Quotes & video from weekly basketball press conference

Billy Kennedy

* Proud of what our guys are doing right now. The effort we're getting, the attitude we have. We just don't have enough to compete at the highest level in the Big 12 right now. If you take Thomas Robinson away from Kansas, and Tyshawn Taylor, it's a different team. That's how it is in our situation. Our attitude and effort's been good. We had a good practice yesterday. Khris is getting better, and we expect to play Dash next Saturday (maybe). We just have to keep competing and pushing through it.

* Iowa State plays four guards, and nobody has a true matchup for Royce White. I was concerned, going up there, that emotionally we were kind of worn down from the Texas loss. We came out flat in the second half, and they're too good to come out flat against. They're a tough matchup for anybody because they play differently than the rest of the league. They shoot a lot of threes, throw behind-the-back passes, etc.

* It hasn't been difficult to keep the guys going. The eight that we have, and the walk-ons, have done a really good job. They're still excited to play, but the newness has rubbed off. Putting people in patchwork places wears on you. We had two freshmen on the floor against ISU guarding Royce White and Chris Allen. It caught up with us.

* Dash did some things yesterday and he's going to try to practice today. A lot of it will depend on how he feels after today's practice, but we're not doing a lot today. He's not ready to just be thrown into action.

* We've let Naji bring the ball up because guarding the other team's best player has worn Elston down and hurt his offensive game. We've played teams with athletic guards who have pressured us and we've turned it over in the second half. We just wear down.

* Getting Khris back helped a little bit, although I don't think he's playing his best yet. It'll take a few games under his belt for him to play as well as he's capable of playing. Good things are coming ... it's just going to take time. We're rebuilding this program more than I thought we'd have to. It'll take a couple recruiting classes. These guys are battling the best they can, but it's just not championship level right now. That's the reality.

* Tech is playing three guards now and doing things differently. Dash was a big key when we beat them here. It'll be a tough matchup. They're coming off a win where they shot the ball extremely well and took care of the ball. We're going to have to play well to beat them. We could've used Dash in this game, but it'll be a surprise if he's able to play. I really don't know, to be honest, what exactly is wrong. We thought he'd be back by now, but the bruise in his foot is a bit more severe than we thought. When you play like he plays, you've got to feel good about going out there. He hasn't practiced the last two or three weeks, so it'll take time to get him going.

* We'll probably make a change against Tech to match up with them a bit more on the perimeter. The Willis kid is playing extremely well; their guard play is a little bit different than Iowa State's.

* A road win would be huge for this team's psyche. Any win. We're going up there expecting a win. I want our guys to have the mentality to expect the win and believe they can win. This is a big game for a lot of reasons.

* We were disappointed in a lot of things in the second half on Saturday; a lot of it had to do with just physical and mental effort. Rebounding-wise, they shoot a lot of threes, which means long rebounds.

* Tech's crowds haven't been great this year, but they're coming off a big win and they're desperate for wins like we are. They're trying to build off something. I haven't been up there in years, so I don't know what to expect from a crowd standpoint, but we're playing a team coming off a big win and we have to play well to handle that. The last time I was there was my last time at A&M. Lubbock was a lot different place back then. ...A bit nasty.

Gary Blair

* You take the bad out from Baylor. There was not a whole lot of good, except the atmosphere ... and I thought it was one of the best national anthems I've ever heard. Losing the game to Baylor and losing Whitney Houston this weekend hurt a lot. It was a tough weekend. Losing to Baylor was similar to when we lost at Connecticut. We're not at that level right now ... but who is? But, you never know what's going to happen. You saw Carolyn Davis dislocate and tear everything yesterday, gone for the year for Kansas in a game they had to win. When injuries come into play, when it's your key player, you don't know what's going to happen later in the year.

I don't think bad play will stop Baylor or UConn. It'll have to be someone else playing their best and a combination of other things. March always brings March Madness, where there can be a Butler or someone gets hot at the right time or play well under pressure. Or someone making two free throws under pressure like the West Virginia girl did this weekend. We're looking back on losing to the best team in the country as a learning experience. Very humbling at times but I love the way our kids fought back in the second half. They outplayed and outcoached us. Let's turn the page. The most important game you have right now is playing an 0-12 Missouri team coming off a close loss to Oklahoma.

When you go into Missouri to play, you're normally playing in front of no more than 2,000 fans. You have to bring your own excitement. Sometimes it's hard to get jump-started when no one's booing you or jumping up and down behind the basket. We want to make sure we're totally focused. We've got some things to do. I broke down each player individually on film ... not what they did good, because that would be a short documentary, but what they didn't do well. I will watch them all on the way to Missouri, and some might take longer than others. It was the worst screening by post players I've had in a long time. No wonder our wings couldn't get open. We didn't finish the screens. We never once got called for an illegal screen, which would at least mean we were trying.

The offensive boards are misleading because when you shoot 28 percent you're going to get 19 offensive rebounds. They have good combinations to go along with Griner, who needs no help whatsoever. Sims, in the corner, you can't come off and we kept doing it and she drained three threes. We're just another top 25 team, and there's a whole lot of people out there just like us. Top 25 is good ... top four is great. It's our job to keep teaching and keep getting better. You're getting better not just for this year but for next year.

* I think a lot of our players had just come in off of beating that same team in the Elite Eight, and we won that game by a comfortable margin. We won it with our defense and with what we did offensively in the first half. Sydney Carter has been in a slump all year. She's scoring, but she's missing the open shots. That's what worries me. Tyra White has to create her own shots, which she has the ability to, with a high release and creating off the bounce. She's got a mid-range game as good as anybody's in the league. That's a dying art in today's game, taking someone to the elbow and getting your shot off against good pressure. Each of our kids, along with the coaches, we've got work to do.

It gave us that measuring stick past the halfway point of the season, and now we need to go back and figure out how much we really want it. Do we want to live off what we did last year? Work on your game, on your individual skills. The post players need to hear, 'Set a good screen and you might get the next shot.' Making someone have to help off a screen is when you can get a shot. We'll do better.

* Kelsey Bone takes plays off. She doesn't go to the offensive board when she's at the high post. We have some others that do the same thing ... Elonu, even though she got 12 boards, missed some open shots too. She played hard, but I was able to get the same thing out of Assarian off of just hustle plays. It isn't just Bone. We've got a whole train of (posts) that just step in line.

* Of Elonu's eight offensive boards, how many putbacks did she have? Zero. Pope and Williams would crash the boards, get the ball and put it back in. Of course, they weren't looking at Griner slapping the ball away. But has Baylor won the national championship the past two years with Griner there? So clearly, teams have figured out other ways. We've got to score off broken plays, like when Griner blocks a shot and nobody's in a defensive stance after that. You have to understand, when you play Baylor — sellout, new uniforms, playing us — they're playing at a completely different level with their motivation.

* On double-headers like this weekend's, where there's a men's game at one and a women's game at seven, it'll be tough to get fans. Our fans won't sit there waiting for five hours, and you couldn't ask them to. I can only hope they go to the first game, go get something to eat and come back. I like double-headers in December when we can accommodate fans during the holidays. In conference play, you've got to be able to stand on your own.

* At South Carolina, Kelsey Bone was playing against competition not at the current level she's playing, and she didn't have a backup, so she played 30 minutes whether she was trying or not. She's got to play well against the UConn's. The same goes for Gilbert. If she wants that starting position, she's got to show it.

Bone has mobility. Gilbert doesn't have the feet that Bone has. She can't have her hands on her knees during free throw attempts by the opponent. All that comes into it. When you're suddenly down by 20, body language comes into it. It shows. Someone mentioned yesterday that Bone has to take the brunt of everything. Why? Just because she was No. 2 in the country coming out of high school? Want to take a look at some of our four-star football recruits who didn't pan out? If she had played with Danielle Adams her first year, Danielle being able to take some pressure off her, she'd be a better player now. You feel bad for a kid who has all the media and those expectations and pressure on her, but you also want that pressure. I have 13 other players that have a lot of expectations. And you oughtta listen to some of their parents.

* Assarian is not the enforcer. She's the energy that we have to have. She has to come in and give us that energy. Y'all ought to do an over-under on how many times she hits the floor. She's constantly trying to take charges, block shots and just play hard. You can live with effort. But can effort translate into production? If you keep making two fouls in eight minutes of playing time or you're a one-of-two free throw shooter, that doesn't help you. You've got to get away from the inconsistency.

* A lot of our graduation rates says something about today's athletes. When you go back in the 60s, 70s, kids were going home in the summer and working jobs. Ten of my 14 have never had a job in their life, I'd say. They go to school both semesters, and during the summer they're playing AAU ball or working camps. Our students want to get ahead in the classroom, and the gifted ones are seeking knowledge and if they can get their undergrad and Master's paid for, they're helping their family out.

Assarian is doing pretty good. She's got a job sown up in Dallas. She's not going to the WNBA, but she'll probably be a Mavs season ticket holder. And what's wrong with that? She'll walk in with that Aggie connection and degree and do just fine.

It's good for our kids. What UConn is going through right now on the men's side, their APR is scary low — is that because they're going to the NBA or because they're not eligible. I'm glad we've fixed things on the women's side so that a lawyer can't take Brittany Griner and get her out of there after her freshman year. (And I wish he had [laughs].) But it's better to watch her grow and face the Danielle Adamses.

* I think the BTHO Breast Cancer event will be special. We led the nation last year in raising money for the Kay Yow foundation. More than $60,000. It meant a lot that we got that in the same year we won the national championship. Our fans have done a great job of buying those pink shirts. An incoming recruit of ours, her mother is dealing with breast cancer. It's not fun, what her daughter is going through. Takia Starks' dad made it through her career and passed shortly after. Many of us have dealt with it. And if you haven't, you will.

But those who make it through can get up in front of us and champion the cause. The rest of us try to champion it too. We're going out and we're going to raise money and help stamp out breast cancer and any form of cancer. I think it's important for us to do and for y'all to write about. Those are the type of stories people want to hear, not just the wins and the losses all the time. Or Whitney Houston, or Eli Manning winning the Super Bowl. They want to hear real life stories. We get a chance on Saturday to do this.