Kansas Postgame Quotes-vs. Colorado
Dec. 8, 2012
Recap | Final Stats | Notes |
Kansas head coach Bill Self
On the success of the game:
“I think Spencer (Dinwiddie) may have tweaked his ankle early, so that hurt them. I thought Travis (Releford) did a great job on him. I thought Elijah (Johnson) did a good job on (Askia) Booker. Especially the first half, I thought our defense was really good the first half. Really, their best offense was throwing it to the big man down low, (Josh) Scott, and him scoring on our bigs. But I think the biggest thing was our energy. That’s the first time we’ve played a game in our building where we didn’t allow our opponent to get comfortable early in the game.”
On if the full-court press increased the team’s energy:
“Yeah it did, but it’s been amazing to me; that’s what we’re supposed to do every game. Sometimes you just don’t have it with this bunch. Elijah looked healthier, he moved better. Travis was who Travis is. Travis is going to score more points when he’s focused on defense and that’s what happened tonight. I thought Jeff (Withey) played great. Kevin (Young) is the best we have. Kevin can disrupt things just by doing stuff on his own; full-court pressure, I thought he did a great job of that tonight, too.”
On if the team played like it does in practice:
“I thought we played tougher. Kevin did some things that we haven’t seen him do consistently. The starters had five turnovers for the game; that’s pretty good. They had 15 assists and five turnovers, which I think is pretty good for those guys. Our bench gave us some good minutes but I thought everybody played to their own personal strengths, which is what we’re trying to do and we looked a lot more aggressive doing it.”
On the defensive play boosting the offense:
“We’d like to play in transition and the key to most of our transition points was probably our defense. Today was a step in the right direction, but we’re nowhere near close to where we need to be; we have to keep getting better. That’s how we should play.”
On his son, Tyler Self, scoring his first bucket as a Kansas Jayhawk:
“I thought it was great. His mother will probably be nicer to me now. Of course he joked afterward (that when) he gets a head of steam he’s hard to stop in transition. `Yeah right, son.’ It was fun. I would’ve felt good for anybody who got a basket there.”
Kansas senior guard Travis Releford
On Kansas’ game plan for Colorado:
“The plan was to challenge ourselves. In the recent games we’ve played at home, we haven’t made teams feel the pressure of us on defense. We figured we’d come out and pressure them and make them feel uncomfortable on offense because Colorado is a good team. That’s what we did.”
On what his team learned about its intensity:
“We knew (the intensity) was always there, and that’s why Coach (Bill Self) stayed on us about it, especially playing at home. We wanted to get the crowd into it and that built energy for the team. Getting out and pressuring is what we’ve always been able to do.”
Kansas senior forward Kevin Young
On if he thought Colorado was surprised by Kansas’ intensity:
“I think so. Coach (Bill Self) was talking about it in the locker room. I think they just weren’t ready for the pressure. We’re all athletic and we all can play that way, and we love to do it.”
On where he gets all his energy:
“It’s just there and probably because I sat out two years ago. I’ve just been waiting, but today I just learned you’ve got to play hard every time. You have to get out there, because you don’t know when the next time you’ll get out there is.”
Kansas redshirt freshman guard Ben McLemore
On playing with a high level of excitement:
“I give my teammates a lot of credit for that. We just go out there and have fun, so once we’re all having fun, it’s hard for one individual to not. I just try to keep a smile on out there.”
On his alley-oop assist to Kevin Young in the second half:
“On the play before, he was talking to me and saying, `I’m going to keep running, so look for me.’ We got a break and I saw him, so I just tossed it up to him and we got two points. The crowd just got into it and made us keep rolling.”
Colorado head coach Tad Boyle
Opening statement:
“Kansas came out and man-handled us from start to finish, and there wasn’t a lot we could do about it. Obviously I’m disappointed in our performance but I also realized we played a heck of a team in a heck of an environment. We have to learn from it and get better, which we will. We have a lot of young guys and hopefully they grew up a little bit tonight. Our players understand how far our program has to go, because we have a long way to go. We’re not as bad as we played today, and that’s what is disappointing. I’m the most disappointed in our competitiveness. It’s not like our guys wanted to roll over and die, but Kansas came out and took our heart and we didn’t do anything about it.”
On Colorado’s game plan:
“You can’t come in here and give them the start that they had. We came here trying to take the crowd out of the game, but instead (Kansas) got the crowd into the game from the beginning. The first basket was the testament for that. Our game plan to prepare for Kansas was to clog the paint up and take away transition baskets and make them beat us with threes. I feel like that’s the way to beat Kansas, and we didn’t do a very good job at that. We didn’t execute our game plan in any way, shape or form.”
On Kansas guards:
“Their effort, and the way they guarded the ball and dictated is something we have to learn and handle that pressure better than we handled it right now. It doesn’t matter who you play, but when you play a team like Kansas, in an environment like this, your mistakes get magnified. They just put it to us.”
On the positives of Colorado’s performance:
“There were some positives tonight, Josh Scott played well. Xavier Talton took a couple charges that I’ve been begging our guys to do. But it has to be more than one guy. There were some positive things, not many, but we have to build on those. Right now, we are not a good road team, and that’s my fault. I have to figure out what we have to do to become a better road team.”
Colorado sophomore guard Spencer Dinwiddie
On the atmosphere affecting the game:
“No, I don’t really think it affected the game. Our team had a focus and a mindset; we just fell apart when they made that run. A lot of that has to fall on our starters’ shoulders because we are the leaders of the team. Like I said when we played Wyoming, the crowd doesn’t make you play bad defense. But when they go on a run like that, it’s our job to come together play defense and stop it.”
On start of the second half:
“They came out ready to play and made plays that we didn’t make. It all comes down to defense. It’s not like they were hitting contested three’s, they were dunking on us and absolutely humiliating us. There really is nothing else to say.”
On if KU looked like a good team on tape:
“Every team is good. KU is top ten for a reason; they have a historic program and great players. I’m not taking anything away from them, but I’m just saying as a team we needed to play better defense.”
