Postgame Quotes
Post Game Quotes
Kansas 77, Creighton 56
Dec. 13, 2009
Kansas head coach Bonnie Henrickson
On the game:
“We said in the locker room that a team that shoots the three that well is never out of a game. We didn’t have the defensive intensity, focus and concentration to start the second half. Give our kids credit though. We get three stops in a row, then there was a timeout, then we get two more in a row, then they scored and we get three more in a row. That’s what you have to be able to do. We have played a lot of one-on-one in practice lately and I think we’re starting to gain some confidence in one-on-one. I thought we defended their sets, I thought we defended the three well – which you have to against that group. I thought Marisha (Brown) came in and gave us some good minutes. All in all, I thought Angel (Goodrich) made the extra pass, made the right decision. We read the slip on how they defend our baseline screens and we got good looks to Krysten (Boogaard) right away. We executed in what we needed to early and to maybe got them off guard a little bit defensively. We got out in transition.”
On the team’s performance:
“I thought Danielle (McCray) and Sade (Morris) never really found a great rhythm in the first half. I thought Sade played sped-up – I thought she played a little fast. The one to the rim, she kind of bailed out. The two-on-one, I thought she should just slow down, score that and let Aishah (Sutherland) rebound it. I said, ‘You look like you’re playing really, really fast and never found rhythm.’ We were able to play around those two, which shows growth and maturity for us. Angel is letting Krysten score layups in transition is making good decisions. We saw Aishah a little bit more on the offensive glass than we have in the last couple of games. Whatever your role is, be a superstar in your role. I think the kids believe in that and have great confidence in each other.”
Freshman Angel Goodrich
On whether or not she expected to take so many shots:
“No I did not. We figured that they were going to double inside. Our game prep was them doubling and my guy coming off, so I would probably be open. I kind of thought that I would be getting some open shots, but not as many as I shot.”
On her effect on the offense when she is scoring:
“I think that it opens up more. It is not a four-on-five situation, it is a five-on-five actual game. They have to worry about everyone on the court instead of just three or four players.”
On the team’s slow start the second half:
“I think that we relaxed again, like always. We can’t do that. We need to stick with it, keep working, keep pressuring and keep pushing the ball.”
On beating a good team:
“We really needed this win. This was a big win for us. I am glad that we came out and played the way that we were supposed to.”
Senior Danielle McCray
On the performance of Angel:
“It wasn’t surprising because she showed it in practice when we worked on it. She knocked down some shots and she does a good job of working on her shot. She is a freshman and it is her first year as far as playing on the court, but her mentality is never scared. That just helps us and makes us a better team.”
On the Creighton’s defense:
“They are a great team. They are really smart and a really great team. I was telling my teammates the whole game that this team is not going away. We knew that we couldn’t back off and that they would make us pay for all of our mistakes.”
Senior Sade Morris
On Aishah’s defensive play:
“She came in focused and she knew that she had a tough assignment because their posts can play like guards. We have been doing a lot of one-on-one, and she has been playing with the guards so she was ready.”
On the importance of Angel stepping up:
“That is the great thing about being a team that when people struggle, other people step up. Angel stepped up, and that is what we need to be a great team.”
Creighton head coach Jim Flanery
On the game overall:
“We’ve struggled in this venue the last three times we’ve been here. We’ve lost by 35 and 15 and now the loss today. A lot of that has to do with Kansas. We’ve gotten off to bad starts in all the games and today was no exception. I think we were down 23-6 at the start. Very few teams are consistent this time of year and we’re no exception. We need to put together longer stretches of good basketball. With [Angel] Goodrich, Kansas is a better offensive team than they have been. [Krysten] Boogaard and [Aishah] Sutherland have both improved. There’s not a lot of help you can give. When you’ve got a player as good as McCray who you need to focus on her a lot and those other players are good enough to hurt you that, you’re going to see games like Goodrich had today. If you look back and look at the big games that Sutherland and Boogaard have had, it all starts with McCray. Those other guys are really good players and they are made better by how good McCray is and a point guard now who can score better than what they have had in the past and has a great feel for the game.”
On Kansas freshman Angel Goodrich’s career-high 20 points:
“We actually wanted her to shoot. That’s not to be disrespectful. You have to cheat somewhere and she’s 4-for-22 from the three coming in, so we felt like we didn’t need to guard her there. Not because we didn’t respect her, but because we respected other people more from that position and what happened was she just got some confidence. They ran a lot more pick and roll stuff. They really hurt us on ball screens. To be honest we probably didn’t prepare enough for that because we prepared for some of their other stuff. I think what happened was that they had enough success doing it that they kept doing it and we didn’t adjust very well and that’s my fault. She’s real dangerous because of who [Goodrich] has around her. They are tough to defend and early we gave them some easy transition baskets which really hurt. I told our team they are hard enough to guard in the half court we can’t give them transition points. They are going to be tough to beat here. I can only assume they are going to get better as [Goodrich] gets more comfortable scoring the ball.”
Senior forward Megan Neuvirth
On Kansas’ defense:
“They’re really good at pressuring and providing help early so they took away the three point line from us and that’s what we rely on early. We didn’t make any game adjustments to their defense.”
On playing quality non-conference competition:
“It definitely exposes our weaknesses a lot faster than waiting for great competition in the [Missouri] Valley [Conference]. We try to learn as much as we can from these games and hopefully get a win here and there. We have to focus for longer than half a game.”
On Kansas freshman point guard Angel Goodrich
“She definitely takes control of the offense and sees the floor very well. She sees open players and we were trying to help on their other two good offensive players. Today she made some offensive plays that we hoped she would miss.
