Postgame Quotes
Dec 31, 2016 | General
Kansas State Head Coach Bruce Weber
On the 15-0 run in the first half…
“I know there was a stretch of seven minutes or so where they did not score. I do not know if it was the first or second half, we had two good stretches. They stayed at 11 for quite a while, so our defense did a good job. I thought we missed some open shots to start the game. We have made them and hopefully will continue to make them, but we find other things to do. Barry [Brown] goes 0-5 from three but has seven rebounds and four steals, which is really good for him that he did other things. I thought the bench, when the starters were in foul trouble, made a little bit of a run. Then we put the other guys back in and continued going. They have a lot of young players with a lot of talent. Obviously Jarrett Allen is pretty good. I did not think we were great, but we made enough plays to win, especially free throws. We finished 9 out of 10 to finish the game in the last minute. I think the big thing was that we got the ball inbounds. Wesley [Iwundu] made good decisions and got the ball inbounds. We attacked and never let them get where they had us in a place that we were stuck.”
On being the aggressors tonight…
“That is one of the big things on the board the guys will tell you about. We said we have to be the aggressor and that this is our home court. I thought we were physical and ended up playing hard. It was a very physical game and they have some talent. They struggle a little bit offensively and some of that is making shots. They made shots in the second half, especially down the stretch, but I thought we had some good stretches. The one thing I thought that we did not do some things in was the decision making on breaks. We would have 3-on-2 or 4-on-3 and instead of just being solid and space them we got a little antsy trying to make some plays. We are going to have to be better, there is no doubt about that, as we continue into the league”.
On Dean Wade…
“You are not going to be perfect, but tonight his stat line was pretty good. I talked to them yesterday and actually shot with them after practice. He has got to believe in himself. With D.J. [Johnson] diving and moving they have to worry about him. That allows Dean to get open. Coach Lowery has this old saying “There is no more open than open and when you are open you have to shoot it.” It hurts your offense if you move the basketball and do not shoot it. Even Barry [Brown] missed the first couple and had a third one but made an extra pass. Now we have a bad possession there. He has to be confident. About the last seven or eight games he has been one of our best on the play hard chart. He has rebounded for us and done a lot of other things. I would like him to do everything every night and I think he is capable and, slowly but surely, I think it would be nice if we got it out of him, as well as Kamau [Stokes]. His assist-to-turnover ratio has been astronomical ever since his first couple of games and is what we want point guards to do”.
On the improved free throw shooting…
“We have put a little more time in. We made them shoot and one day I told them they had to make 42 out of 50. That stumped a few of them when I asked them what percentage that was. We spent a little more time just talking about it. I will be honest, I would like to change Barry [Brown]’s. I have let him go a little bit and I would like to change it. Dean [Wade] is getting better and Kamau [Stokes] should be better, he just started bad. Now he is putting a little more time and focus into it. As a staff, we have talked about what we would do at the end of a game. When you look at our free throw percentages, who do you want shooting? D.J. [Johnson], Xavier [Sneed] and Wesley [Iwundu] were our best. We actually got D.J. in the press offense tonight and he got a couple down. I know Xavier will make them and it is good to see the veteran guys with Kamau and Wesley make their free throws down the stretch”.
Sophomore Guard Kamau Stokes
On winning a close game…
“It feels real good. Especially when we have been emphasizing closing out games and taking care of the ball at the end of games. I felt like we did that today.”
On Dean Wade…
“We told him at halftime to shoot the ball. He is wide open and we do not want him to pass up shots. When Dean [Wade] is making shots, which opens everything up for us.”
On taking away their guards…
“We were very focused. We prepared ourselves well yesterday and this whole break. We just need to continue to execute on offense, play defense and get shutouts. We got a lot of shutouts that impacted the game.”
Sophomore Forward Dean Wade
On starting off with a win…
“It was big. I know we lost a couple close ones to them last year both here and at their place. I think it is just good to get a win at home and start off good.”
On what the win says about team…
“I think that we are a very versatile team. We can do so many things with so many different guys. The guards played great defense. We missed a lot of open shots, but I think they were in rhythm. We are going to knock those down other days.”
On going to Lawrence…
“I have been through it once. I was a lot more nervous last year than I am this year. I am just trying to focus on the game plan from the coaches and play how I have been playing.”
Texas Head Coach Shaka Smart
On mistakes…
“Mistakes really do add up and that was the story of the game. I think there are a lot of little things that we will look at when we watch the tape that were under our control. Obviously there are two teams involved, but we have to focus on what we can control and what we can improve on. There are a lot of little things that our guys know what to do. We just have to get better at doing them at the right time and doing them together. I thought during the run that Kansas State went on after we went up 11-4, we really got away from doing the things we talked about doing on both ends. I do not know, but they probably scored thirteen straight points and obviously that was a big difference in the game.”
On K-State free-throws…
“It was huge because that is a way to build a lead and that is a way to keep a lead. I thought that the way those guys stepped up and made free-throws with focus was a big difference. Just looking at the game statistically, they made 19 more free-throws than us. They obviously shot more, but that is tough to overcome.”
On what to fix…
“There were plays where I do not think that K-State scored but somehow, whether it was an over and back where they got the ball back or there was a free-throw rebound that was ours that just kind of went out of bounds. Those are plays that our guys can make and obviously need to make. I thought Kansas State did a nice job in the second half of doubling our bigs. I am not sure of the number, but there was several turnovers in that situation. It is something that we have seen a lot and something that we have worked on coming into this game, but Kansas State did a nice job getting their hands on the ball tonight.”
On Dean Wade…
“I like Dean Wade, a lot. I really liked him last year as a freshman and I said last year that this guy was going to be really good because coaches here do a really good job of developing guys. He is obviously putting in the work. When he jumps up to shoot it, you worry that it is going to go in and tonight it did. He hit those consecutive threes and then he hit another 16-18 footer. He is also a good driver which makes him tough to defend at that size.”
Sophomore Guard Kerwin Roach Jr.
On game against Kansas State…
“We came out strong and came out hard, but we had those stretches where we went scoreless.”
On mistakes…
“It is just a hump that we have to get over. Once we get over the hump, I feel like this team can do wonders. We did not shoot the ball well and we did not make a lot of threes. We played good defense, but it was just the offense and the stretches that we went scoreless.”
On 8-minute scoring drought…
“They went on a run and we were just trying to respond. We had a lot of balls go in and out and they were denying our offense. That was messing up the timing too, which hurt us and held us scoreless for eight minutes.”
Senior Forward Shaquille Cleare
On performance…
“The first half was pretty good. I do not think I put myself in a better position to score the basketball. Also, my guards were attacking so I was just trying to clean up whatever I could in the second half. For the most part I think I had a solid first half.”
On 8-minute drought…
“In the eight minute stretch, I think our defense went down a little bit and we were not scoring the basketball like we know how to and we should have. Possessions like that in the second half we have to capitalize on. Errors throughout the game were really up and down. We really have to run our offense. We have a lot of plays where we can get the ball inside and get our guards shots, but we just have to run the offense.”
On feelings of the game…
“I am not happy with the loss because I want to win in this league. I want to win in general because I am just competitive. As far as my young group goes, I am proud of them. We were down twelve and brought the game within three points, so we were right there. We just have to fight a little harder. We have to be more solid on defense and we have to take care of the ball more. We had seventeen turnovers and that is unacceptable. We have to take care of the ball better.”
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