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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 10, 2007

OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA

CHARLIE FISS: We are joined now by Coach Bob Huggins from Kansas State. His student athletes will be along shortly.

Q. Bob, I think yesterday most of us, at least, had you guys in the tournament. I think you all along felt you were going to get there. Any change in the barometer today?
COACH BOB HUGGINS: Correct me if I'm wrong, don't they say play the best competition you can play? I mean, everybody has Kansas a 1 seed. Does losing to a 1 seed knock you out? I wouldn't think so.

Q. Bob, I'm not trying to be difficult, but the selection committee will, perhaps, have a question about should Kansas State go or should Texas Tech or Drexel or Purdue or one of these other bubble teams. What would you say to the selection committee if they were asking you why should you get in ahead of one of other bubble teams, Texas Tech, Drexel, Old Dominion, Purdue, whomever?
COACH BOB HUGGINS: I think the truth to tell them is look how far -- this is a good basketball team now. And they have proven they are a good basketball team. They have proven that throughout a very difficult conference.
We started out 0-2 in the league. And since then we're -- counting today, we are 11-5, I believe. How do you go if, indeed, they do place emphasis on the last 10 or 15 games and three of the five losses are to, I think, probably a consensus No. 1 seed. I don't understand what the issue would be.
You know, Jason, the reality is, we inherited a schedule and we had contracts on the schedule. I just don't believe that you don't honor contracts. I think that's what's supposed to happen.
We played some people in, whatever, preseason deal that we are not going to play anymore but we were contracted to play them.
Now, I could have went in and said, let's buy them out but I don't think that's very honorable. So we went and played. And we played more road games than -- if you look at how many games we played on the road, and the honest to God truth, we weren't ready to. We are like what five other guys in this league were trying to teach a whole team.
I think to their credit, they've learned pretty good. Let's be honest, man, everybody wants to talk about bad losses. Come on, look at some of the people they're talking about that are on the bubble. Look at their losses. It is a joke.
CHARLIE FISS: We are joined by our two student athletes from Kansas State, Lance Harris and Cartier Martin.

Q. You two had a really good tournament. Did you guys feel like as seniors you put this team on your back to try to make a NCAA push for the tournament?
CARTIER MARTIN: Well, we just, you know -- this being our last year, we definitely felt like we wanted to accomplish something. I think this time of the year is when players step up and make plays and be players.
I think Lance made some good shots. I made some good shots. I think we've done what it takes to get into the tournament.
LANCE HARRIS: Yeah. We just wanted to step up. You know, as seniors like Cartier said, we want to put the team on our back and play hard. We just didn't do it enough today, so maybe next time.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about -- everybody knows how good Kansas is and how many players they throw at you. When you are playing, what makes them so tough in a grind-it-out game like this?
LANCE HARRIS: I think it is their talent. They got a lot of talent. They can make errors and still make up for it with their talent.
CARTIER MARTIN: Definitely they are an athletic team. They rebound the ball well. They have some young guys that can do -- they are very versatile team.
In order for us to beat those guys, I think we have a small margin of error. We have to do the little things to win the games.

Q. This is another tough one.
COACH BOB HUGGINS: You have a lot of questions today (laughter).

Q. The clearest case to me, the easiest case, Texas Tech, you guys were transitioning away from Walker when they got you early. If you would look at how you finished the season and then how you beat up on them, maybe both of you should go in the tournament. But couldn't you make a real strong argument you should go in ahead of them? It seems like all the bracketologists have them in and you guys on the bubble.
COACH BOB HUGGINS: Jason, you know and I know that the people they're relying on do nothing but crunch numbers. You know, they're sports accountants, is what they are.
I mean, anybody who follows us knows we took guys and tried to really change a culture and change the way they played. And to their credit, they readily accepted it and they tried.
You guys saw us early. We weren't very good because they were thinking so much. They weren't reacting. They were thinking.
And then we had another transformation when we got Bill. To do what Bill did was absolutely phenomenal. To come in out of shape and overweight and to play the way he played was phenomenal.
Well, then all of a sudden, he starts getting in shape and we start counting on him and then he goes down. If you remember, he went down the game before the Texas Tech game. And that's not an excuse, Tech played well. But to just kind of show you what our guys have kind of come to be made of, Bill goes down early at A&M.
If we don't kick the ball off our foot, we're down by two with the ball, with a chance to tie it or go ahead. And then we came back and didn't play very well against Tech and they could have laid it down.
And then we go to Missouri and Mike has done a great job. It is hard. We go in there and win. We've had -- they say have road victories. We have those.
You know, it is hard to understand how far these guys have come and really how good they are today by just crunching numbers. You look up there and they say New Mexico is a bad loss. Well, then why isn't it a good win when we turn around and whack them about a month later?
It ought to be a good win, if it is a bad loss. Particularly the turnaround. Anybody who was there knows we could have won by 30 or more.
So I think you look at -- to look and say, well, you know, like they're saying we lost to New Mexico and we lost to Colorado State. There isn't anybody in their right mind that thinks we would lose to those people now. We have gotten so much better.

Q. Bob, I know you said yesterday that you don't -- you're not in that room and you don't know what the committee does or how they go about their business. But do you think the human factor can weigh into it for them? Because that's what you are talking about it seems like.
COACH BOB HUGGINS: I have been told that these people watch a lot of games and they tape games and they look at games, and I would think they probably would have seen our Texas game. It is a great game.
It is a fun game to watch, I thought. It was fun from where I was sitting. Most of them aren't from where I'm sitting. I mean, they've -- I'm sure they've seen us play. You can't watch us play and think that we're not pretty good.
We guard pretty good now. Cartier has come so far. I think he struggled early because he was thinking too much. He's more comfortable now. He can play. And I think -- I think of all the guys that way.

Q. Do you have anything established tomorrow during the selection show? Are you going to get the team together, anything like that?
COACH BOB HUGGINS: I think they did -- I don't know. I'm worse than a player. They say get on the bus at 11:15. I said all right. I don't know. I don't pay attention. I'm kind of -- I didn't pay attention when I was a player much either. They said be on the bus at 11:00, I got on the bus at 11:00. I honestly don't know. I think we're going somewhere -- I think Brad did say we are going to go somewhere, but I don't know.

End of FastScripts

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