Postgame Quotes
Dec. 20, 2008
Postgame Quotes
Kansas 71, Temple 56
December 20, 2008
Kansas Head Coach Bill Self
His thoughts on the game:
“We were pretty efficient offensively other than a few possessions in the first half. I am not going to say that we were great offensively today but we certainly played better than we have been playing lately. They cut into our lead in the second half but we executed when there was pressure. There were a lot of things that we did very well today.”
On Temple:
“They have a very good team. They have a very good player in Dionte Christmas. For the most part we did a good job guarding him and he still had 21 points.”
On Sherron Collins and Tyshawn Taylor:
“Those two probably played as well as in any game this year. They combined for 14 assists and three turnovers. Sherron took as many shots as he took in the last game but he also got everybody involved. He took shots that I wanted him to take.”
On Cole Aldrich:
“We are not going to be a great offensive team if Cole (Aldrich) takes himself out of the game. I don’t think he did a very good job today of being active defensively. He picked up some fouls by not moving his feet. He did make some shots and he did some good things early on shooting the ball. He only played 26 minutes and he still got 13 points and 11 rebounds.”
On how his team responded from last week’s loss:
“I think we lost last week because of the way we approached the game. You have to approach practice a different way. I think we were a lot more upbeat Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of this week. We had good, crisp practices. We still did some things from a bone-headed standpoint because we are so young. We had a makeshift lineup and we couldn’t get things going in the first half and we were still up by eight points at halftime.”
On Arizona:
“They are really good and they have two top-half of the first round pros. They have a third guy, Nick Wise, who has become a very good college guard. Chase Budinger shoots 60% from the three point line. They are a hard team to double team because they can shoot it well. We are going to have to be really solid defensively and efficient offensively.”
Kansas Player Quotes
Junior guard Sherron Collins
On breaking away midway through the second half:
“Coach (Self) said we needed to break it open. We were playing well and we had a lead, but we didn’t want them to come back. So I tried to get a spark and get a run going, and fortunately we did.”
On Brady Morningstar’s defense on Dionte Christmas:
“I think Brady did a great job. Dionte Christmas is really good. He’s tall and can see over most defenders. He made Christmas work for every basket and contested every shot. On some of the shots I didn’t think there was a chance, and he still made them.”
On this game being their best team effort:
“I think this was a good all-around game, the bigs did a good job of rebounding the ball and Tyshawn had eight assists and one turnover. It shows that he is listening to coach.”
Sophomore guard Brady Morningstar
On the win:
“It was a big win coming off a loss. It was a tough loss last week and it’s good to get our juices flowing again heading into a tough game with Arizona. We’ve got to stay focused.”
On guarding Dionte Christmas:
“You have to be there on the catch and even if you are, he’s shown he can shoot. You just have to keep a hand up and try not to get too much separation. That’s about all you can do.”
On having a better week of practice:
“The past three days we have had pretty good practices. I know with finals last week a lot of guys had tests, so we also tried to get a lot of rest.”
Sophomore center Cole Aldrich
On his performance today:
“I’ve had a little stomach flu the last few days. I’ve been up and down trying to fight through it. I got dumb fouls right away. I’ve got to keep playing smart. These guys will tell you that I’ve just got to stay in the game and play good defense. I played alright today, but these guys really helped everybody through it. Brady (Morningstar) played really well on (Dionte) Christmas. Sherron (Collins) had some good shots and got everybody else good shots. It was a good win today.”
On the chance that he wouldn’t play today:
“That never even occurred to me. Sherron wasn’t feeling good last week and you’ve just got to fight through it. That’s all you’ve got to do.”
Temple Quotes
Temple Head Coach Fran Dunphy
On the play of Kansas:
“Their first half offensively was great. They made shots when they needed to. Our defense was equally as poor as their defense was great, in the first half. Kansas is a real solid basketball team. We thought they’d be solid on defense and they were. There are some really smart basketball players that they have. They did a real good job of working us up the lane a couple of times and taking advantage of poor defense lapses that we had. It’s a great place to play and I wish we had played better.”
On what went wrong for Temple:
“Defensivley there were a couple of lapses and on offense we need to get the ball inside. That needs to be our bread and butter. We counted too much on perimeter jump shooting. Dionte (Christmas) had a nice little stretch there, but then Kansas tightened that up—they’re not going to let him get too many good looks. We had a couple of opportunities for other guys to make shots, but we just didn’t make them.”
On the play of senior Sergio Olmos:
“He can’t be tentative. He had a wide open jump shot for us that he didn’t even think about taking. If they’re going to guard Dionte (Christmas) with a lot of people, then we need other guys to step up.”
On senior Dionte Christmas’ slow start:
“I think we need to play to that. If they’re really guarding him well, someone else has to be open. The fact was, we were playing poorly, but with a minute or so left in the first half we were down three which I was thrilled with. Then we wound up being down eight, which was a tough one to take. We fought back in the second half and had ourselves a great basketball game.”
Temple Player Quotes
Senior Dionte Christmas
On second-half struggles:
“I thought Kansas did a great job on having tremendous ball pressure. They were just more focused than us on the defensive end. It’s a great program—defending world champs—and we knew coming in that it wasn’t going to be easy. They’ve got tough basketball players, a tough program, and they just made it tough for us the whole way.”
On whether the team relied too heavily on him:
“I think everybody was into the game on our end. Kansas did a great job denying everybody—not just me. It made it tough on us to get opportunities at the basket.”
On the atmosphere in Allen Fieldhouse:
“It’s a great atmosphere. I knew coming in that it was going to be like this, especially after their loss against UMass. I knew this game was going to be crazy. This is actually my first time playing here, but watching the games on TV, it seems like the atmosphere is like this every game.”
On the focus of the team at tip-off:
“I think everyone was focused, but the atmosphere rattled us for the first ten seconds or so. Then we got back into focus and we were ready for game time.”
On Kansas’ defensive play:
“I thought [Brady] Morningstar and the rest of the team did a good job keying on me. I was just trying to let the game come to me. I wasn’t trying to take too many bad shots, but I thought those guys did a great job defending me in the first half. And the second half as well.”
