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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 8, 2012Jordan HenriquezFrank MartinRodney McGruderKANSAS CITY, MISSOURI Baylor – 82 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by the Kansas State Wildcats, coach Frank Martin and student‑athletes Jordan Henriquez and Rodney McGruder. Coach, we'll come to you first for your thoughts on today's game. COACH MARTIN: Just a lot of credit to Baylor. I said it the whole week coming into the game, I think they got a raw deal, because they lost a couple of games in the Big 12 and people start acting like that makes them a bad team. They're a Final Four‑contending team, and they were real good. And defensively, when they went to their man, Scott decided to go with the three guards, that really caused major problems for us running our offense. But offense wasn't our problem today. It was defense. We just probably played second worst defensive game we've played all year. But they had a lot to do with that. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Jordan and Rodney. Q. Jordan and then Rodney, Coach was talking about defense. What do you feel like you guys need to fix defensively to give yourselves a chance to go deep in the tournament? JORDAN HENRIQUEZ: It's just simply going back to what we do best, and that's denying lanes and protecting the rim and rebounding the ball. They killed us on the offensive rebounding and just total rebounds, period. RODNEY MCGRUDER: What Jordan said, just doing our defensive principles, being in line and helping each other out. We didn't help each other out tonight. And the way we played defense, that's a major key. Q. Jordan, I know you didn't guard Perry Jones the whole game, but how tough a matchup is that? JORDAN HENRIQUEZ: He's a good player. They all said he's a pro, and he came out to play tonight from the 40‑minute mark. Q. Both of you, can you just talk about your emotions coming off this tough loss and knowing that you guys have one more opportunity? I mean, going into the NCAA, this is it now? RODNEY MCGRUDER: I mean, it hurts, you know. Jamar and Victor's last Big 12 game, and we didn't want to go out like that. It hurts. It really do. But we just have to take advantage of the next opportunity we have, and we can't let it slip away from us like we did today. JORDAN HENRIQUEZ: Exactly what Rodney said. It is Jamar and Victor's last Big 12 game. And we're given one more opportunity, and we have to make the most of it. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach. Q. In the first half, it seemed like the story was Baylor's offensive rebounding. I know you mentioned you guys didn't play defense, but was rebounding the biggest issue for you guys? COACH MARTIN: When I refer to the defensive side of the floor, I include how you finish possessions, which is rebounding the basketball. And we were awful. I mean, I can't believe‑‑ last time we played these guys the reason we had a chance to win, we outrebounded them. I think they had six offensive rebounds in the first ten minutes of the game, and then we kind of neutralized it. Today was a joke. I mean, it was a joke. We were so bad defensively today. And I say that in a way which Baylor was good. And they're good. They're a heck of a basketball team. They've got real good players and Scott's done a great job with that team. I don't want to take away from them and their moment, because they won the game. But defensively we were so selfish today. We didn't help each other. We didn't go rebound the basketball. We just‑‑ they set the tone. They came after us and knocked us down, and we really never punched back. And that was unfortunate, because we've come a long way in that department this year. For us to revert again, it was a little frustrating. Q. You talked throughout the season about having good practices, having bad practices. Coming into this one, does it surprise you that it turned out the way it did? And where do you see the personality of this team now entering the final stage of the season? COACH MARTIN: Was I surprised? Yes. We finished the year off playing well. Our practices were enthusiastic. Guys were excited about having a chance to come here and make a run at the Big 12. That's why it's disappointing today. Usually when we are bad in preparations, I'm not disappointed after a loss, because you get what you deserve in life. And I'm disappointed because the behaviors that we showed today as a team, stuff that we had going on back in November and December, and we've gotten away from that. And now we've got to cross our fingers and we've put our fate in someone else's hands. We've got to cross our fingers and hope that what we've done is enough and we're given an opportunity. And like I told the team, if we are given an opportunity‑‑ make sure I say this‑‑ I think we're very much deserving of an opportunity. We get one more chance to get it right. And if we don't get it right, then the season will be over. Q. I don't know if I remember how many‑‑ or the last time that Jamar played so many minutes without having a rebound. And he was frustrated. Was that more that something Baylor was doing or just he didn't have it going today? COACH MARTIN: I got no idea. He's been real good. I'm not going to jump to conclusions, because he didn't have a very good game today. We didn't really have too many guys have good games today. Jordan was once again good. His growth‑‑ I'm real‑‑ I'm not into individual performances, but his growth as a kid, as a player and his consistency here as of late is awesome. And Jamar has been pretty good for us coming down the stretch. I'm not going to sit here and put my finger on him. Our perimeter defense was atrocious. We all, including him, played very selfishly defensively. We didn't help each other. And Baylor's too good to play that way. Q. Can you talk about Jordan's performance, how he was a little bit overshadowed today by Jones by what he gave you? COACH MARTIN: It was awesome watching those two guys play. I told Perry after the game, I said, Man, keep being who you are. Don't give into perception and public nonsense and‑‑ I said, Be who you are, man. He's a beautiful kid and he represents class and he's a very talented player. And we forget that he's, whatever, 19years of age. And then Jordan, like I said, for him to play as consistent as he's played here for the last month of the season, that's why you go through the process with these kids and you stick with them through good and bad, is so you can see them figure it out. And he's starting to figure it out. And he's a heck of a player when he does that. Q. Off of what you just said, are you concerned about your team's confidence going into the tournament? COACH MARTIN: No. No. We've played how many games now? 30? What's our record, 21‑10. 31 games. One game‑‑ are we going to be worried about one game or 30 games? We've been doing this for six months. We know we can play with anybody when we play the game the right way. We didn't play it the right way today. Q. Speaking of the tournament, how do you gauge success in the tournament? Obviously you want to win the whole thing, but only one team's going to. So with this team, what would make a successful NCAA Tournament? COACH MARTIN: Just us playing the game the right way, the way we played it. You can't control winning. That's kind of out there. You can control who you are and do things to the best of your abilities. That's what we have to do. And if you do that, that winning stuff takes care of itself most of the time. And we've done a pretty good job of that for five years and we've done a good job of that in the NCAA Tournament, the three times we've been in it before. We have to make sure‑‑ we didn't do that today. We've got to make sure that we do that the right way sometime next week. And we play in an unbelievable league. The top six teams in this league this year are real, real good. And I said it coming into this week: This thing is going to be crazy here. I'm not a big fan of conference tournaments. You've beaten each other up for three months and now all of a sudden you've got to have a tournament against them. We do it. I'm all for it. It's great. Our league deserves it. The community deserves it. But I'm not a fan of conference tournaments. I never have been. I'm ready to go play somebody else. I'm sick and tired of watching Big 12 basketball, to be honest with you. It's too good. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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