Dec. 22, 2015
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SDSU-No. 2/3 Kansas Postgame Quotes in PDF Format
SDSU Head Coach Steve Fisher
Opening statement:
"We played a team tonight that, in my opinion, nobody in the country is better than. They're good. They're good in so many different ways. They're obviously well-coached, and they can run body after body after body on you and not lose, and usually gain a step when they go to the bench. Effort, energy and playing hard were no issue. Making baskets and getting enough baskets were the issue. We made a nice run to start the second half and cut it to four. And like really good teams do, really good teams, they took a hard hit, took a left hand to the head but came back themselves with a one-two-three on us to get eight straight points in a 13-2 run to push it right back up to where it was. The fight was there, we just weren't quite good enough, and I'm disappointed. But I'm not ashamed to say they are good. Now our focus and mission is to go home, believe, come back and get ready to open conference in a league that's very winnable. But a lot of teams can say exactly that same thing.
On changing the starting lineup:
"I felt we needed to do something going into this game, and I made a lineup change and we lost, had a bad loss, and had another bad loss. It's (with) two seniors who have been starters for a long time, who have been part of championship teams and good runs that I felt could give us some physical, mental stability, toughness. An approach that would be what we needed to do, so that's why I did it."
On the change in momentum when Jeremy Hemsley missed the layup within four points: "If you're going to play with a team that's this good, those shots you have to make. You get in there and you get a layup, you have to make it. You have a tip dunk, you have to make it. We didn't, and two for us becomes three for them, and all of a sudden it's an avalanche. I've watched enough tape on them. They've done that to almost everyone they've played, where you look up and in two minutes, they've got 14 points. I thought we defended fairly effectively, making them take some hard shots, we just weren't able to make enough of our own. We got beat by a better team."
On what the team takes away from this game heading into conference play:
"We talked about opportunity and taking advantage of that. We talked about do your job, know who you are, and we'll continue to talk on that. We've got good players that have to play better. If we're going to be effective in league play, we have to play better. At times tonight, I saw, yes this is what we can do, this is what we have to do. Now we have to do it for a longer, longer stretches, have to be able to maintain it for longer stretches. So, we'll see. We'll see whether we're able to do that. I think we've got a favorable start to the conference season, two out of the first three at home, so we've got to take advantage of that. We'll see how we are when we come back and as we prepare ourselves for league play."
SDSU freshman guard Jeremy Hemsley
On Kansas' performance:
"They didn't surprise us at all. We watched a lot of film on them and we knew what to expect with each and every player. (Senior forward) Perry (Ellis) definitely came in hot, but that's just what good players do. We just had to make a change on the defensive end. I think we played hard; the effort was there. We didn't win and they did make more plays than us but nothing they did caught of us off guard.
On being a leader on the team:
"Zylan and I talk a lot and neither of us feel like freshman. Being a freshman doesn't affect us and it doesn't mean we can't go out and play against older guys or have a dominating game. We just do what we need to do on the court. We don't want to be the `it guys' on the team."
On learning from this game:
"Personally, I think we could play any team in the nation. I know that all the guys in the locker room downstairs aren't afraid of anyone. No one on this team was raised to be afraid of anyone on the basketball court. I know that we have a fearless mindset going into every game. It's just about making more plays than the other team and that's something we have to work on. But I think we did make progress going into this game."
SDSU freshman forward Zylan Cheatham
On the change in momentum following the missed layup in the second half:
"That's college basketball. It's a game of runs and stuff happens. You have to try and play through it and make more plays than the next team. Tonight Kansas made more plays than us, but I think we made a good effort. They're a good team and we played hard."
On the change in mentality over halves:
"In the beginning of the first half, we came out solid and in the second half, we knew what to expect. We got the `first-half jitters out' about `big, bad Kansas.' I feel like we responded well in the second half. We just have to find a way to make more plays."
On the learning from the last two losses:
"They're definitely the No. 2 Kansas for a reason. They're a really good team. But at the end of the day, a loss is a loss. We don't value one loss more than the next. We want to stay positive because conference season is rough and we don't want to start off with a negative mindset."
Kansas senior forward Perry Ellis
On the environment at Viejas Arena:
"It was definitely a tough environment. We knew that coming in. They had some runs and we stepped up and got some stops."
On the flow of the second half:
"When they cut it to four, we really hunkered down and got some stops to push the lead back."
On KU's second half offense:
"We just kept running our offense and moving the ball. We wanted to try and move the ball as much as possible, and good things happened from there."
On Coach Self challenging him:
"He's always challenging me, and that is only making me a better player. I tried to come out and attack, and good things were happening."
On when their lead was cut to four points:
"We've been in these situations before. I felt comfortable with our team and we definitely showed composure and fought through that and got the lead back."
Kansas senior forward Jamari Traylor
On the team's game plan: "We knew we had to move the ball. They are a great defensive team, one of the best defensive teams in the nation. We knew we had to move the ball to get open shots. On defense we wanted to run the floor and not give up any easy buckets and turn the ball over."
On Perry Ellis' play:
"This game he was poised, knocked down shots. He was getting me pumped up when we were on the court. He was a leader out there, talking to us in the huddle."
On what the team can work on:
"We just have to get better every day. Rebound defensively a little bit better."
On his energy in the second half:
"I just wanted to go out there and do what I do. I try to go hard and play hard. I'm a senior so if I'm playing hard, these other guys don't have any excuse."
On avenging their loss to SDSU two years ago:
"I definitely wanted to get a win out here as I remember the bad taste in my mouth when they beat us on our court."
Kansas Head Coach Bill Self
On the second half flow:
"We were up four and had nothing going. They had a follow tip missed dunk and the next possession Wayne (Selden Jr.) made a three, so that was a big swing. Then Wayne made a three-point play and kind of pieced it together. We played better in the first half considering Wayne was in foul trouble. Our bench played really well."
On Perry Ellis' play this season:
"This is the best he has been. I will be very candid with you, we said all along that he has been okay but not great by any stretch. I thought tonight was the most aggressive he has been all year long. Hopefully that is a big step in the right direction because we are going to have to play through him and he has got to be a low post scorer for us."
On the message to his team regarding a previous loss to SDSU:
"I didn't make a big deal out of the last loss to them at all. Some people said it was a big upset, it wasn't. Maybe a mild upset because we were playing at home, but they were better than us and defended us better. I knew we were going to have to make some shots tonight and when the lid came off early on our guys got comfortable. They really were ready to play and were really looking forward to playing in this great atmosphere."
On his bench play:
"You can make a case maybe that they were our best players tonight. They did some good things and made some baskets."
On Jamari Traylor:
"He was the best player. I just let him play. When the game got tight, I went with the experienced guy, because he has been there."
On his team's aggressive play:
"Our plan was to take it right at them. If they blocked some shots we go to the open man and have some free chances at offensive rebounds. We tried to follow up on blocked shots if they happened."
On the SDSU press:
"There was really no press. I think they pressed one possession where they created a turnover, but then stepped out of bounds. There aren't too many teams who want to press us."