from kstatesports.com (FWIW, this is not the sum of the press conference just a few quotes. There was a lot more from Carti and Bruce...)
Part 1
K-STATE HEAD COACH BRUCE WEBER
On the locker room after the game…
“Surprisingly, not over-emotional. I think they expended a lot of energy. I think they played very, very hard. We all felt like we had it in us, but we needed somebody to really step up. I talked to you before. Last year was Mike McGuirl, but Cartier was really good. Some other guys were good. Dajuan gives us a spark like that. Not only making shots, he was 6 for 7, 3 for 4, but four steals, all of those little plays. You go down the line, even Mak, if he doesn’t foul, he’s got six rebounds in a short time, and we’ve been on him about having a motor. Xavier, he wanted to play, but with two fouls it scared the heck out of me, but we survived and got him out and he has a solid game. Obviously, Cartier, great numbers, except for the turnovers. You know, casual passes. Some of it is out of bounds. We told him, you’re going to fight for things, you’ve got to step off hard. You have
to make those hard cuts, but he’s got to be definite on his passes. I always tell him I’d rather have a 5-second count than let them get a steal and get a dunk and then the crowd goes nuts and gets mad. But I’d rather have that. We can’t defend the full court with no one back, so take care of it. David Sloan, 5 for 6 from the line, five assists, a turnover and four steals. He played 35 minutes, his career high in minutes. Montavious, plus-22, all over. He doesn’t have a lot of numbers but when you ask a freshman to guard those big guys, it’s really tough. Antonio, he missed that first one and he charged a couple of times but seven points, goes 3 for 4, makes that big three while they’re making a push. Even Pearson McAtee goes in at the end and has poise and makes a nice assist to Monta to finish it off, so it’s just a good win. I thought our defense was really good early, and you can’t beat them unless you can stop them because their defensive numbers are unbelievable. But then you look at what we did today, it’s crazy.”
On West Virginia’s second half run…
“They cut it to six. Xavier missed those bonus free throws and at the time I said guys, we’ve been here before. Now what are we going to do? We talked about what your mentality is, and McAtee said a little devotional that he made about lawyers and how lawyers don’t make excuses. Lawyers want challenge. Lawyers step up when they have things go against them, and that’s what I talked about in the huddle. If you do those things and you keep battling, good things will happen and we
got a couple stops. They fouled us, we made our free throws, got it back to double digits and finished the game.”
On the young guys on the team…
“They did well. We need them. But the good thing is, and this is what we’ve been saying, if the older guys play well, then they can just fit in and do the little things and not have to be, they’ve had to be the main guys at certain times. But the fast break was just unbelievable. We haven’t had that fast break all year. Boom, boom, boom, a layup and then another one on the other end. We got points off turnovers, 28. We caused turnovers. I thought our defense was really good. And then Monta, to
go against Culver and to go against Oscar (Tshiebwe), that’s a handful. And even Antonio and Levi and Mak, those young guys have done a nice job. It means so much to DaJuan. You don’t have any idea, and it was good for him to have a nice little break out. Jordy Nelson talked to our team way back in the fall, and he said you never know when you can have a 30-point game. He even talked about himself in the Super Bowl. Somebody gets hurt. Now all of a sudden he moves up into the rotation, and he ends up MVP. We had a little video from Drew Brees talking to the Purdue football team, ‘Which day are you going to make a difference and change your team?’ Maybe today is. We’ll see. We’ve got a tough one Tuesday, but are we going to come out and play at a high level? I hope we do. We got some good inspiration for them. No one expects you to win. Play with poise and execute, and we’ll see what happens.”
On what K-State’s execution meant today…
“Well I hope it means something. I thought our defense was really good down the stretch and Coach (Chris) Lowery brought it up. Coach (Jermaine) Henderson had the scout. We bought into the scout report. That’s why we had steals. We recognized their things. We were in the right place as we fought them for passes. In the first half, I thought we disrupted them. We did a little bit of zone, a little man. They didn’t know which one we were in. Some of our guys didn’t know which one we were in, but that’s okay. Sometimes that’s a good thing. My whole thing was keeping a lot of rhythm. We went zone a couple times in the second half, and they made shots. You got to be prepared, starts tomorrow. We get back together knowing Kansas. Coach Lowery has the scout. We’re not going to do much. We’ve got a lot of guys playing 30-some minutes; 35-38 minutes.
But, you’ve got to do the mental part. What’s the old saying? ‘The fight is not won at seven o’clock on Tuesday night, it’s won now.’ You win it the next two days.”
CARTIER DIARRA, JUNIOR GUARD
On how this game helps moving forward...
“One, it’s a top 25 team coming into our building being known as one of the best defensive teams in the nation. I felt like we showed them. We played probably just as good of defense or better and we can score the ball, as well. I think we shot over 50 percent, and they usually hold teams to .30-something as field goals. That just shows the offensive part in how we executed the game plan. Just being ready, that’s the biggest thing. This game has definitely helped us get ready for Tuesday. Like Coach said, tomorrow is going to be more mental prep, and that’s the biggest thing. A
lot of us play a lot of minutes. We just need to get treated and be locked in. Everybody needs to watch film on KU, and we’ve got to stop (Udoka) Azubuike. We did a really good job on the two big guys down there, (Derek) Culver and Oscar (Tshiebwe). Hopefully, we do a better job on Azubuike. That really helps us out, because he’s shooting 77 percent from the field and leading the nation.”
On having David Sloan as a main ball handler...
“I think it’s very important because I’m starting to see a switched defense on me. I think teams are understanding how good I am driving the ball. Me having the ball at the top of the key, everybody got all eyes on me. David is a really good driver, as well. Even with him not being as tall, he still gets to the basket at will. He creates. He made great passes today. Five-to-one assist-turnover ratio. I wish mine was there, but it wasn’t. He’s just a great help. He knows how to pick and dissect the defense. Me being in the corner, teams have to pick and choose. They’re going to
tag, or they can let me open for a three. That’s honestly when I felt I shot my best when I was shooting forty percent my freshman year off the catch and shoot. He’s definitely helped.”
On what was going on in his mind during the last two minutes of the game…
“We’re up. X (Xavier Sneed) is on the trailer. Nobody is guarding him. Give him the ball and let him get some more points. Just feed my guys. He had been working hard all game. He got the first two steals of the game. X always works hard, and I just saw the time. Instead of me walking the ball up the court, everybody said now we’ve got to try to do something. Why not get a quick basket in? Definitely X was down there. It was really dope. It’s just the icing on the cake, on the W. It’s just huge. Being down 0-4. Nobody’s expecting us to win, especially coming out with a blowout win. It’s really huge.”
On what advice he would give the newcomers about playing in Allen Fieldhouse…
“Well I’ve been there, only played one game, missed out on two. But I’ve definitely seen my first year and my first time playing it was a really close game, came down to the last second. We definitely are capable of beating them. I believe so, but it’s tough. Their crowd is different. You probably can’t hear plays, so my young guys and everybody needs to understand that. There’s going to be a lot of signs, and we’ve got to be able to read that and execute and still finish the game. I would definitely want a blowout game, but most likely it’s going to be close. So we’ve got to be ready to execute, make plays, and get stops. That’s the most important thing.”
Part 1
K-STATE HEAD COACH BRUCE WEBER
On the locker room after the game…
“Surprisingly, not over-emotional. I think they expended a lot of energy. I think they played very, very hard. We all felt like we had it in us, but we needed somebody to really step up. I talked to you before. Last year was Mike McGuirl, but Cartier was really good. Some other guys were good. Dajuan gives us a spark like that. Not only making shots, he was 6 for 7, 3 for 4, but four steals, all of those little plays. You go down the line, even Mak, if he doesn’t foul, he’s got six rebounds in a short time, and we’ve been on him about having a motor. Xavier, he wanted to play, but with two fouls it scared the heck out of me, but we survived and got him out and he has a solid game. Obviously, Cartier, great numbers, except for the turnovers. You know, casual passes. Some of it is out of bounds. We told him, you’re going to fight for things, you’ve got to step off hard. You have
to make those hard cuts, but he’s got to be definite on his passes. I always tell him I’d rather have a 5-second count than let them get a steal and get a dunk and then the crowd goes nuts and gets mad. But I’d rather have that. We can’t defend the full court with no one back, so take care of it. David Sloan, 5 for 6 from the line, five assists, a turnover and four steals. He played 35 minutes, his career high in minutes. Montavious, plus-22, all over. He doesn’t have a lot of numbers but when you ask a freshman to guard those big guys, it’s really tough. Antonio, he missed that first one and he charged a couple of times but seven points, goes 3 for 4, makes that big three while they’re making a push. Even Pearson McAtee goes in at the end and has poise and makes a nice assist to Monta to finish it off, so it’s just a good win. I thought our defense was really good early, and you can’t beat them unless you can stop them because their defensive numbers are unbelievable. But then you look at what we did today, it’s crazy.”
On West Virginia’s second half run…
“They cut it to six. Xavier missed those bonus free throws and at the time I said guys, we’ve been here before. Now what are we going to do? We talked about what your mentality is, and McAtee said a little devotional that he made about lawyers and how lawyers don’t make excuses. Lawyers want challenge. Lawyers step up when they have things go against them, and that’s what I talked about in the huddle. If you do those things and you keep battling, good things will happen and we
got a couple stops. They fouled us, we made our free throws, got it back to double digits and finished the game.”
On the young guys on the team…
“They did well. We need them. But the good thing is, and this is what we’ve been saying, if the older guys play well, then they can just fit in and do the little things and not have to be, they’ve had to be the main guys at certain times. But the fast break was just unbelievable. We haven’t had that fast break all year. Boom, boom, boom, a layup and then another one on the other end. We got points off turnovers, 28. We caused turnovers. I thought our defense was really good. And then Monta, to
go against Culver and to go against Oscar (Tshiebwe), that’s a handful. And even Antonio and Levi and Mak, those young guys have done a nice job. It means so much to DaJuan. You don’t have any idea, and it was good for him to have a nice little break out. Jordy Nelson talked to our team way back in the fall, and he said you never know when you can have a 30-point game. He even talked about himself in the Super Bowl. Somebody gets hurt. Now all of a sudden he moves up into the rotation, and he ends up MVP. We had a little video from Drew Brees talking to the Purdue football team, ‘Which day are you going to make a difference and change your team?’ Maybe today is. We’ll see. We’ve got a tough one Tuesday, but are we going to come out and play at a high level? I hope we do. We got some good inspiration for them. No one expects you to win. Play with poise and execute, and we’ll see what happens.”
On what K-State’s execution meant today…
“Well I hope it means something. I thought our defense was really good down the stretch and Coach (Chris) Lowery brought it up. Coach (Jermaine) Henderson had the scout. We bought into the scout report. That’s why we had steals. We recognized their things. We were in the right place as we fought them for passes. In the first half, I thought we disrupted them. We did a little bit of zone, a little man. They didn’t know which one we were in. Some of our guys didn’t know which one we were in, but that’s okay. Sometimes that’s a good thing. My whole thing was keeping a lot of rhythm. We went zone a couple times in the second half, and they made shots. You got to be prepared, starts tomorrow. We get back together knowing Kansas. Coach Lowery has the scout. We’re not going to do much. We’ve got a lot of guys playing 30-some minutes; 35-38 minutes.
But, you’ve got to do the mental part. What’s the old saying? ‘The fight is not won at seven o’clock on Tuesday night, it’s won now.’ You win it the next two days.”
CARTIER DIARRA, JUNIOR GUARD
On how this game helps moving forward...
“One, it’s a top 25 team coming into our building being known as one of the best defensive teams in the nation. I felt like we showed them. We played probably just as good of defense or better and we can score the ball, as well. I think we shot over 50 percent, and they usually hold teams to .30-something as field goals. That just shows the offensive part in how we executed the game plan. Just being ready, that’s the biggest thing. This game has definitely helped us get ready for Tuesday. Like Coach said, tomorrow is going to be more mental prep, and that’s the biggest thing. A
lot of us play a lot of minutes. We just need to get treated and be locked in. Everybody needs to watch film on KU, and we’ve got to stop (Udoka) Azubuike. We did a really good job on the two big guys down there, (Derek) Culver and Oscar (Tshiebwe). Hopefully, we do a better job on Azubuike. That really helps us out, because he’s shooting 77 percent from the field and leading the nation.”
On having David Sloan as a main ball handler...
“I think it’s very important because I’m starting to see a switched defense on me. I think teams are understanding how good I am driving the ball. Me having the ball at the top of the key, everybody got all eyes on me. David is a really good driver, as well. Even with him not being as tall, he still gets to the basket at will. He creates. He made great passes today. Five-to-one assist-turnover ratio. I wish mine was there, but it wasn’t. He’s just a great help. He knows how to pick and dissect the defense. Me being in the corner, teams have to pick and choose. They’re going to
tag, or they can let me open for a three. That’s honestly when I felt I shot my best when I was shooting forty percent my freshman year off the catch and shoot. He’s definitely helped.”
On what was going on in his mind during the last two minutes of the game…
“We’re up. X (Xavier Sneed) is on the trailer. Nobody is guarding him. Give him the ball and let him get some more points. Just feed my guys. He had been working hard all game. He got the first two steals of the game. X always works hard, and I just saw the time. Instead of me walking the ball up the court, everybody said now we’ve got to try to do something. Why not get a quick basket in? Definitely X was down there. It was really dope. It’s just the icing on the cake, on the W. It’s just huge. Being down 0-4. Nobody’s expecting us to win, especially coming out with a blowout win. It’s really huge.”
On what advice he would give the newcomers about playing in Allen Fieldhouse…
“Well I’ve been there, only played one game, missed out on two. But I’ve definitely seen my first year and my first time playing it was a really close game, came down to the last second. We definitely are capable of beating them. I believe so, but it’s tough. Their crowd is different. You probably can’t hear plays, so my young guys and everybody needs to understand that. There’s going to be a lot of signs, and we’ve got to be able to read that and execute and still finish the game. I would definitely want a blowout game, but most likely it’s going to be close. So we’ve got to be ready to execute, make plays, and get stops. That’s the most important thing.”
