Baylor, Kansas State Postgame Quotes
3/5/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Recap | Box Score | Notes | USATSI Photo Gallery 
| Photo Gallery
Sunday, March 5, 2017
Chesapeake Energy Arena (Oklahoma City, Okla.)
Attendance: 3,475
BAYLOR POSTGAME QUOTES
Q. Nina, you guys shot the ball again really well today, 54%. How much credit does Kristy get in that, just feeding y'all?
Nina Davis: She gets pretty much all the credit, 99.1%. The other is finishing the shot, but we go as Kristy goes. All year long she has been our Energizer bunny. She never gets tired. She is going to take that charge. Today she had blood running down her knees. She is always going to give her heart. She is going to give 100% in everything she does and she has been trying to handle everything since Jones has been out.
Q. Kim, I think it was 1.7 assists last year with Kristy. It's almost 6 this year. How does she make that jump? Have you ever seen anything like that with your players?
Kim Mulkey: Jones last year played the point with Kristy, so they were both handling the ball probably equally and then early in the season I pretty much told Kristy to handle the ball because I feel like Jones is such a great scorer. If you could just let her not have to think, you know, and be the coach out front, let her go shoot the ball and do things. So that's the big difference is that Kristy's basically playing all point guard now.
Q. Nina, there were a couple of no-look passes from Kristy. Is that the deal? Is there any eye contact? Do you know it's coming to you?
Nina Davis: I kinda know it's coming to me. I've been playing with Kristy for thee years now, and I pretty much know who she is going to pass it to even though she is not looking at me. So it's kinda like a chemistry type thing.
Q. Kalani, to have another shot at another Big 12 Championship. How sweet is that?
Kalani Brown: It's just a blessing. We worked hard for it and I'm just honored, really, and really excited. I'm sure the team is excited and just going to go out there and give it our all.
Q. Nina, as someone that doesn't satisfy all of your games I look at your stats and wonder you've had such a lot of at this reputation, and your numbers are a little bit down this year. Is there any particular reason for that? Are you giving the ball more to Kalani or what's the deal in?
Nina Davis: We just have a team with a lot of depth this year. Numbers aren't really important to me. In the past years my numbers have been higher, but I didn't have the talent that I have on the team now. As you can see each game we have a different scorer -- had 17 points yesterday and then we had three people today that had pretty good numbers. So it's just the balance of our team and it doesn't bother me. I just do whatever my team needs.
Q. Coach, you guys will play West Virginia or Texas tomorrow. Can you talk a little bit about both teams and what it's going to take for you to beat either of them tomorrow?
Kim Mulkey: They're both very good. I'll be in the stands watching, to see what we can do better when we play either one of them. Is that good enough? I mean, right now I'm just relieved. I'll focus on the winner after the game and then we'll get in the film room and scout and talk to 'em. Right now I don't know what I would tell you any different than what I've told you the last time we've played both of them. They're good.
Q. Fifteen assists for Wallace today. Conference tournament record. Was there anything special about what she did is or is this how it goes?
Kim Mulkey: Just Kristy being Kristy. She got out in transition and we had a lot of numbers a lot of times. She made some no-look passes. She delivered the ball quickly to people up the floor. She is just a -- she is a great player. She can play through fouls. She can play through blood. She can play through a turnover, and she just is somebody you would sure like to be on the receiving end of her passes because she put -- she just gives it to you where you can finish.
>b>Q. Coach, it's easy to look at playing in another final the same-old, same-old for your program, but what makes it not that for you?
Kim Mulkey: I get a paycheck. That's what we're supposed to do. Baylor doesn't think it's the same-old, same-old. Baylor appreciates it. Our fans spend their money to come, and a lot of those fans are on fixed incomes, and they love the Lady Bears. And I guess you just call it tradition, excellence, elite; and these players that come to Baylor, they understand what came before they got there and they want to maintain it.
Q. Coach Nina said a few minutes ago that it's the depth of the team that everybody spreads out. You've been there a long time now. Is this the deepest team on paper that you've had?
Kim Mulkey: Yes.
Q. Kim, I know it always starts with defense for you guys, but the offensive efficiency that you guys have had in two games here at the tournament now. I mean, you know, like what you're seeing?
Kim Mulkey: We're putting up a lot of points. I think it goes back to the depth. We can sub and really not have much of a letdown, but we've had that all year. I think we're playing very good basketball at the right time of the year. I think we've played good basketball the entire year, but we're just spreading the ball around. I think Jones when she went down, we became somewhat of a different team. We became bigger. We became more physical. Dekeiya Cohen has stepped in like you would expect juniors to step in and just not missed a beat. Scoring a lot of points. I think we had 80-something there in the fourth when I substituted with about 4 and a half minutes to go, and let's hope we can save some -- still got a little bit left in the tank.
Q. Kim, yesterday you said that you were going to go meet Alexis's dad for the first time, you hadn't had a chance to meet him. What was that interaction like and what did you guys talk about?
Kim Mulkey: I just hugged him and -- just hugged him and told him how blessed we were at Baylor that his daughter was ending her career on the highest of highs and then when he smiled I realized, yep, you're her dad. Their smiles are the same. He's a proud Papa.
Q. Nina, Coach talked about it not being the same old. You've been around for four years. How do you keep it from being the same-old, same-old? You have won now in your time 7 Big 12 championships.
Nina Davis: Winning never gets old. If I'm ever in a position where winning change-ups become the same old, same it's time for me to stop playing basketball. It's always a different team. You have different players. It is a different experience for the freshmen. It will be their first time getting one of these type of rings. So really the motivation is to win. No one likes to lose and it's just different each and every time.
KANSAS STATE POSTGAME QUOTES
JEFF MITTIE: I thought the pace of the game was a little quick for us. We did want to get -- we did want to try to get -- disrupt them early in the game and I really thought Baylor handled it pretty well. They obviously put up a lot of points. I thought they were playing at a high level in the first half. Now, I did think we were playing at a high level as well offensively doing some good things. We were getting to the rim and getting to spots on the floor that we wanted to get to, but the pace was just a little quick for us. Second half, you know, we had our opportunities. We were doing a great job of getting to the free throw line. We just weren't converting. We had numerous trips of 0-2, 0-2, 0-2, and the obvious thing is that you can't do that against a team that's in the top-5 in the country. You're not going to win games if you're losing those kinds of plays, but our kids did do some good things to get there. Baylor is just playing at a high level.
Q. You had 18 points and a lot of those came in the paint, and if memory serves it was the same last time. What do you see against Baylor that allows you to get in the paint so much against them
KARYLA MIDDLEBROOK: Well, this game we set a lot of high ball screens and I was taking advantage when they were going under. Sometimes they were late on that, and I just had a quick step.
Q. Coach, any idea what was going on for you guys at the free throw line tonight?
JEFF MITTIE: Yeah, I mean, I don't know. We've been a solid free throw-shooting team. Just one of those nights. Kindred Wesemann goes 1 of 4. I don't know what she was shooting prior to here, but it's got to be in the mid-80s, or something like that. That's one of those things. Players have to go through their routine, step up there, knock 'em down. Tonight we didn't do that. We will go back to practice -- I know we're disappointed that we didn't make them. I know we're disappointed that we made good plays to get there, and you know to get to the free throw against Baylor you've got to make good plays. And I know we're disappointed that we didn't convert those.
Q. Coach, seemed like every time y'all seemed to get some offense going they had an answer for that. How tough is it to combat a team that always seems to have an answer?
JEFF MITTIE: We needed to string some stops together. The margin was about anywhere from 12 to 15 in that stretch early in the half and we kept talking about getting three stops in a row. I don't know that we did that. We certainly didn't do it multiple times, but Baylor is playing at a high level right now. Their ball movement is excellent right now. Alexis Prince is really playing at a great pace. I think Wallace in the last two weeks has really played well. And then you talk about Davis, I thought last night had a great look to her. She carried that over to today, and we're not even mentioning Kalani Brown. So I mean they're playing at a good level. I wouldn't use the word "frustrating." It's just that the margin of error, you've got to get stops and our margin today wasn't very big and we didn't take advantage of -- we didn't play well enough to take advantage of it.
Q. Coach, how is Kindred Wesemann doing?
JEFF MITTIE: I don't know the answer to that. They're looking at her right now. I think that the best thing I can tell you is we're hoping that it's a little pulled muscle, but I asked the doctors not to coach and they ask me not to be doctor. So I tried to abide by that. They definitely don't want me to be doctor. I can assure you of that.
Q. Now you guys can turn your focus to the NCAA Tournament. What are some things you want to see out of this team as they progress into that?
JEFF MITTIE: Well, you know, with the way the tournament is set up across the country for you for most of the Power Five's, we're done here, so we've got a week before Selection Show. We need to get back and get better the next practice, get better the next practice I would like so see us continue. I thought we made strides in the game with our discipline. So I would like to see that continue on. We did some things different today, so I would like to see how we can expand that. Not too different, but get back, get a little bit of rest, get better and wait and see where we end up in the NCAA Tournament.
Q. For the players, what can you learn from a game like this?
KARYLA MIDDLEBROOK: I mean, we can learn a lot, just knowing that the NCAA Tournament the games are going to come quick and you're going to have to turn around and each opponent is going to be different and the game plan is going to be different, so Coach talked a lot about having discipline in the game plan and today we wanted to slow it down a little bit more. I think carrying that over will be a lot for the NCAA Tournament.
BREANNA LEWIS: I agree with her and having poise and taking it one minute at a time.
JEFF MITTIE: You know, the one thing -- one of the things that in terms of when you already played 18 games and now you go a third time against people, I think we have the toughest league in the country in regards to the schedule. I do think that prepares you for the NCAA Tournament. There isn't anything this team hasn't seen. There isn't anything we haven't experienced. We've got a good veteran group. I expect our leadership to be strong in that locker room leaving here. I think we will get back and have a good week of practice and see where we're going. When we went at the start of the year one of the slogans was to leave no doubt. Last year we sat on Selection Show and we weren't sure that name was going to show up there. We thought it was, but until it came up we didn't know and this year we know that our name is going to show up there. We feel good about that. We feel good about having a solid season, and now let's see if we can make a run in the postseason.
Q. Coach, from the time you've taken on the job at Kansas State up until now how much closer has the gap closed and made the Big 12 Women's Tournament and the league more competitive than it was when you first took the job? And how many teams do you think will make the NCAA?
JEFF MITTIE: Well, I said yesterday I felt like Iowa State was an NCAA Tournament team. The way West Virginia played those were the two teams that came in that were kind of on that "bubble" as some of the experts say. But the way West Virginia looked last night I don't think there is any doubt that there's an NCAA Tournament team and they're still playing in this. I think we're going to get six in. I think Baylor is set up for that second seed nationally, but they obviously still have work to do here with making it to the championship game for tomorrow. So I expect that the league is going to be represented very well. I felt like the league overall this year that the bottom was better and there was more offensive talent in this league which made a lot of nights very, very difficult. So I hope I answered your question, but right now I think the league sits pretty strong for six.
