Postgame Quotes

Dec. 13, 2008

Recap | Box Score | Notes |

Post Game Quotes

Massachusetts 61, Kansas 60

December 13, 2008

Kansas Head Coach Bill Self

On Kansas’ poor shooting:

“I think a lot of it was the players and how they were sagging. If they are going to sag like that, then you have to hit some shots. I would say that our shot selection was as poor as it has been in quite some time.”

On the first half defense:

“Anytime you give up 16 first half points because of the scouting report means that you are probably not as ready as you should be. And that’s our [the coaches] job to get them ready, I’m not putting that on them. We had some young kids that have played better than that.”

On if KU focused on UMass’ 2-6 record coming into today’s game:

“I don’t think so. That would be bailing us out a little bit. I just don’t see how you can’t be totally into everything that is going on, especially when you’re young. I don’t understand that. To be honest, I don’t think we played well today, and I think UMass contributed to us not playing well. But this all goes back to practice. When you practice this way, then you’re obviously going to play this way some. We just have to come more ready in that regard. And we just can’t put it on the young kids, but certainly the experience we have is guilty of it also. We have to become a better practice team.”

On the technical foul:

“I deserved it. He warned me in the first half and said that he had had enough. And I waved him off when I thought he made a bad call. I’ve done a lot more and not gotten one, but he told me he was going to call me if I did that. When you lose a game by one and the coach gets a ‘T’ with six minutes left and they make both free throws, the coach has to know better.”

Kansas junior guard Sherron Collins

On a frustrating performance:

“This is really frustrating. We just weren’t ready to play from the start of the game. We didn’t lose on our last shot or our last possession; we lost it from the beginning of the game. We weren’t ready to play.”

On the last possession:

“I got up there, I thought it was in and it just came out.”

On UMass making it difficult to feed the post:

“They sagged in a little, but there are no excuses. We just didn’t do a good job of getting Cole (Aldrich) the ball. He should have the ball more and we just didn’t trust each other to make plays.”

On trying to get the team going:

“I think I pressured a little bit too much. I felt like we needed a play and sometimes that’s just not the right way to go about it.”

Kansas sophomore forward Connor Teahan

On the last five seconds of the game:

“I will have to look back at the tape. When I caught it I thought that I was a little too far from the basket, but I also thought that I was surrounded. I was about to go up with it and that’s when I fell and the ball came out. Honestly, I’d have to see it. I think I probably messed up. I should have gone up with it, which maybe would have put us in a different situation than we are now.”

Kansas sophomore center Cole Aldrich

On preparing for next weekend:

“We have a lot to work on. Evidence from today’s game proves that we have a ton to work on. It’s good that we got a week, but it’s going to be a long week. We’ve got finals and this is really not the way we wanted to go into finals week. We wanted to come in and continue to play well, get another win here in Kansas City in front of a hometown crowd. We were just not able to get it done tonight.”

Massachusetts Head Coach Derek Kellogg

On the victory:

“I am proud of the kids, the way they competed and played. This is a tough place to play and Kansas is a top 25 team that has some rocks in (Cole) Aldrich and (Sherron) Collins and some young kids that are continuing to get better. They are going to be a team by the end of the year that has a chance to do something special. Right now they are going through some growing pains with young kids that are going to continue to get better.”

On Tony Gaffney’s presence inside:

“He’s 6-foot-8, 215 pounds and he plays like he is 7-foot, 260 pounds. He does everything for us. To come into a program and have him do what he has done for us thus far in the season is amazing. He’s averaging a double-double and he contests and blocks almost every shot out there.”

On his team’s poise:

“I’m really pleased with their poise. We have been in that situation three times this year and to this point we have been 0-3. I think Chris Lowe is starting to realize how he needs to play at the end of games. Some of that is coaching, some of that is getting used to the style of play and also becoming that senior leader that we need.”

On the team’s run in the first half:

“We made shots and we did a good job defensively. We had a game plan of some of the different things we had to do and the fourth one on that list was that we have to make shots. Sometimes you have to make tough shots and we did that on occasion.”

UMass freshman Forward Tyrell Lynch

On coming off the bench:

“I knew Coach (Derek Kellogg) was wanting me to come in right away and make an impact. It helps a little bit. You can see how the game is going and know exactly what it is you need to do when you get in there and just go with the flow of the game.”

On his maturity as a player:

“I feel like I’m a lot more ready. All the games I’ve been through have matured me a lot.”

On the season so far:

“We did struggle early on. After the Toledo game, we lost at the buzzer and that hurt a lot of players on the team. We became more unified as a team. We’re really trying to turn it around.”

On defending Sophomore center Cole Aldrich:

“Coach stressed the fact of keeping him off the boards as much as you can. So we just tried to keep him away from the board. I split him down the middle with my body to keep him away from the glass as much as I could.”

UMass junior Guard Ricky Harris

On the teams’ improvement in the last few weeks:

“We were riding a five-game losing streak and now we have won back-to-back games. We just have to come in everyday to practice and work hard.”

On the foul he drew late against Marcus Morris:

“I knew that he was going to do that. He had been reaching in on me most of the game. When I came off the screen I knew he was gong to reach in so I just had to get my arms inside his and draw the foul.”

On beating the defending national champion:

“It feels great. Kansas is a great team with a great tradition and not many teams come in here and beat them. With Coach (Derek) Kellogg coming here from Memphis we wanted to play well for him. We didn’t guarantee a victory, but we knew we would give a good effort for him.”