POSTGAME QUOTES K-State 69, Tulsa 67 | December 29, 2019
K-STATE HEAD COACH, BRUCE WEBER On finding a way to get a win in a close game… “I’m happy for the guys and proud of them, especially the older guys. We need them to be consistent, give us something. It helps everyone else. It wasn’t a great start when you spot them a 13-point lead, but to our guys’ credit, they fought back into the game, took the lead, even stretched it out in the second half. We said they’re not going to quit and they didn’t. We had a couple bad possessions in that stretch in the second half, but kept making plays and finally, Cartier (Diarra) obviously a big shot, Mak (Mawien) a big block, Xavier (Sneed) a big rebound. It would’ve been nice to not make it even tougher, make those two free throws. I’m happy for them, happy for the guys. They were very quiet before, very quiet after shootaround, I was hoping that meant they were locked in, but obviously they weren’t very locked in to start the game. I just challenged them, you better compete. You’ve got to compete, you’ve got to play hard, you’ve got to defend. We made some strides after spotting them and found a way to win a game. Hopefully that will help us take another step.”
On Tulsa attacking the paint... “We didn’t do our team defense. We were letting them get down hill. They had drop offs, they got steals against the press. Joyner is good and pretty active, Jackson is pretty active. They got a couple of guys who are active. That’s not supposed to be the steal. It’s supposed to get back into their zone and use time and we just didn’t attack it very well. We panicked and gave up some layups. Then Mak (Makol Mawien), I thought after the beginning Mak was good and much more active, nine (points) and seven (rebounds), three blocks, and just staying out of foul trouble. We did a better job as the game went on in protecting the paint.
On Cartier Diarra’s last 3-pointer vs. how the play was drawn up... “It was a similar play to what we ran the other day when Xavier (Sneed) got it with a little bit different look with different people in there, but Xavier slipped it and was open in the corner and I don’t think Mike (McGuirl) saw him and it was going to be a two-man game with Mak (Mawein) slipping and Carti just making a play. Obviously he made a huge shot. Players make good coaches. The other day, Xavier got a much better look and it didn’t go in. This time (Cartier) makes a step back three and it helps us get a win.”
On Cartier Diarra delivering when K-State needed it... “All these games, if you look back - Mississippi State, Saint Louis - I think we’ve haven’t scored in the last five minutes, last two minutes in one last three minutes in the other game, and we had chances to win. If you go back, Pittsburgh, same thing. You need somebody to deliver and make a play. I keep talking to the coaches, what do i need to run, what can we run, but some of it is, players need to make plays. (Carti) made a play today, so now hopefully he’ll take a step.”
On the frustration of Tulsa getting in the paint early... “We didn’t do our team defense, we were letting them get downhill, they had dropoffs, they got steals against the press. That press it’s more of a - (Elijah) Joiner is good and active, and (Darian) Jackson is pretty active, they’ve got a couple guys that are active in it, but that’s not supposed to lead to stealing it’s to get back in their zone and use time. We just didn’t attack if very well. We panicked, we gave them some lay-ups off that. I thought after the beginning, Mak (Mawien) was good and much more active, nine points and seven rebounds, three blocks, just staying out of foul trouble. We did a better job as the game went on and protected the paint.”
On Montavious Murphy going down and leaving the game... “We were worried that was the same injury as before, but it isn’t. Thank God. He just got kneed in the knee. We probably could’ve used him but he sat out so much that we just felt go with the guys that have been in there.
“Antonio has the flu. He came back from break, first morning he shot around, he told Luke (Sauber) our trainer, that he didn’t feel very well. We took him in and we thought it was a respiratory (infection), which he has, but he did test positive for the flu so we’ve had to quarantine him for three days. We’ll hopefully get him back tomorrow and let him work out a little bit. We’ve got at least a week to come back, to get some energy.”
On Montavious Murphy’s minutes... “You need somebody. I thought he was active. A couple of those plays where they got rebounds, DaJuan (Gordon) I think stole it once, (Monte) got a steal. Those are the hustle plays that make a difference. All those little plays add up. Monte is very solid on defense. He’s got to get back in the rhythm. The radio guys asked me before where is here, nowhere near where he was at the beginning of the year. You sit out five or six weeks and you’re a freshman - it’s spinning for the guys that have
been there. The game’s going fast and is so much more advanced than it was two months ago that he’s got to catch up. As long as he plays hard and competes, it gives you a chance.”
On how the defensive rotations improved... “We’ve said before, we could’ve won some of these games with some stops. We talked about it in the huddle the last two or three huddles, just no one making mistakes and staying locked in and everyone talk. Make them earn it, and we had some good stops. They shot 45 percent, which is probably a little high. Some of that was early. To start the game, they were at a pretty high level. Second half, 39 percent was pretty good holding them to that. We turned them over, and that helped us get some transition baskets. We had 19 points off turnovers. That gets you back in the game. Mike McGuirl had seven rebounds. That might be his career high, and he hit a big three. I don’t know who they gave the tip to on the Xavier shot, whether it was DaJuan (Gordon) or Levi (Stockard). One of them got it. It’s all of those little plays that make a difference.”
CARTIER DIARRA, JUNIOR GUARD On getting out of the funk and making shots... “Defense. Coach said at halftime we had eight steals in that stretch that we started coming back and took the lead. It was just defense. It’s always the defense at the end of the day because if we’re not scoring offensively, we can control the defensive side of it. That’s not what we did early on. The good thing is that we made the adjustment. Really happy we came out with the win. Our other coach, Coach Lowery, was just preaching to learn from winning. We’ve been learning from losing and it’s been tough that way. Just happy we came to grind out this tough win against a team that’s beaten us the last two years, so that was good for those guys that lost that game the last two years. Getting back into practice and watch film on how we could’ve done better and get ready for Big 12 play.”
On his last three he made... “They had been kind of icing the ball screens on me. I tried to come off the ball screen and he was just there. I just went to, I say, one of my shots that Coach doesn’t like. He likes me to go to the basket because I’m really good at that and creating for others. I was making a couple jumpers, a couple three's in the first half. I didn’t make a couple in the second, but I felt like that one just felt good. It was just one of my shots. I like doing step-backs. It doesn’t always fall in practice, but it fell today and I was happy for it and I’m just happy we came out with a win.”
On his ability to hit shots tonight… “It was just staying confident. I know that early on I wasn’t shooting the ball well. My scouting reports are saying ‘He can’t shoot,’ and I know I’ve been a good shooter in the past. My freshman year, I think I shot 40. Last year, I shot like 37, 36. I’ve got to get it back up and the only way to get that back up is shooting in the gym, practicing, working on it and of course, shooting in the game. I did miss five of them. I wish I didn’t miss those five, but I made ones that counted and what we needed to get the W.”
On how his performance against St.Louis changed his focus… “Of course. I appreciate Coach Weber and the coaching staff for what they did. I feel like coming back from my break, I felt more hungry and I feel like I should never have a game like that again. I plan on not allowing that. I’m a key person to this team. We need everybody, and I can’t play bad so I’ve got to find other ways. Today, being able to make plays on the offensive end and scoring, but maybe next game I won’t make as many shots and now I’ve got to really tighten up on the defensive end and make other plays. That’s the biggest thing, doing whatever it takes to win.”
On having other ball handlers on the team… “I feel like what I excelled at in my previous years was being a catcher-shooter and moving without the ball. With David (Sloan) at the point guard and other people, Mike (McGuirl), X (Xavier Sneed) having the ball, I get to run around and play the ball and not have all the eyes on me. I get to catch and shoot and do stuff I think I’m good at.”
On how winning this game felt... “It gave us the confidence that we overcame a challenge. The last couple games, we’ve had chances like Coach said. It’s getting those stops and we didn’t get those stops. Mak made a great play at the end of this game, got a blocked shot for us, which we needed. We got some good stops and that was just it. We’ve seen a change. We made a change, came out with a W. It’s a good team win.”
FRANK HAITH, TULSA HEAD COACH Opening statement… “Really proud of how hard our kids fought. We came into this environment and I thought we battled, made some plays. Also, there were some tough plays that didn’t go our way, but we hurt ourselves a little bit on some of those plays. We give K-State credit. (Cartier) Diarra made a tough, tough shot and I think (Xavier) Sneed made a tough one, too. So they made two tough shots down the stretch to give themselves a chance to win the game.”
On what he was looking for on their last play... “I wanted to see a ref that calls a foul and we get Elijah (Joiner) two free throws. That’s what we wanted to see happen.”
On Cartier Diarra’s last made 3-pointer… “He hit a crazy shot. He hit like a 35-footer and it was contested. He had a game of his life. He made six threes and he was really good.”
On K-State making 3-pointers… “They made 34 percent of them. They took 20 threes in the first half and 12 in the second half.”
On how much Tulsa’s bench helped them tonight… “I think our strength is in our numbers. I thought our guys came in and sprayed the ball around a little bit. We’ve got a number of guys that can score, so that was good to see.”
On giving K-State the lead in the first half... “I think we were careless with the ball. We had a couple of times where they back-tapped us. We secured rebounds and they knocked the ball out of our hands. We were really not focused. I don’t think we turned it over but two or three times in the second half, and one was where we had two shots at the bucket and a guy knocked it out of our hands. So, we’re much better with our focus in terms of handling the ball. But there in the first half, I thought we were careless with the ball and that got them on their run.”