Postgame Quotes
Nov. 15, 2010
Postgame Quotes
KU 79, Valparaiso 44
November 15, 2010
Kansas Head Coach Bill Self
On the Morris twins:
“(They’re good) If you can get one of them not to foul, and play more than two minutes in the first half. They’re good, they are good players. They do a little bit of everything. The game’s still a little slow motion for them for the most part. We made some bad plays defensively, but we did guard better. They got a lot of shots that they missed that most teams we play will come away with two or three points, but it was better. It was good to play against a zone. The zone slowed the game down, but we took a lot of good shots against the zone. We just didn’t make the three, but we got a lot of good looks.”
On the zone defense:
“The middle was open, we got the ball in the middle but didn’t take advantage of it. I thought what happened was the foul situation. I played Tyrel (Reed), Marcus (Morris) and Tyshawn (Taylor) too many minutes in the first half. Therefore, our zone offense was good early. We were really moving, and then we were real stagnant. We had guys resting on offense, and that wasn’t very good. All in all, we got good looks and executed fairly well. We turned it over carelessly, like this team is going to do. We did some good things, and we were better on the boards in the second half.”
On the second half defense:
“That 17 points was more like 30 or 35 points. We did some good things. It was a step in the right direction. It wasn’t a gigantic step, but certainly I feel better walking out of here than I did the other night from a defensive stand point.”
On Thomas Robinson:
“I thought Thomas was good. I thought he played better tonight than he did the other night. He went after the ball with two hands. There were two loose balls in the first half that he had no business getting, but he just went and he took it. I thought Thomas played good.”
On North Texas:
“They’re athletic. I thought they played K-State pretty good in the first round last year. I think K-State ended up getting them by about 20 if I’m not mistaken, but their guards are really good. They can score off the bounce. If you watch our team play, I’d say our biggest negativity defensively, besides low post, is our inability to guard the ball. We’re not able to guard small, quick guys with the ball. North Texas certainly has the ability.”
Junior Forward Marcus Morris
On what made him successful tonight:
“I think I was really just trying to defend number 45 (Ryan Broekhoff) but I knew he could shoot real well. I watched film on him and I was able to cover him around the three-point line and I just let the game come to me.”
On his offensive game:
“I think I got into a rhythm early and just made shots and my teammates helped me and they were able to get rebounds and finish it when I missed.”
On the margin of victory:
“We’re not really surprised. I think that we’re a good team. At times we have mental lapses and leave people open for a three-pointer. Today, I thought we guarded real well and we took away what they wanted most, the three-point shot.
Senior Guard Mario Little
On his performance:
“I was more comfortable tonight. I was just trying to be more assertive by letting the game come to me. I was just trying to do what coach wanted instead of worrying about other things.”
Junior Forward Markieff Morris
On his second half:
“Coach just told me that it was going to be my half. I tried to bring energy by rebounding the ball and defending. I don’t think we played very good inside-post defense, but other than that I thought we played pretty well.”
Valparaiso head coach Homer Drew
Opening statement:
“We’re disappointed that we didn’t play better tonight. I think you have to complement KU – their speed really hurt us in transition early. They jumped on us early with their speed and the physicality inside on their offensive boards. Once we were able to kind of negate that, we got it down to six points and I thought that if we could continue that tempo that would make a huge difference. Next thing I know, we were down by 20.”
“Again, just the quickness and the physicality. Their quickness made us play a little faster than we’re used to. We’re still learning as a team so it’s going to help us for the future; but I thought those were the two big keys and we missed a lot of shots. We are a very good shooting team but you could not tell it tonight and I wish you could see us play again. To shoot 10 percent from the three-point line is not a typical shooting night for our basketball team. I think again that KU with always challenging the shot, having a high hand and just the quickness of the game allowed us not to be able to get our feet set and we rushed some shots and that was disappointing.”
“The other thing is free throws. We shoot 50 percent from the free throw line and I think you saw a lot of easy baskets that we had chances for. We can either use this to get bitter or we can use it to get better. Our faith is that this team wants to get better as we go so this becomes a good learning tool for us.”
On going inside in the second half instead of shooting threes:
“We really wanted to work on lane touches. We wanted to get the ball either inside off the bounce or the guards would be able to get Kevin (Van Wijk), Cory (Johnson) or even Brandon Wood inside. You just can’t live off the three-pointer.”
Valparaiso Sophomore Forward Kevin Van Wijk
On guarding the Morris twins:
“When I came into the game I knew they were really physical. I have played against guys that were heavier, but not as strong as they were, so adjusting to it was kind of hard in the beginning , but after learning a bit how they played it was really fun. I really enjoyed it. I learned a lot from it, and it is good for our next games. Maybe someday we will see them again.”
On guarding against their versatility:
“It was hard. We knew coming in that they could shoot, and we tried to adjust as much as possible, but it’s hard to defend somebody who can do both things instead of just one. It was tough, but I think most of the time we did a good job.”
On the team’s bad shooting performance:
“I think it was a bad night for us. I think it was everything together, you miss a couple shots and people think, ‘Well I am going to miss the next one, too,’ but you have to keep shooting. We did and we just didn’t make them today. It could have made a big difference if we would have made four or five more. The game would have been a totally different game.”
