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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 11, 2015Thomas GipsonBruce WeberKANSAS CITY, MISSOURI TCU – 67 THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by the Kansas State Wildcats, Coach Bruce Weber and Thomas Gipson. Nino Williams will not be appearing in the interview room. Coach, we will call on you for your thoughts on tonight's game? COACH WEBER: Our guys didn't quit. I think the game was kind of a microcosm of our whole season, a bunch of ups and downs and all‑arounds, but to the kids' credit, they battled and battled and we gave ourself a chance. In hindsight, I should have probably got a time‑out when we got it to 2 and had the ball out‑of‑bounds and I didn't do it. That was our one opportunity maybe to grab it. I thought Thomas gave a great effort, Nino gave a great effort, Wesley gave a great effort. I thought Jevon really competed. Malek gave us some good minutes, one of his better games when we had a lot of foul trouble. But TCU, they made enough plays when it counted down the stretch. It was similar to the game at Ft. Worth where they went on a nice run before the end of the first half and luckily we stopped the run this time and kept it at 8 and we gave ourselves a chance. Our guys fought vibrantly, like they did all year, and it's disappointing. You want to keep playing and you want to keep coaching, but you have to help the guys and move forward and that's all you can do. Q. Thomas, what's goin' through that head of yours? You and Nino played your butts off in your final game. What are you thinking about right now? THOMAS GIPSON: I'm just sad that it's all over. It happened so quick, and right now I'm just reflecting on everything I've done these past four years. I feel like I've had a great career here. But as far as the game, I'm just happy we didn't give in. We tried to put up a fight at the end. Unfortunately, plays didn't happen down the stretch. But I mean, I feel like the guys that were on the court at the end didn't give up and that's what we needed. Q. Just to add on to that, what has it meant to you to be able to go through this journey with Nino and have this time with him? THOMAS GIPSON: It means a lot. We played with each other for a while, I've known him since 6th, 7th grade and I didn't know we was going to play with each other, but we ended up these last four years and it was just a good feeling. I know he's going to be a great man down the stretch. I know he's going to do good things and I'm sure he could say the same for me. It's just disappointing that it all had to end like this. I wish it could have been different but that's just what happens. Q. Coach, you talked about the battle that you had toward the end of the game to make it close. During that first half, there was a 17‑5 run. You guys could not find your rhythm. Talk about battling back from that and going in down 8 at the half. THOMAS GIPSON: Just seems like we always dig ourselves a hole and have to fight back to get the lead or cut it to however points we needed to. Our shots just didn't go in. They were getting layups and open threes and that's what happens. We gave them a 10‑, 12‑0 run and it's tough to come back from that on anybody, not just against TCU but anybody you play. Q. Thomas, it's kind of on the same line. Both halves you guys started out well offensively. You're hitting everything and then just go cold. Did TCU change defense or was it a matter of you guys all of the sudden you couldn't make a shot? THOMAS GIPSON: I just felt like we couldn't make a shot. We weren't patient enough. I messed up on that, too, I forced a couple of shots, other people forced a couple of shots. We should have just pulled it back out and just executed. Unfortunately, we didn't, though. Q. Thomas, I know you want to look back on your time at Kansas State fondly, but just this season in general and this game, how frustrating was this year for you? THOMAS GIPSON: I can't speak for the team, but for myself it was kind of frustrating. There was some games where I just wasn't playing up to my ability. Right now I just regret that because now it's all over. I can't take those games back. That's just what it is. Q. Thomas, can you give me a quick thought about the play of the TCU forwards, Washburn and those guys, how they were able to get things done? THOMAS GIPSON: They're good. They rebounded. They can score. I feel like they'll be real good once it comes to their junior and senior year. They're physical, they play hard. That's about it. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Thomas. Thank you for coming. Q. Nino and Thomas couple quick fouls early. Late in the first half you put them back in with two fouls, did you feel like you had to put them back in, the game was slipping way? COACH WEBER:  It's pretty obvious, they were on that run and it was very similar to the game at Ft. Worth and we needed to do stop the bleeding. We picked up the intensity, we got a couple of plays to go our way, got them stagnant, we went on a 6‑0 run. They got a bucket before the half, but we kept it in the range. That's what I kept talking about in the huddle, keeping it under 10 will allow us to come back, which we did and just couldn't get over the hump. A couple of shots here, there, couple of plays, we have 20 offensive rebounds and only get 16 second‑chance points. Some of that, you know, our size, our strength, you know, their size, their strength. Both games‑‑ last two games, Washburn kicked our butt. And if you look at the last five, he didn't average much at all, 5 and 2 or something, 5 and 3, something like that, five games. Nino has always been undersized and he battles and he had a double‑double tonight and two fouls early. Two fouls early and he only plays 22 minutes and he got hurt down the stretch and still kept playing. You had to make some kind of move and we made the move and it gave us a chance. Q. Coach, you guys went 1 for 6 from the 3‑point range and one was the last shot at the end of the game. What was TCU doing defensively where you guys just couldn't get the looks you wanted beyond the arc? COACH WEBER: I thought we got a lot of good looks inside the arc, we got layups and we got 12 offensive rebounds and we don't finish the plays. We had layups in traffic. I thought you could say is there a foul, is there not a foul? You've got to go up strong, if they're not calling it, you've got to take it to them and we didn't do it. All year we've‑‑ we're not a 3‑point shooting team. Marcus was our one guy‑‑ we thought between Marcus, Nigel, Justin and maybe Tre, we would have enough ammo there to get something. But Marcus struggled late and we didn't get enough looks from the other people. If you look at it, it was probably the difference in the game. They only go 4 for 10, but we're 0 for 5, if you don't count the last one. So their four baskets probably the difference in the game. Q. You mentioned that you thought this game was a microcosm of your whole season. What do you think is the reason for the high highs and the low lows that you had this year? COACH WEBER: I thought when we were ready to play and played with great emotion and intensity, we could beat anybody in the country and we showed it. Go back to Maui and Arizona, we gave them as good a battle as anybody has all year. We didn't have‑‑ with the injuries we didn't have the depth. And then probably, you know, I've used the word maturity all year, we didn't have the maturity to focus and be ready to play every game. It's not‑‑ we always had to wait for the game to get going like today to really turn up the juices. You can't do that. You have to do it every day. Q. Bruce, it's been since 2007, 2008, Illinois last time you had a losing record, about 12, 13 years since Kansas State has had a losing record. What is your message to Kansas State fans who are concerned about riding the ship of this program? COACH WEBER: Obviously we're disappointed. I was the one who said from the beginning when there was a lot of hype going, I was cautiously optimistic. I thought we had some pieces, and, you know, I was still worried. I was worried that we didn't have experienced guard play. I was worried about the injuries, and that we didn't maybe have the depth we needed and I was worried about maturity. It was a tough way to learn. Even today we're close but not‑‑ we just didn't have it. We gotta get some things corrected, we feel good about our nucleus coming in, a little more skill, some guys that can maybe make some shots and help us, but we will miss Nino and Thomas. The other guys have to take a step in the weight room, in their workouts, their intensity, and we'll be fine. Probably overscheduled, but that's my fault. Some of it we had Maui planned ahead of time. Some things happened, but, you know, it's just a shame, because we had enough tools to be better than we were. I'm not saying we could have been 30‑0 or anything but we should have been a handful of games better than we were. THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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