Kansas Postgame Quotes

Dec. 17, 2006

Recap | Final Stats | Notes

Kansas Postgame Quotes
Kansas 78, Santa Clara 68
Dec. 17, 2006

Head Coach Bonnie Henrickson
About putting two halves together:
“I thought we were good in the first half offensively. It was pleasant to see our timing and our aggressiveness and our confidence to take shots be better (than it has been recently). I told (the team) in the locker room before (the game) to be ready to take your shot and if it’s not there to pass the ball out. We shared the ball well. I thought we did a really good job of getting layups when they doubled us. We just played more fluid. It’s not like we haven’t been sharing the ball, but I just thought our timing was so much better today. Kelly (Kohn) got us started with her threes, and we had a lot of kids step up and play well.”

On defending the Broncos:
“This was a great test for our guards to see if we could switch screens to deny the ball. Their posts set a lot of double screens for their shooters. You’ve got to have some pride so that if (Chandice) Cronk is running off a double screen, she’s not going to get a shot. You’ve got to ride it out and not let her get the shot. I thought we did a great job of that. Defensively, I thought that we were really good in the first half and the first 10 minutes of the second half. Taylor (MacIntosh) rotating was good. and Shaq (Mosley) got a lot of deflections. Overall, I thought it was a great team effort. I thought everybody brought something to the table.”

On Kelly Kohn:
“She’s come in, as all of these kids have, and gotten a lot of extra shots in over exam week. She was a kid that was done on Tuesday, and she’s come in and gotten reps, because you gain confidence by repetition. She used to dip the ball a little bit (when she was shooting), which creates a little extra movement for her. When she catches it in the pocket, she goes straight up and she’s more fluid with her shot and her balance is better. That didn’t come by just having us tell her to do that. She’s spent a lot of time taking some shots (outside of practice), because good shooters shoot the ball a lot. We get a lot in practice, but some of these kids spend a lot of extra time getting that repetition and gaining some confidence. (Kelly) in particular has come in and done a great job of that.”

Kansas Player Quotes

Sophomore forward Marija Zinic
On not starting:
“I played better today coming off of the bench. I don’t mind coming off of the bench as long as I play hard. It was Coach’s decision and I respect it. I know I have to play hard and show that I am capable of starting.”

On Kansas’ offense:
“We worked on a lot of offensive plays this week in practice. We spent a lot of time going through plays, looking at timing. That really helped us a lot and obviously it worked.”

On the game:
“Usually we play one half well or the other half. We came in focused and were prepared to play 40 minutes well. We came out ready to play hard. I think we did a decent job playing both halves.”

Freshman guard Kelly Kohn
On Kansas’ offense:
“We had that week off, and that really gave us some time to practice what we needed to work on without having to scout other teams every two-to-three days. It really showed in our offense and helped make it run a lot quicker and easier.”

On her game:
“It’s hard to say (if it was my best game). I try to make improvements every game. I don’t think I’ll ever have my best game; I can always get better. I feel more comfortable with the ball in my hand. The more that I shoot and the more that I make it in these types of games, the more confident I get.”

Freshman forward Danielle McCray
On the the freshman class:
“I think we played well tonight and stepped up for the team. We are going to be really good together on the floor in the next couple of years.”

Santa Clara Quotes

Head Coach Michelle Bento-Jackson
On the game:
“I really felt like we shot ourselves in the foot. We didn’t execute our defensive gameplan early in the game and as a result we dug ourselves an early hole. Every time our defense was more effective, we gave them the ball right back.”

On Santa Clara’s defensive struggles:
“We weren’t rotating well enough on the weak side. We were trapping and putting pressure on them, but we weren’t rotating on the weak side. We ended up giving them wide-open shots and today they ended up hitting a high percentage of them.”

On differences between Kansas and Kansas State:
“Kansas is an athletic team that likes to play pressure defense. They have a very good mid-range game. Kansas State has more three-point weapons and they like to get up the floor. They don’t have a true center like Kansas does in (Marija) Zinic. There are glaring differences between the two teams.”

Senior Guard Ashley Graham
On the Kansas guards:
“Obviously Kansas is a good team. Their guards are very quick and athletic. Our help side defense just wasn’t there tonight. We were trying to pressure them, but unfortunately, we didn’t rotate well. We did let them get by us quite a few times as well.”

On the Santa Clara offense:
“We pushed the ball well in the last five minutes, but you can’t win a game in just five minutes. We had too many turnovers on the offensive end and we didn’t execute.”