Wes Miller Simas Lukošius, John Newman III Kansas State Postgame
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00:00 But we felt like we've been right there,
00:01 and I thought after TCU we've gotten back to our approach
00:04 and everything that we try to be about
00:07 to our standard every day,
00:08 and it was nice just to get over the hump tonight.
00:11 I thought we played a good game.
00:13 I thought defensively, you know, we set a tone early,
00:17 getting stops to start the game.
00:18 I thought we were really active defensively.
00:21 I thought we paid really good attention
00:23 to the game plan defensively early,
00:26 and then I thought we executed well tonight at times,
00:28 and that's why you're in the position you're in
00:30 with five or six minutes left.
00:32 You guys know, our players know this.
00:35 I'm not real happy with some of the defensive errors
00:37 that let them back in the game.
00:39 It should have been one of those games
00:41 with how well we played that we should have finished,
00:43 and we've been dribbling the clock out,
00:45 but that's the Big 12 and give Kansas State.
00:49 And Coach Tang's got a lot of credit.
00:52 Nobody's going to go away in this league,
00:54 but we made some defensive errors down the stretch
00:56 that we just can't make, you know,
00:57 giving a layup and transition with guys back
01:01 because Aziz is late on the ground,
01:02 or fouling a three-point shooter,
01:04 overhelping and leaving one of the best shooters
01:06 in our league and in the country.
01:08 I mean, we did some amazing things that we shouldn't do,
01:12 and then we let them make some big-time shots and plays
01:15 and give them credit for doing it,
01:17 and that's how you get in the position
01:18 where Perry can make the crazy shot
01:20 to go up one at the end of the shot clock.
01:21 We shouldn't have been there.
01:23 That said, we've lost a bunch of close games this year.
01:27 For them to kind of come back and erase a double-figure lead,
01:29 take the lead,
01:31 I was really proud of our execution down the stretch.
01:34 You know, Cimas makes another big-time shot.
01:37 He's done it for us over and over again,
01:39 but Gisle made a great read.
01:40 We kind of gave Gisle two options,
01:43 try to attack, and if it's not there,
01:45 we're going to execute something for Cimas.
01:46 And I thought Gisle made a really nice play.
01:49 I thought Dede and Aziz really did a nice job
01:52 executing to get Cimas open,
01:55 and then our guy here makes another big one,
01:57 and then we were able to execute another stop
01:59 and execute to get the ball in bounds
02:01 and all that kind of stuff.
02:02 So I thought our execution after they took the lead
02:04 was really good, and it was good to get a couple stops
02:06 to finish the game.
02:07 Question for John.
02:09 John, obviously, it's been a little bit
02:10 of a struggle offensively over the past couple games.
02:13 What was able to kind of get you back in the groove today?
02:16 Anything early that maybe kind of set the tone?
02:20 Just not getting too much in my head about it
02:25 and just, like, letting it go and just trusting my work.
02:27 You know, Coach West is telling me to trust my work
02:29 and don't overthink nothing.
02:31 I can get in my head sometimes,
02:32 but, you know, just like always for me,
02:36 my teammates find me, and I was doing plays
02:38 that just, like, Cimas hit me.
02:42 I might have missed that shot.
02:43 I think I missed the shot when Cimas hit me,
02:45 but really just guys playing well together.
02:49 You know, my teammates finding me
02:50 and just trusting the work and being aggressive.
02:52 You know, you can't get too discouraged about,
02:56 you know, tough stretches.
02:57 All the great players have had them,
02:59 and so I kind of just, you know, keep my head down
03:02 and just keep working and trust the work,
03:04 and, you know, it works out for you.
03:07 Sam, was there kind of a rallying cry
03:12 among some guys for the big team there?
03:15 This new league sports leader?
03:17 I'd say maybe there was just some extra motivation,
03:23 but it just went without saying.
03:24 Like, everybody knew that that's our mentality.
03:27 You know, regardless of the circumstances,
03:30 we're all going to perform to the best of our ability.
03:35 Yeah, we did today.
03:37 Yeah, we tried not to let outside things
03:39 that are out of our control affect how we play
03:41 and the mentality that we came out with.
03:44 John, you think that was kind of taking on that role?
03:50 How fun are these challenges for you?
03:53 What are the other challenges?
03:57 First off, you know, credit to him.
03:59 He's a great player.
04:01 Sometimes you have off nights, can't throw it in the ocean.
04:07 I take on every challenge, man.
04:08 It's very engaging for me, you know,
04:11 just to have a guy, like, going into the game.
04:14 I already knew who he was,
04:15 but then whenever we were going to Skyrim,
04:18 I feel like a challenge was presented to me,
04:21 like, without saying.
04:23 So I kind of locked that into my mind
04:26 and, you know, kind of put a battery
04:28 in my back a little bit.
04:29 You know, you got a great player coming in here,
04:31 and I take a lot of responsibility for that,
04:36 you know, that defensive assignment.
04:38 But, like, it's a group effort, though.
04:40 It's not only just me.
04:41 You know, I wasn't -- I only -- I played 28 minutes,
04:44 I would -- he played 36,
04:46 so somebody else is guarding him the other eight minutes.
04:50 So it's a collective effort, but as far as me individually,
04:54 just taking on every challenge every night,
04:56 you know, the best I can.
04:58 Tom, you played in some of the tournament before,
05:00 like, out of March.
05:02 Do you feel a sense of urgency to use that example
05:05 of what it's like to play this time of year
05:06 for guys who have maybe haven't had as much experience
05:09 as you have in this time of year, March?
05:12 Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, that's my responsibility
05:16 as a leader is try to be the example in my way.
05:19 But I want everyone to step up, you know.
05:25 I do have a lot of experience.
05:26 We got a lot of guys with a lot of experience in different ways.
05:29 But, you know, I just want to --
05:32 I want to see everyone take a step,
05:35 and it doesn't have to be me.
05:37 It can be, you know, we're one to 16 over here.
05:40 So around this time of year,
05:42 it's time to kick it into another gear
05:44 and lock in and get better and try to make a push.
05:47 T-Mos, you've never 40%ed your lead so far.
05:50 I mean, big sample size, multiple threes.
05:54 How confident do you feel in your jumps,
05:57 especially that outfielder?
06:00 I feel very confident.
06:02 I mean, I'd say I'm always confident,
06:03 even when I'm struggling.
06:05 But obviously, these better performances
06:07 over the last few games, you can add to it.
06:09 But I'll just keep working at it,
06:11 and hopefully it stays that way.
06:15 I understand a lot of really close games here.
06:18 Did it feel good to get one for the fam tonight
06:20 to kind of reward them for the way they've been?
06:23 Yeah, yeah, they've been behind us all year,
06:25 and I appreciate them for just coming out every night,
06:29 you know, win, lose, or draw.
06:31 Like, they're behind us.
06:32 They always show up for us, so I love it here.
06:35 Our fans always show up.
06:38 They deserve that. They deserve that.
06:39 And we work really hard every day in practice.
06:42 You know, we get punched in the face,
06:44 but we're a resilient group.
06:46 You know, we get up the next day and work at it again
06:49 and keep going.
06:50 So definitely, I'd say, for the fans,
06:52 but it also felt good for us, you know,
06:54 for the -- I guess reap the benefits of our work.
06:59 And, you know, we just want to continue to give the fans
07:01 something to cheer for and, you know,
07:03 just continue to try to stay in the win column.
07:06 Two more for the players.
07:07 Do you play better when the families are around?
07:09 You know, we're out a lot of games,
07:11 and it's just like, you want to show up when they're there.
07:13 So you got to make sure that they're here
07:15 for senior day as well.
07:17 Yeah, they'll be here for senior day, man.
07:18 I have a great family.
07:20 If that's what it is, then I'm going to call his parents,
07:23 who I've known for a really long time,
07:25 and I'm going to tell them their butts
07:26 better be here for every game.
07:27 I'm not sure that's what it is,
07:29 but if that's all it takes, we can fix that.
07:32 Yeah, for sure. For sure.
07:33 Yeah, a little extra motivation, man.
07:35 I always got - sometimes I got to tell myself,
07:37 like, my mom's watching.
07:38 You know, that's definitely like extra little motivation.
07:40 She's watching whether she's at the game or not.
07:42 I'll tell you that.
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07:59 I didn't know it was that far away, really.
08:01 But I think it felt great.
08:05 The play was kind of just something that we run usually,
08:08 just a little twist to it.
08:10 And, yeah, we really executed it great.
08:13 Dayton, as he's gotten the open, you know,
08:14 Dizzle didn't have his own option,
08:16 so he waited for me.
08:18 And, yeah, I felt some space, and he got it.
08:21 It felt great.
08:23 Thanks, guys.
08:24 These two, Don?
08:26 Okay, Mark, good job.
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08:39 ...19 turnovers.
08:40 You win the points-off turnover battle, 29 to 6.
08:43 Does it feel good to have that look the other way?
08:48 Yeah, we needed to do that.
08:50 It's honestly -- you know,
08:54 that's how this year's been at times,
08:55 is, like, you're trying to figure out
08:56 who the heck you are.
08:58 We get beat on the boards by 10,
09:00 and that's been one of the things
09:02 that we've been pretty consistent with,
09:05 but we've been turning it over here the last couple weeks,
09:07 even though we haven't had a turnover problem all year.
09:10 We've been turning it over, and then tonight,
09:12 we get beat on the board,
09:13 but we dominate the turnover margin,
09:15 so, yeah, it was good to see us take care of the ball.
09:18 Some of the turnover stuff, you know,
09:21 has been a little mind-boggling
09:23 because, you know, you're going to play against
09:27 aggressive defenses and great defenses in this league
09:31 that are going to force you to cough it up a little bit
09:33 because guys are making plays.
09:35 Some of our turnovers recently have been unforced,
09:39 just passing and catching errors,
09:41 footwork errors, controllable turnovers,
09:45 and those are the kind that are hard to swallow.
09:47 I thought other than Day Day stepping out
09:48 on the sideline tonight,
09:50 I didn't think that we had bad turnovers.
09:53 You know, I didn't think we had the ones
09:54 that you just kind of throw your hands up in the air,
09:56 so, you know, and I thought we did a nice job
09:59 of being active, as I said earlier.
10:01 David Thomas had a clear line forward field.
10:04 Really, I can't say a lot of good things there,
10:06 but backcourt, quick,
10:08 I think it's a good point to round it in.
10:10 Yeah, I thought he was really good.
10:11 I thought he was really, really good defensively.
10:15 I thought he did a nice job
10:17 of getting us into action and executing.
10:20 When we ran some stuff that they banged up and didn't work,
10:24 I thought he was really poised with the ball
10:25 to get us to the next action.
10:28 You know, and then, obviously, you know,
10:30 you look down, and Perry has 26,
10:33 and he made a couple tough ones on Day Day.
10:37 He's terrific, by the way, but I thought Day Day did it.
10:41 We watched the tape. I'll be shocked
10:43 if I'm not really impressed with the job
10:45 Day Day did when he had him.
10:46 I thought he did a pretty dang good job,
10:48 and kind of like Jerome said,
10:50 I mean, the shot that Perry hits,
10:51 just the player making a play.
10:53 Like, I thought Day Day guarded it terrifically.
10:55 Just the effort in general.
10:57 You're down Dan.
10:58 T-Moss hits his head.
11:00 Then Jaheel goes down.
11:02 I'm imagining he had a lot of minutes to work
11:04 to pull it out of the game.
11:08 Yeah, you know, I want to talk about it a little bit.
11:10 You know, then Vic rolls the ankle there,
11:12 so I'm going to go check on him when we're done,
11:14 but, you know, Dan, you know,
11:17 had really two great days of practice,
11:19 and kind of a freak thing with the hip.
11:23 I mean, it's honestly a freak thing.
11:25 Dan's like me, so important to our team.
11:29 You know, he does so many things
11:31 that honestly don't show up in the statute
11:33 with his activity and his energy,
11:36 and obviously he's our leading scorer,
11:38 so that was a humongous loss.
11:40 I thought our guys did a really nice job
11:44 of not trying to replace Dan,
11:46 but everybody just kind of giving a little bit more
11:49 so we can replace him collectively tonight.
11:52 But he'll get an MRI tomorrow,
11:55 and we're hoping for the best.
11:56 Dan Skillings has practiced, other than maybe one practice,
12:04 he's practiced almost every practice since he's been here,
12:07 never missed anything.
12:08 And I've seen Dan Skillings roll his ankle,
12:10 lace up his shoes and just be as tough as can be.
12:13 I don't think he's ever missed a game.
12:15 I mean, he's barely missed anything since he's been here.
12:16 He is as tough as nails, guys.
12:18 I mean, he's as tough as they come as a kid.
12:21 So, you know, he was in real pain this morning,
12:25 like real pain in the hip, and I'm concerned about it.
12:30 But he recovers and balances back.
12:32 If he can play basketball, Dan Skillings will play basketball.
12:34 But we got to try to get him back to being healthy,
12:37 and then we got to see if we can get Vic's ankle back.
12:39 I think everybody else is okay.
12:41 I think Cimas and Jameel, I have to talk to them.
12:43 I think both of them are okay.
12:45 Even though you guys are guaranteed to finish
12:48 below 500 in big-12 play,
12:50 talk about the fight and the resiliency.
12:53 Are there any other qualities,
12:54 characteristics about this team that you think
12:56 make you guys worthy of an at-mark
12:58 that are even on the fringe of an at-mark
12:59 that comes from something like that?
13:01 Yeah, I don't -- You know, at this point,
13:04 you can't -- you can't get in the tournament
13:07 or get out of the tournament.
13:09 Right now, there's a lot of basketball left.
13:11 And so the politic and for the tournament,
13:14 you know, I'm not ready there.
13:15 We got to go try to play really well at Oklahoma.
13:19 But -- And I think when you think too much about things
13:23 that are out of your control with other things in front of you,
13:26 you're going to get away from what you can control
13:28 and what matters, and that's what we got to do
13:29 to go play at Oklahoma.
13:32 So we're not going to sit here
13:33 and think about the tournament every second.
13:36 Of course, we want to be there. Everybody wants to be there.
13:38 That's obvious.
13:39 But, you know, when the time comes, we can talk about that.
13:43 The only thing I will say is this is --
13:45 this league is so far superior right now
13:47 to every other Power Five league
13:50 that I do believe this league should be rewarded in a big way.
13:53 And if you do your part to have success in this league,
13:56 you should be in the tournament.
13:58 We'll see where we are come Selection Sunday.
14:01 But right now, for us to worry about that,
14:03 it's just a waste of time and energy.
14:05 Hypothetically speaking, how do you keep your composure
14:10 when in a very physical game for both teams?
14:14 One team hypothetically shoots sevens, one team free throws.
14:18 Yeah, you guys, I mean, you know I'm aware of that.
14:22 I thought -- I want us to get to the line more.
14:25 We haven't been a team -- like, last year,
14:27 we really struggled to get fouled.
14:28 This team gets fouled.
14:30 Certainly, Kansas State gets fouled at a high, high rate.
14:33 They put so much pressure on you on the drive.
14:35 So I don't think it's crazy that they shoot free throws.
14:38 But you do want to get your team to the line.
14:42 That said, every time I spend any energy
14:45 worried about the referees,
14:46 I'm getting away from coaching my team.
14:48 And that's just how I've looked at it.
14:50 So they're out there doing their job.
14:52 They're doing a hell of a job.
14:54 You know, every time I've gotten frustrated or upset,
14:56 I don't think that's helped us at all.
14:57 So I'm just trying to coach my dang team
14:59 and trust that we had a big-time crew tonight.
15:02 Just trust that those guys are trying to call it the right way.
15:05 And I do believe that about the officials in our league.
15:08 You kind of feel that way every time,
15:12 when players are in a bad situation.
15:16 Does it give them more freedom,
15:18 I believe, or just...
15:22 Well, listen, I'm glad, you know,
15:25 collectively we overcame him being out tonight.
15:27 But we ain't going to be able to do that every night.
15:29 We need him back.
15:31 You know, we do. We need him back.
15:33 And so, yeah, I think --
15:36 and I got a bunch of examples in coaching and playing
15:39 where we were down one of our best players,
15:41 and the team kind of rallied around and overcame it.
15:44 But that's not going to work over time.
15:45 We need Dan Skillings back.
15:47 But I do think the guys, like I said,
15:51 played well, executed and all that.
15:52 But for our team to be where we have to be,
15:55 we got to get Dan Skillings back and healthy.
15:56 No doubt about that.
15:58 You talked about the turnovers earlier,
16:00 the 19 turnovers earlier.
16:01 How did that play out for you?
16:06 It was good to see us convert in the open floor, guys.
16:09 You know, I think everybody was --
16:11 and I thought, again, we made better decisions with the ball.
16:14 You know, I think sometimes we've had
16:16 some open floor opportunities here the last couple weeks,
16:19 and we've gotten turnovers or maybe not a quality shot.
16:23 And I thought tonight we made really good decisions,
16:24 and then the guys finished.