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BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 11, 2010

Sade Morris

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI

Oklahoma State Â– 76
Kansas - 69

THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by Coach Bonnie Henrickson and her two student athletes Sade Morris and Carolyn Davis. Coach, opening comment?
COACH HENRICKSON: I just thought they got us on the offensive glass in the first half and we cleaned that up and did a much better job in the second half but when you look at Riley's 20 in the first half, she's got 7 from the free-throw line, so she goes 7 for 8 from the free-throw line in the first half. And our last two games she hadn't shot 8 free-throws, we did a much better job of staying on our feet and building a wall in front of the rim and whoever has her, whether it's the post that rotates, not foul, make her take a tough 2 and we didn't -- and we lacked some discipline but we go to the stretch and she hits the one going into the locker loom and that's a dagger and we tried to trap her and double her and we foul her.
But it's Carolyn and similar to our game at our place, Andrea Riley and Danielle McCray neutralize each other, but we've got to have other kids step up and score when that happens.

Q. Carolyn can you talk about your day today? You missed just one shot from the floor and seemed to be in a nice flow. Talk about your day today and this game.
CAROLYN DAVIS: I came out excited to play, I didn't get to play in the last game. It was frustrating, so I came out and gave my all and I knew every time I got the ball I had to score or try to hit a teammate to score.

Q. Sade what made Andrea Riley so difficult to defend?
SADE MORRIS: She is quick and able to pop up for a shot before you know it and she's got the quickness and not only can she shoot the 3, but she has good passing ability.

Q. Carolyn tell us about your recovery from your concussion.
CAROLYN DAVIS: I just tried to rest up and not overexert myself. I took a few shots up there in practice, and I just tried to take it easy until today.

Q. When did you get cleared to play?
CAROLYN DAVIS: Yesterday? Yesterday, yeah.

Q. Carolyn they were throwing everything at you with their zone defense, how were you catching the passes and still going up with it?
CAROLYN DAVIS: I don't know I just jumped in and tried to catch it.

Q. Sade, Carolyn Davis was really shooting, but you guys could not hit an outside shot tonight, was it their defense or were you guys just having an off night or what?
SADE MORRIS: It was just difficult to get 'em to go in and when we finally calmed down we were able to make some.

Q. Sade, I know this has been a disappointing, tough season for you but when you see what Carolyn is doing, if you could talk about what these rookies are doing and what they can mean to KU basketball.
SADE MORRIS: The Rookies came in and stepped up when we needed 'em, and they were able to score and defend for us and that's something they can build off of and have confidence going into next year they can look back on their freshman year and see how well they played.

Q. Sade, what helped you calm down and how did you adjust your game?
SADE MORRIS: I had to figure out a way to help my teammates out, whether it was making a basket or trying to make a good pass or going to the boards.

Q. Sade are you concerned that this might have been your last game?
SADE MORRIS: Not at all, we have a game coming up next week in the WNIT and I don't plan on losing out we plan on making it to the championship game and winning it.

Q. You've been chosen for the WNIT?
COACH HENRICKSON: I told them they were. We feel that we'll play next week we've done the paperwork and had communication with them.
THE MODERATOR: Ladies, thank you very much for your time. We'll look forward to seeing you down the road.
Coach, we're going to let you answer questions now.

Q. Can you elaborate more on the WNIT?
COACH HENRICKSON: We don't know match-ups, we don't know -- we're looking at working on the opportunity to play at home, cautiously optimistic, I think there has been enough communication that we feel like we've got a chance to do that, Larry Keating handles all that, and it feels like based on conversation we would have an opportunity to possibly play at home next week.

Q. Obviously you're not going into this tournament on a wave of momentum. Is that a problem?
COACH HENRICKSON: Well, yeah, I think -- honestly as bad as we've been against A&M and Baylor, as well as we played at times tonight feels so much better than how poorly we played in those two losses where we never make it a game and never challenge and back to where in the Texas game and the Iowa State game and the Nebraska game we were close and gave ourselves a chance.
We had gotten to a chance where I was disappointed with our effort and toughness and felt better in stretches tonight, so even in a loss I think there are some things that we've been asking these kids to do that we hadn't done that we did today. Now the single thing that is eating us up is our inability to get on the offensive glass and convert and keep others off the offensive glass.
I think these kids understand -- disappointed that the year finished out like it did bullet for those of us that were a part of that run last year in the NIT, it was exciting and our kids I thought played with a lot of pride in the event and those upper classmen, including myself, can talk about that opportunity, and being aware that it's a lot of times at NIT it's your mind-set going into it because if you don't want to be in it you're going to get beat right away because there are a lot of teams that really want to be in and look at what institution you have on your shirt and be fired up to play you.
So we understand that and I thought we handled that well. Last year we felt like we were a game away from being in the NCAA tournament last year we didn't help ourselves enough in the last ten days to be in the conversation, but we can go back and draw on the pride that we played with last year in the NIT.

Q. Bonnie, it seemed like Carolyn was alone on the scoring other than big shots from Nicollette and Krysten --
COACH HENRICKSON: Aishah and Monica go 4 for 34.

Q. Why do you think that is?
COACH HENRICKSON: Air balls, I thought Monica and Sade were undisciplined about how they shot the ball, Aishah was undisciplined about her footwork into the shot and if your feet aren't right, you drastically reduce your chances to make a shot. Monica's didn't look close and those guys have to get back and own that, and I thought they tried to be aggressive.
But you've got to be prepared to take a shot to give yourselves a chance to make one and when we go back and look at it tonight, of the 34, I bet they shot 6 or 8 probably the way they're supposed to.

Q. Coach, you talked about an inability to convert on the offensive glass, but tonight you had a season high 34 defensive rebounds. Can you talk about the affect that had on the game?
COACH HENRICKSON: They had 13 offensive rebounds in the first half and the Toni Young and Precious Robinson had 6 of those, that's where they killed us at our place. Andrea Riley goes 3 for 10 in the last ten minutes, and they get all seven of those misses, and we were going to need to get a rebound and we don't clean it up like we should. Now we were better in the second half, but you shouldn't dig yourselves such a big hole in the first place. Our effort was great to get back, we don't box out, we watch or miss it, watch our teammates watch her miss it and here they come over the back half.

Q. Bonnie, down the stretch you mentioned Andrea Riley and she missed some, 10 of 30, but down the stretch when they need her most she comes and brings it. Can you talk about her down the stretch and how she's able to deliver that way?
COACH HENRICKSON: She does, she has some moxy and toughness to her and she's a kid who has gotten better and continues to get better and obviously is the glue that holds that team together and say the reason they've been successful but it's a kid who can take tough shots and hit tough shots.

Q. Bonnie, curious why you didn't start Davis.
COACH HENRICKSON: I talked about I felt like if I started -- I talked to her today for a while after we shot and after pregame meal because I think she shot she wasn't going to play, I think she was waiting for the big green light. I said did you feel like you can play which I knew the answer because the feedback I got from her shooting today and yesterday she felt good. I want to hear from her, I said do you feel like you can go. "I can go," right away. I said let's not start you, let's start Kristin and she's been good, and I said be ready right away; and I thought she wouldn't feel like she had to do something right away, the kid hasn't practiced in 5 games.
So I'm going to have a team full of kids that will think they need to take 5 days off and get 31. And I told her to let me know if she got gassed and she tugged once, and I told her I feel like if you come off the bench, we will try to eliminate any pressure you feel to get away but you'll get in right away. I thought maybe it keeps Krysten in a better place because she has played pretty well, whatever way we went both kids would contribute and play well, I knew, and they did. Those two went 15 for 16, between Krysten and Carolyn?
THE MODERATOR: All right, thanks, Coach, good to see you.

End of FastScripts

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