball. I was just stepping up making jump shots. I paid no attention to (my stats).”

Senior Guard Ken Tutt
On his play towards the end of the game:
“I had a rough night. If it wasn’t for my teammates keeping us in the game and keeping my head up and telling me to keep shooting, I would not have made (the crucial three-pointer in the last minute of the game.) They were double-teaming Caleb (Green), and he made a great pass and I stepped up and made the shot. Everyone told me to keep shooting, so I just kept my head in the game.”