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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 9, 2007Lance HarrisErin HigginsCartier MartinOKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA CHARLIE FISS: We are joined now by the Wildcats from Kansas State University. Let's go straight to questions for our student athletes and then we will come back for Coach Huggins at the end. Questions for Lance Harris or Cartier Martin? Q. You guys came out biggest game obviously of the season and played like seniors. Talk about that and how much impact did you guys have on what was said before this game? CARTIER MARTIN: Well, I mean, it was important, you know, to come out and try to impose our work early in the game. Texas is a tough team and we know they like to get at the basket and be aggressive. So our main thing was to keep them out of the middle and keep our side of the floor spaced and try to get easy baskets. LANCE HARRIS: Yeah. We just knew that we had our backs against the wall and we needed another win, you know, to help us get into the NCAA tournament. We came out and also just played like that, like our backs was up against the wall. Q. If I could get both of your thoughts on just getting a third shot to take on Kansas tomorrow after the first two games. Are you excited to play the Jayhawks again? LANCE HARRIS: Yeah, I mean, we want to play them again. We want a chance to play them again so we can try to get a win over them. It is always big to play against Kansas but it is also playing for Big 12, trying to get that Big 12 championship also. Q. For both of you, do you think this definitely puts you in the NCAA tournament? Is that the way you guys felt in the locker room after the game, that you are definitely in? CARTIER MARTIN: We feel pretty confident. We think we are a good team and we are supposed to be in it. But, you know, it is not our decision. We are pretty confident right now. The next step is not up to us. We are going to try to continue to win. We got Kansas tomorrow so we are looking to play against those guys. LANCE HARRIS: I think we do. You know, they say it hasn't been a team that got in with ten wins. So we got 11 now, so hopefully it will be enough. Q. Did you feel any added pressure with the importance of this game or was that something you were able to block out? LANCE HARRIS: Yeah. We knew that we had to win this game and how important it was to us as a team and for us to get into the tournament, like I said. So we came out with our backs against the wall, like I said before, and we just knew we had to come out and play like Cartier said earlier. Q. Bob, same question, do you feel like you guys are definitely in the tournament or would you like to see your players come out tomorrow feeling like the tournament is still on the line? COACH BOB HUGGINS: As crazy as it may sound, we came down here to win this. I said to them -- you know, we are not going to do things to play for second or third. We won -- we had the plan to come down and play on Sunday and win on Sunday. But, you know, the whole deal about whether we are in or not, it's ludicrous. I mean, when you think about it, we've got two teams in our league that are both playing for a one seed. And Texas has got to be, what, a three or a four? So then you are going to tell me from one through three and then the next best team in the league, which has been us, that we're not in the best 65 in the country, as good as this league is? I haven't really honestly paid all that much attention to it. I felt like we were in before we played this game. Q. Bob, talk about the effectiveness or efficiency of the offense throughout, I mean, after the first five minutes of the game. COACH BOB HUGGINS: You know, Mark, we tried to run this a little bit early and then we kind of went away from it and ran that three-man motion. We can't beat good people, I don't think, running sets. I think we have to run motion where our guys can read screens and be a little more creative. We don't have great size but we have pretty good overall size. Lance has good size. Akeem has good size. So we tried to use that in the motion. And then with -- when Lance shoots the ball, and Cartier has really shot it consistently, actually since the last Tech game, was the last game he didn't shoot it very well. Q. Can you talk about Blake Young off the bench, the lift he gave you and Akeem Wright's defense? COACH BOB HUGGINS: Blake has been playing better in practice. Stew has been sick. We got more from Stew than what I thought we would get from him. You know, that's Stew. He is a great kid and a very courageous kid. He has been really, really sick. You know, we started him more just because I thought he deserved to start, but I didn't think we would get as many minutes. Blake has been really good in practice and stew hasn't been able to practice a bunch. So Blake got a lot of reps. And he has really worked hard at shooting the ball. Q. Bob, at this point in the season, to come down here and have the goal of winning this thing, how gratifying is it to see your team playing this well at this point in the season? COACH BOB HUGGINS: Well, the reality is we've played pretty well for a while. We're now 12-4 since the last time we played Tech. 12-4 in this league is pretty good. We had one nonconference game in there. But we're 11-4 in this league since the last time we played Tech at home. We've played pretty well. We've been pretty consistent defensively. We've started to take a little bit better care of the ball. Cartier started making shots. Cartier started playing like I think -- how everybody thought Cartier would play. You go back and look at the last time we played Tech, he shot terrible. And starting with the Missouri game, really started making shots. He's pretty much made shots ever since. Q. Bob, you started Cartier. Are you settled into this lineup right now going forward? I mean, is this where you are pretty much going to go with and can you talk about the rotation a little bit? COACH BOB HUGGINS: We are just trying to win games. We thought probably coming in that Darren Kent was better for us this game than what Jason and Luis was going to be. It is not anything that Jason and Luis did. It is just the way Tech plays and with the lineup that I thought Coach would play, we were going to be better off with D.K. So we are just trying to win games. I told -- I told the seniors after the Oklahoma State game, you know, nobody laying it down here. We are going to keep on playing. Q. Coach, what was the biggest difference this time around as opposed to the last time you guys played Texas Tech? COACH BOB HUGGINS: We made some shots. The last time was -- you know, it was kind of like this game when they play great defense and he makes great adjustments and he's pretty much world renowned for his motion offense and he does a great job. They do a great job executing it. Honestly, I thought we had a little bit of an advantage because we had four days to get ready for them. I think that helped us. Any time you have four days to get ready, you ought to be a little bit better prepared. Q. Coach, with all that in mind, do you think Tech is a tournament team as well? COACH BOB HUGGINS: I don't think there is any question. Honestly, I don't know how anybody could say that there's not at least five teams in this league deserving to get in -- deserving to get in. I have been in a whole bunch of leagues. I have been through a whole bunch of leagues. This is a heck of a league. It has got great coaches. It has got great players. I don't see the -- I don't see what, I guess, everybody else is trying to say they see. You know, they say play better at the end of the year. I just said, we're 11-4 now I think it is or maybe 12-4 now. We are 12-4 in our last 16 games. Texas is playing great. I mean, A&M is playing really, really well. I'm not on the committee, so I let -- and I honestly think the people have done a wonderful job over the years. It is a hard job. It is a hard job. It is a job you don't get a whole lot of credit for, you know. When it is all over with, nobody comes on T.V. and says, God, they did a wonderful job. They come on T.V. and start ripping on them about why didn't this team get in, why didn't that team get in. It is a hard job. It is a thankless job. I told our guys, all we can do is do what we do and that's go win games. You drive yourself crazy sitting there -- I'm not Joe Lunardi. I just try to control the things that we can control. The only thing we can control is how well we can play. End of FastScripts |
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