BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 10, 2005

Billy Gillispie

Joseph Jones

Antoine Wright

COACH BILLY GILLISPIE: First of all, I apologize for us getting here so late. We weren't sure that we were supposed to -- I am sorry. I didn't mean to make anybody wait. I promise I didn't mean to inconvenience you. I was talking to our team after a very difficult loss and one that signifies the end of Big 12 play. I apologize for making anybody wait. It's my fault 100%. The game, I thought it was a really good game as far as effort and those kind of things. Kansas State definitely deserved to win. They executed well in the second half, beat us on the boards. We couldn't make any shots. We didn't really have the kind of pace that we needed to on offense and, you know, basically from the word go, but I give them all the credit they really defended well, rebounded well, ran their offense well when they needed to the most.

ANTOINE WRIGHT: It was obvious that they were going to come out and try to do a better job on me because I got off to a good start. They did a great job just trying to make me uncomfortable in the second half and it worked.

ANTOINE WRIGHT: That's what we have been doing all year, bouncing back from tough situations and we're a strong team and together-team. We know we're going to be able to bounce back from this.

JOSEPH JONES: Massey, he's just real crafty on the inside. He gives you a lot of pump fakes and stuff and just works hard in the inside just to do what he has to do to score points and help his team win.

ANTOINE WRIGHT: I mean you just got to credit the ball pressure that they had. They did a good job of pressuring the ball and forcing us. We just didn't cut hard enough to get our plays off, and they did a good job of pressuring us and they had a good job with the crowd, and you know, just flustered us a little bit.

COACH BILLY GILLISPIE: I would -- definitely so 29-23 and we got -- we were shooting on the front, one and one and have a chance to go up 31-23, Chris has made all his free throws all year long. We missed that one, get a stop, go down the other end, get a dunk. Miss the dunk next time down, we're two feet away from the basket and throw it out of bounds when we have another break opportunity and that was definitely a tough deal for us because they ended up scoring. I didn't think we played particularly well in the first half because they done a really good job. We didn't worry too much. But I think it was more of a positive for them than a negative for us. I think it really gave them some momentum going into the second half. They kept executing. Give those guys the credit, they have been playing great and they have been rebounding great, especially the last five games, and they continued that tonight. I thought they would play like that. I thought we would make a few more shots. I thought we would play a little better. Those things happen. So congratulations to them.

COACH BILLY GILLISPIE: I didn't think they had any momentum at the half. I thought we hurt ourselves a little bit to make our lead bigger, but we were never worried about anything. We just never could get any stops in the second half. Not too many teams shot a percentage like that against us in the second half and they just got the ball when they needed to. Give those guys credit, they are a good team and played probably one of their better games tonight. It wasn't we got our heads down or anything like that. They just continued to do a really good job on the defensive end. We missed a lot of open shots that we have been making. We didn't make them tonight. That's the way basketball goes.

COACH BILLY GILLISPIE: I would think we're still going to be playing. So I think that we'll be a fun team to play as far as I think it will be fun to watch us play. We never really talk about any of that kind of stuff. I would assume that we're still going to be playing. We deserve to be playing and, you know, we came here to try to play more than one day but we didn't get it done and next time we come back maybe we will have to do better, but I would assume that we will continue to get a chance to practice and play and I really look forward to it. I know our guys do too.

COACH BILLY GILLISPIE: A little bit but I really -- I thought we played a little bit tentatively all day. I thought that we were -- I haven't seen us -- we weren't scared or anything like that, but I saw some guys play a different game than they might have played. I thought they weren't quite aggressive as they had been. I think that's natural for that to happen. These guys have exceeded expectations in every sense of the word and they played really well on the big stage and this is the biggest stage. I thought that we had great intention. I just thought that we were just a little bit tighter, or just a little bit different than we had been. Maybe not quite as aggressive. Trying to -- probably trying to play into the -- to make mistakes and I think that happens, the bigger the game. But I think it's a great learning experience for our guys, and I think that we'll prosper from that in the future.

COACH BILLY GILLISPIE: We couldn't stop him. We made a couple of errors and knowing you know, where he was exactly on the floor how to defend in that area. It wasn't because we weren't trying though. We were trying. Chris did a great job as far as fighting him all day long. He's just a hard guy to stop but he made his biggest plays when the game was right on the line. We couldn't do enough to help Chris in that situation and you can't really guard him with one guy and you really have to put yourself in a position to help. During that stretch, I thought we had done it great for the entire most of the game but in that little stretch there, we didn't -- Chris was a little bit off in where he needed to be positioned then we didn't really help him quite as much. But give the credit to Massey, he's a really good player. Knows how to get to the foul line; knows how to finish passes.

COACH BILLY GILLISPIE: This team hadn't lost any games until today and so I would think that had nothing to do with it. I think that you know, Duke probably playing in their conference today or tomorrow, they always win, but I don't think that's going to help them win tomorrow or whenever they play. I think they will win because they play a better game than the opponent does on that particular day. So history means nothing to us. If you follow our team at all, if we were concerned about what we hadn't done, we would have won two or three games this year, so I don't think that that had anything to do with it at all. This is the first time we have ever lost. I apologize again for being late. I was spending some time with my team and it's a tough time, but no excuse, I really do apologize for being late in here. I wasn't aware we were supposed to be in here at a particular time. I really -- I really appreciate the job you guys do, you know that. We try to be as available as possible. I really am sorry that I got here late.