Postgame Quotes
Dec. 21, 2011
Postgame Quotes
Kansas 85, Oral Roberts 68
December 21, 2011
Kansas head coach Bonnie Henrickson
Opening Statement:
“The players asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I said that this was it. Of course, I want one more (win) after Christmas. I want a pre and post Christmas present. Early we were really good, but once we started to turn it over and let them shoot layups and let them feel comfortable and confident, then they got into us and took the lead. I thought we got back into them again, defensively forced some turnovers and got some opportunities in transition. We went on a 12-0 run. How good was Angel (Goodrich)? How good was she on both ends? What I really respect about what was going on tonight was that she and (Oral Roberts’) Kevi Luper played against each other in high school. Sometimes when you get that they turn it into ‘it’s me against you.’ She and I talked about that just because I would have regretted it if I hadn’t. I really didn’t think I would have to. (I told her) ‘Don’t turn this into a match-up between you two. Do your job.’ Then I said, ‘If Kevi Luper gets 25 and you’re in foul trouble because you’re trying to do too much defensively, her 25 is less important than you are. Even she were to get 25 you’re more valuable to us if you can stay on the floor.’ I thought she did a great job. She limited her touches. Now we switched some things so she didn’t guard her the whole time, but she guarded her most of the time. I thought she was really good. (She had) Fourteen assists and Aishah (Sutherland) probably owes her breakfast because I think she blew two of them that would have probably gotten her to 16. In stretches we were really good. When we turned it over, obviously, we helped them a lot offensively.”
On Angel Goodrich recording a block in the first half:
“Her timing is great and she can kind of get her hand into it. A lot of times it’s on the way up or from behind. Her focus and attention to detail defensively was really, really good. I thought in the first half CeCe Harper gave us good minutes defensively. She blocked a shot and turned a guy over. Natalie (Knight) had two steals in the first half. She was much better on the ball in the second half and turned a bunch of them, which turned into transition opportunities for us. That’s contagious. When you’re playing with Angel and she works that hard defensively, why would you not want to do what she’s doing and play that hard defensively?”
On how Kansas attacked Oral Roberts’ zone in the first half:
“We just threw 50-50 balls up in the air. We didn’t work to get inside of it. We tried to throw over it and not around it and get inside the zone. When we picked it up, they trapped us. Angel (Goodrich) had a bad one just throwing the ball over the top and they tipped it. A lot of those (passes) were free throw line extended. We threw two in transition to the post that weren’t there. We had three-straight possessions where we turned it over and they scored on all of three of them.”
On Carolyn Davis’ 20 first-half points:
“I’m spoiled a little bit with her I guess. She ran hard, pinned and worked hard offensively early. Angel (Goodrich) found her, Monica (Engelman), Natalie (Knight) and CeCe (Harper threw) it to her as well. All those guys threw it inside to her. We need for four other people to be able to throw a post-entry pass and it not (have to) be Angel every single time. That was important to us too. CeCe came in and did her job. She threw it inside and guarded. Monica tried to throw it inside. She probably passed up a couple of shots trying to throw it (in) when she should have probably just shot it.”
On Oral Roberts’ offensive game plan:
“They didn’t post us—low post catches where they demanded the ball (they probably had)—10 on the night. What they did do was just flash to the high post, catch and drive. I don’t know that they had two low post catches in offensive possessions with a deep catch. (Jordan Pyle) did when Monica was guarding her. She hit the left shoulder fade away. They really just pulled those guys out and made them play 15 feet facing the basket. We weren’t really good early. We were late to everything and didn’t deny that stuff. They were going to get us away from the basket and try to drive it.”
On the status of Tania Jackson who left that game with a shoulder injury:
“I was trying to ask her (about it), but she doesn’t really remember what happened. She’s behind (Oral Roberts’ Amber Carver) and the kid shoots and then Tania is underneath to box out and I don’t know if she gets herself extended. It’s her left arm. She’s ok, but it’s kind of a mild strain. It got really uncomfortable and a lot of times you’re afraid to move it. She wouldn’t move it. They will evaluate her again. She’s ok, but it kind of scared her and she got herself a little extended. I couldn’t see anything because she was behind her.”
On Kansas’ final non-conference game against Sam Houston State:
“We will play quick. We will come back on the 26th and play on the 28th which is a short turn around. I just really didn’t want to have to bring them back on Christmas Day. I will trust that they will do their cardio and that they recognize that even as great of shape as they are in, if you take a couple of days off, you will feel it. They recognize that. The upperclassmen warned them what practice will be like if I get the sense that they didn’t workout so that will get ugly real fast. We’re cautiously optimistic that we will get some cardio in and take care of that. When we come back we will jump into the scout. We’ll scout and do two days prep and play. Then, obviously, we have Texas looming right after that at Texas. They are excited. We have to finish what we have left when we come back and take care of that business when we come back.”
On the team’s plans for Christmas:
“Angel (Goodrich) is driving back tonight and obviously Natalie (Knight) is driving back tonight. Tania (Jackson) is still in limbo on what she is going to do. They are all out of the airport by eight tomorrow morning. Everybody is on eight o’clock or earlier flights. Mine is at six-something. I am going to the Mall of America first to do my Christmas shopping—that will be a nightmare. I don’t know why I did that. I am going to go recruiting tomorrow. (I’m going) up to Minneapolis to watch a practice then I will spend the rest of it with my family and watch some film, of course.”
Kansas junior forward Carolyn Davis
On Oral Roberts’ zone defense:
“We worked all week on that extended 3-2, so we knew they were going to come out and play us in all zone and it was going to be extended like that. We had to find gaps. I think I did a great job of finding the gaps, and our guards did a good job of finding me in those gaps.”
On her performance:
“I was finding those gaps. When you extend the zone that high, it’s a risk and reward. We found those weak spots and the open lanes at the bottom. I was able to get easy buckets.”
On Angel Goodrich, Aishah Sutherland and her being team leaders:
“We are upperclassmen, so it has to be our team. We have to take control of the game, and I think Aishah (Sutherland) myself and Angel (Goodrich) did a great job of taking over the game like we’re supposed to. I think that is what (Kansas head coach Bonnie Henrickson) is looking for, and we have to be able to lead our freshmen.”
On her first double-double of season:
“I was so excited to see that. Every time we come (to the bench), I’m like, ‘How many rebounds do I have?’ I want that. I know I need to average a double-double, and I think I’m very capable of doing that. I think a lot of that is just going, and if I go for the rebound, then I can get it.”
Kansas junior guard Angel Goodrich
On her strategy coming into the game:
“I think it was just knowing that they were going to play a really wide zone. There were going to be gaps in places, and just seeing that and hitting the gap when they came at you. It was easy to get it to the open guy because they were coming at us.”
On preparing for Oral Roberts’ zone:
“We did it in scout, and we also did it in practice. It was more preparation and seeing where the gaps were. It really helped out in the game.”
On her 14-assist performance:
“It’s not something I go in there and be like, ‘I’m trying to get my assists really high.’ I just like to get my teammates the ball, and when they’re open, I like to get them the ball.”
Kansas senior forward Aishah Sutherland
On playing the last game before Christmas vacation:
“Everyone is thinking about going home after this game. (Coach Henrickson) told us to be more rabid at times when we came into this game because everyone is thinking, ‘after this game, I’m free and I have a break.’ We took it very well. We came in, did what we needed to do and stayed focused.”
On playing with healthy Carolyn Davis:
“Her foot is feeling better. She’s in practice going along with us.”
On Angel Goodrich’s 14-assist performance:
“She was able to get into the zone, attack the zone, pull people and dish it to whoever was open. She was really good with that. She is able to see everyone on the court.”
On Angel Goodrich:
“She doesn’t look at you. When she doesn’t look at you, you have to know that this ball could be coming at me even if she’s not looking at me.”
Oral Roberts head coach Jerry Finkbeiner
Opening Statement:
“(Kansas guard) Angel Goodrich is the real deal. We recruited her out of high school and she is a very good player. (She had) four points, but totally dominated the game. We have a pretty good defensive system that creates a lot of turnovers, and she tore through it like nobody else. We just didn’t have an answer for it. I give all the credit to the Kansas Jayhawk team. They completely dominated us from about the 16-minute mark, on.”
On their zone defense:
“We are a zone team, we are a zone-trapping team. At our level, we led the country in steals the last three years because of that defense. We had 12 steals tonight, and we average 17 on the year. I was disappointed with our girls early because we should have had three steals on the first three possessions, and our offside wings didn’t come over. KU made some really good adjustments with Angel, and we just couldn’t keep her in the pocket. We gave up too many easy shots. Our starting point guard didn’t play tonight. We are going to hold her out until conference season for our own good, and we missed her tonight. She might have balanced out Angel a little bit, but it wouldn’t have been enough.”
“In years of running this defense we have never played against a girl that was as heady as Angel was tonight. We have played against bigger girls and quicker girls, but we have never played against a girl that has been more heady than Angel. She has an uncanny way of driving to the middle. Raising her eyebrows, everyone goes jumping for the pass and she no-looks it to the other side. Too many easy shots—tons of shots within ten feet of the hoop—I keep telling the girls to sink in. We didn’t follow our scouting report extremely well, but we didn’t have an answer for Angel.”
