Postgame Quotes
Nov. 25, 2011
Recap | Final Stats | Notes |
Postgame Quotes
Kansas 90, Lamar 40
November 25, 2011
Kansas head coach Bonnie Henrickson
On her team’s performance:
“I thought from a defensive standpoint we were great out of the gate in weak-side help. On defending the wing we talk about great one-on-one players like Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan, when those guys catch it on the wing the first thing they do is look up and see if anyone is in the lane; if the lane is empty, because the defense is hugging on the weak-side they go and dunk it on somebody. If the paint is crowded they are thinking pull up for a shot. And we made them pull up early, now we might have fouled a bit too much, but I thought right away we sent a message that it wasn’t going to be a layup drill, which is what we allowed Wake Forest to do to us at their place. From that standpoint we were much better defensively. Offensively we shared the ball, even sharing it a bit too much at times. I told the players that I loved their pace and I loved their intensity. And Angel Goodrich’s behind the head assist to Aisha (Sutherland) over the top was a pretty nice play. It was good to be able to run the turkey out of everybody.”
On junior guard Angel Goodrich:
“Offensively, the three-ball in the corner and the start she had early in the second half is what we need from her. If you think about how many plays we make and she is involved in that somewhere; it is either coming from her or she has made the right pass early to set something up. She is just our motor right now. We play around her and the more we get players to play at her level the better we’ll be.”
On sophomore guard CeCe Harper:
“I thought off the bench, CeCe Harper’s minutes were really good and that’s why she was the first to go in for the second half. She steps one off and throws a pass to Tania (Jackson) for a layup, she gets offensive boards and she got a defensive sink in the second half which is help on the backside where she caused a turnover. Right now we are looking for somebody to make good defensive decisions to play that third guard. We need somebody to guard, throw the ball inside and help us on the glass. And she did all three of those things right away, I mean immediately when she got in the game.”
On holding Lamar to 0-for-21 from the three-point line:
“I thought we played on-ball screens pretty well. We deny any ball to a player on the wing; we don’t just let it go and open up to penetration and let teams kick the ball out. A few of their attempts were in rhythm that I think they would normally make but we didn’t allow many of those. We went under the on-ball screen and they kind of dribbled in to them, but we haven’t really seen them hit threes behind the on-ball screen so that’s why we played the on-ball screen the way we did.”
On every Jayhawk getting playing time:
“I loved it. Those kids work hard every day and they deserve a chance. I thought they tried to do a little bit too much at times, in a good way by sharing the ball. I don’t think anybody played selfish. There are some really good things from a film standpoint for individual work. I thought their pace and tempo was really good. We got a little out of sorts there when we tried to do too much; when we tried to get a homerun pass when we should have reversed it to the other side, but I can live with that. That was fun though, they earned that, they deserve it.
On senior forward Aisha Sutherland:
“I think Aisha, even against Wake Forest, with her intensity, toughness and the way she got on the floor for a loose ball with her effort in transition on offense and defense is much better. She is competing at a higher level right now than she has in her career, honestly. It doesn’t matter right now who we play and I’m really excited just how many things she makes happen when she plays like that and it has been three games in a row and her pace has been really good.”
Kansas freshman guard Natalie Knight
On if she is feeling more comfortable on the court:
“I felt more comfortable. The way we came out and set the tempo right away made it easy to get into the flow of the game. We played together really well. It was easy to jump in there right away.”
On being more aggressive with the ball:
“They have been telling me to be more aggressive so I have been trying to do that. Getting extra shots up (in practice) has made me a little more confident. I’m just trying to keep knocking down the shots and being more aggressive.”
On if she expected the blowout win:
“I really didn’t know what to expect. I knew Lamar was a good team going in to it. We just wanted to set the tempo right away and we ended up playing really well. I was really happy with the outcome.”
On what was the best aspect of the game:
“It was definitely our defense tonight. Our help side defense was really good and we stopped a lot of the penetration. We are starting to do a little bit better job of boxing out, so that helped a lot down the stretch.”
Kansas sophomore guard Keena Mays
On what led to Kansas scoring so many points in transition:
“I think it was our defense. We came out really aggressive. The starters started it off for us and when we came off the bench we just kept it going.”
On Kansas’ defensive effort:
“We were in the right spots at the right time. We were denying the ball and in help (defense) a lot. We crashed the boards a lot harder than we have been doing in the past.”
On how Kansas can continue to play well over the next two days:
“We have to stay consistent. This was one of our better games and hopefully it can carry on into the next two games.”
Kansas freshman guard Asia Boyd
On the bench players having the opportunity to play a lot of minutes tonight:
“We love the opportunity. I’m glad that (Kansas head) coach Bonnie (Henrickson) gave us the opportunity to get in and play our game. We work hard in practice so it was a good opportunity.”
On if she felt the need to show what she can do tonight:
“I was just trying to stay patient. I am trying to watch and learn from Monica (Engelman) and Angel (Goodrich) and try to stay humble and patient.”
On what she can do to see the court more often:
“I need to work harder and stay focused. As long as I keep doing those things I will stay on the floor.”
Lamar head coach Larry Tidwell
Opening statement:
“You have to give Kansas a lot of credit. We thought Kansas might be as good or better than anyone we’ve played. I’ve been in this business for 38 years and I’ve realized that sometimes you’re going to have games like this. We had a timeout with about 3:50 left in the first half and we’d cut (the lead) to 14 (points). We were trying to dig in and get it to 10 by halftime; I look up and see that we’re down 26. Our transition defense was pathetic. We have to get better. We play some pretty good basketball, but we just didn’t play very well tonight. We shot less than 20 percent (18 percent). It goes down the list; it wasn’t just one or two players. It was bad. The last two years, we’ve averaged 76 or 78 points per game and we’re in the top 20 in the country. We play a lot of tough competition, but you realize sometimes it’s not meant to be. I know the last 13 minutes I played a lot of young kids and we lost the battle, but hopefully with the next two games we’ll be a little bit fresh. No excuse, though. Kansas has an excellent team. I really like their post play; they’re physical.”
On Kansas guard Angel Goodrich:
“(Kansas’) point guard is probably one of the best in the country and I’ve studied them all. This kid is unbelievable. She’s strong, she shoots the jumper, she leads the team and plays great defense. I think they’re really onto something with Goodrich; she’s really good.”
On how Kansas compares to the other teams Lamar has faced:
“Athleticism is different. I love the post play for the fact that they can also hit up along the free throw line and they can extend you out. We did a bad job tonight of help side (defense). We didn’t play well. I’m not going to use the word ’embarrassing’ because I’ve been beaten worse than this as you try to build a program. These guys just came to play. We’re usually pretty good in transition, but we just didn’t get a lot done tonight. Comparing them, I’m going to tell you the point guard (Goodrich) is really good. You all are going to have fun with her because she’s going to bring you a lot of wins. She’s really good.”
