Kansas State Head Coach Bruce Weber
On drawing Kentucky in the first round…
“We were just looking at the eight-nine matchups, you have got a lot of very good teams, like Colorado and Stanford. You can analyze it a lot of different ways. We know Baylor beat Kentucky early in the year. They had some struggles two or three weeks ago but they did play better down the stretch and they had a good game today. We were just upstairs watching it, just as basketball fans watching the games and they have some talent, there is no doubt about it. We are going to have to play. But it does not matter who you play, you have to play good basketball. The important thing for us is we have to do all of the little things that made us successful, whether it was in that stretch in December or when we had some big wins in Big 12 play. That is just playing hard, guarding the heck out of people, just doing all of the little things that make the difference. If we can do that, I think we will be fine. My message has been ‘compete’ since last week and I think that has got to be the message going into Friday and if we get to play Sunday.”
On his initial thoughts on Kentucky…
“Talent is the number one thing. Youth, they are pretty young. It starts with (Julius) Randle. You have got a big-body guy who can do a lot of things and I have watched him through high school. They have got some size and they have athletes but we are going to have to guard them. Randle is a tough matchup. Any team that has a four-man who can do some things, that makes it tough. Maybe we can exploit some of their weaknesses, maybe he does not get the ball quite as much.”
Senior Forward Shane Southwell
On his thoughts when he found out K-State would face Kentucky…
“My face just lit up. I was ecstatic because I love playing against great teams and great players. When you are a high school player, you think about certain programs. You thing about Kentucky, Duke and Kansas, honestly and it would be a great opportunity to beat a team of that nature. We played against Kansas, I played against Duke my freshman year, it did not end up the way I wanted it to, but it was something that I looked forward to.”
On Kentucky’s style of play…
“I have a little bit of sense about how they like to play. We still have to scout them. We still have to watch a lot of film. They are a good team and they have a lot of talent but we have played against a lot of teams with the same amount of talent. Kansas has five or four pros on the court at all times. Oklahoma State has three NBA players, Baylor has two or three NBA players and Iowa State has three NBA players. Everyone is kind of making that a big deal of how much hype they have but we just want to go out there and play against them the way we played against those other teams in our league.”
On looking ahead to a possible matchup with Wichita State…
“As the eight of nine seed, to think about the one seed, you are foolish. Honestly with the eight and nine seed, it means that you both had the same type of year. To think about the one seed is foolish. This is going to be a big game for both of us. It will be a hard game for both teams. I do not even know who we would play if we win the first game.”
On watching Kentucky play this season…
“They play a lot on TV and I like to analyze teams when I watch them on TV. I do not think the other guys on the team analyze them the same way they analyze Kansas or Baylor when they are on TV. But I have watched them a lot and I pretty much have an idea of what they do on offense and defense. But we still have to watch a lot of film on them to get a better understanding of them.”
Senior Guard Will Spradling
On Kentucky’s style of play…
“They have a lot of big guys. We like to play small so we have to try to use that to our advantage. We have really got to get on the glass because that is something that we have been struggling with.”
Junior Forward Thomas Gipson
On the experience of this season has prepared the team for Kentucky…
“I think we have beaten eight or nine teams that made it into the tournament. That being said, we are still young and we have to lead them and I feel like we are doing a good job of that right now. I think the excitement overall will make them take that extra step of playing hard.”
On how K-State matches up with Kentucky’s interior size…
“We do not have a lot of height but we have girth and depth on our roster, so that helps us.”
Junior Forward Nino Williams
On facing Kentucky…
“We have been battle-tested. The Big 12 got seven teams into the tournament so we have played against a lot of different styles. Baylor beat them early in the year so we will just have to see how it goes on Friday.”
On playing against a talented Kentucky team…
“I think they are a good team with good size and athleticism but we have played against Kansas, Baylor, Oklahoma State who all have great size and with the way we play defense, we should be able to double-team, help or front over the top. We will just have to figure it out over the next couple of days.”
Courtesy of TOM GILBERT
Associate Director/Athletics Communications
Men’s Basketball Contact
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