Quotes & video from A&M's weekly basketball pressers

Billy Kennedy

* Glad to be home. Dash's arch is just bruised and sprained. No permanent damage but it was very sore for him. It's a situation that's day-to-day. We don't know if he's going to play on Saturday night, but we sure hope so.

* We'll know more about Khris in the next few days. He's getting his knee looked at again. We'll do another MRI. That situation is day-to-day also. I really don't want him to practice until he's close to 100 percent, because it didn't work the last couple of weeks.

* If Dash can't play, still trying to figure out the options. Elston will have to hold the ball the majority of the time and try to get us in the offense, which I think he can do. After that it's experimenting. Naji might be the next best ballhandler on the team, but that's not his natural position by any means. The good thing is we've got all week. Knowing Dash and his toughness, I think there's a chance he could play.

* It's been challenging this season, but the more you're in a program, the more you realize there are holes in it. It's like buying a new house. You're excited the first day, but then you see a leaky faucet or holes in the wall. That's the situation right now, unfortunately. Injuries are part of the game, you can't control that, but we don't have enough depth or experience right now to overcome something negative that happens.

* The opportunity to play is part of what we're selling recruits on. I was in Kansas last night watching a JUCO game. We're all over the place recruiting. We know we need perimeter help and we'd like to get one post guy. With Dash leaving and some of the inconsistencies of the other guys, we need to get something in here. We don't have an option A, B, C at point guard. That was one of my concerns coming in and I thought we could get through it without injury, but we didn't.

* I was really pleased with how the team responded against KU. I wasn't surprise that Kansas jumped on us early, they do that to a lot of teams. But our guys didn't flinch, nobody panicked. Fortunately we got back in the game. I really thought our two seniors did a good job of not being afraid. David took the ball strong to the basket. Unfortunately, they had a seven-footer blocking shots. Dash was playing on one foot, essentially, so we couldn't get many ball screens and it made it more difficult for us to score.

* Elston and Dash have been our two most consistent performers in practice and in games all year.

* OSU's staff has been there for a while and recruited those guys, but they've had some injuries and other things. Keiton Page has been there for them and he's leading them. I like their young guys. They have some weapons we're going to have to be prepared for. They do a lot of things offensively. It'd be really good to have Dash chasing Keiton around a bit.

* When a new coach comes in, you hope he can identify with someone on the team. From day one, Dash bought in to us and was excited about our staff. Our relationship has been positive. He's coachable, you can get onto him and he handles it the right way. I think as the season goes on, that'll spread to the other guys. He's made positive steps and he'll have to continue to grow to give us a chance to win.

* The thing about Dash's injury was they said it couldn't get any worse in a game. It's just about him being able to handle it. The game slowed down against KU and that helped us in a lot of ways. We prevented them from getting transition baskets in the second half.

* The fans have been real supportive, and our guys are buying in. We just need a little more help than we anticipated. There were some guys coming back from a 24-win season, but I didn't realize how key the guys we lost were.

* I'd rather give the ball up on the shot clock in a game like the one at KU and set up the defense than take a bad shot. Dash is the only true playmaker that can beat you off the dribble, and at KU he wasn't able to do that (with the injury). Elston tried, but Kansas is a great defensive team and they were able to take some of those lanes away. In that particular game, the shot clock going off and being able to set your defense up isn't the worst thing that can happen.

* Dan Alexander passing up shots is just being young. He also had to guard a variety of guys all night. But he competed, and it's good to see him beginning to improve.

* We've got to have a third scorer step up, and a second scorer now with Khris out. We can't just rely on one guy night in and night out. If Elston has a bad night on the perimeter, at this point, we're done. We need the balance we had against Oklahoma. Loubeau has to continue to give 14- to 16-point games. We've got to have more scoring off the bench. Guys need to step up and make some shots but still play well defensively. Right now we have Elston and David getting the majority of the shots. They both took 18 in the Kansas game, and every shot but one in the second half. I would like to think our D can take away one or two guys, and it did in the first half, taking away Robinson ... but we've got to have other guys step up.

* We made a couple of threes with that unique lineup with Alexander and Kinsley. Then we were able to get some easy baskets in transition and get right back in the game. Dan's ability to make the three definitely helped us in that stretch.

* Kansas made a conscious effort not to let us take Robinson away in the second half. We struggled keeping him from getting the ball. He out-physicaled us. And he made all his free throws. They were 23-of-25 from the line as a team. That's why they won the game. And we got more tentative to go in against him. Elston and Dash were much more aggressive defensively in the first half. Dash was hobbled in the second, so we couldn't help with the people we wanted to.

* The coaches didn't want me to take Dash out, but he was really struggling at that point and I wanted him for the next game. But he came back and said, 'I can do it.' So he went back in.

Gary Blair

* We had a tough one last night. Life on the road in the Big 12, there's so much parity between 2 and 10, and that's what's happening in our league right now. Obviously Baylor is the class right now. They're doing it not just in the league but in non-con, give them credit. But the rest of us all believe we can win on any given night no matter where we're playing.

We've got some problems. You think you've fixed it by winning three, but then that ugly thing reappears where you become a jump-shooting team, which means you don't get to the line against a zone team. And we managed zero fast break points again. We don't necessarily have a Sydney Colson out there to create for others, but we have some kids who need to step up and be better in that. Part of it all is my fault. I'm learning to play with size for the first time in my life. Teams don't fear a three-pointer anymore. Unless you can get the offensive boards and have some putbacks against the zone...

We got four points off the secondary break. In the second half, when we made our run, we forced eight turnovers in a few minutes and scored 10 points. Then we go make a dumb foul or turnover ourselves and we've lost momentum and their crowd got back in. Their game plan wasn't anything different than what Iowa State or Missouri did. It was 40 minutes of zone, packed in tighter than usual. We've got to be able to get the ball in to the post more, but when we did, we were inconsistent. We've got to do a better job of getting it in and not only hit one of every three jump shots. That's what they want. There's no fouls, they go to the line 22 times to our eight.

Give them credit. Another team beat the defending national championship and it looked like they'd won a conference title at the end. Look at what OSU has gone through this year ... if I HAD to lose a game this year, I would not mind losing that one.

* We can hit enough jump shots, but Carter's not having a good three-point shooting year and I think it's affecting her defense. Every time she has to guard the other team's point guard, they run in some stuff and she gets beat backdoor or something similar.

* We lost the game because of our 26 turnovers, and 14 in the first half ... against a ZONE. The last three games I think we had nine, 12 and 12 turnovers. We were handling the ball pretty good. But we had three three-seconds-in-the-lane last night. Three different players, but it adds up. Those are mistakes you don't make as an NCAA playoff team. You don't keep making the same mistakes. And we have to cash in when we get easy shots.

* There's no one thing wrong with our team. We just have to get better. It's like the Mavericks. You're going to get everybody's best. We've got to respond to that. We're No. 7 in the country in RPI and we're ranked No. 13 or 14 ... that's where we deserve to be. But I told our team last night that we're at the halfway point. We've played 17 games and we want to play at least 34. That would take you to the Sweet 16. You're halfway. I said, 'At 8:00 tonight, the country is going to hear where Obama is after his State of the Union address.' After this ballgame, where are we as a team? We're going to see.

* The people are coming to see us play. Our fans have kept us in a number of ballgames. The most important game of the year is Iowa State coming in at home. We can not afford to lose another game at home, period. We have to take care of business because we're going right back on the road Wednesday against Texas Tech.

* Haven't thought about seeding at all. We're trying to get to nine wins, because that'll get you into the Tournament. But we haven't been to Texas, to Tech, to Oklahoma or Baylor. We lost a game at Oklahoma State that was very winnable.

* Carter needs to be a compliment player, not the go-to player. She's the go-to player on defense. It's hard to be both. Dominique Kirk wasn't. He was the go-to player on defense who hit clutch shots. That's what Carter needs to be. We need Tyra White to be a go-to.

* We take today off, which we have to, come back to the film room tomorrow, look at zone, realize that when you're playing a packed-in zone you still have to get the ball inside. Can you get it in off a secondary break before they set up? Can you go high-low? Do our posts have to seal better down low and want the ball? Loubeau's having the same problem on the men's side. They're taking him away even though he's not a large post player. Teams are taking away Kelsey Bone, and when she does get the ball she's not making good decisions because she's not getting enough touches.

* I'll take a little from the first game with ISU. But they'll make adjustments. Their coaches do a great job of that. The one zone play that was working against Kansas, we were nailing them with it and after everyone made adjustments we never scored off it against OSU. Assistants all over the conference are working right now to learn how to take your tendencies away. But hitting shots, making stops, getting in transition, getting the crowd into it, that's what we've got to do.

* It was a good ballgame. They had about 4,000, and that sounds like what 7,000 does here because the arena sits right on top of you. It's a good place to play. They didn't do anything we didn't expect. But in all the losses we're not shooting well. I'm in charge of the offense, so don't fire the offensive coordinator. But when your offense isn't as good and your defense isn't as good, you've got to win with intangibles. We're not able to play that style as much anymore. We've been hit-or-miss with our press.

* On the last play, you're down by two, you're expecting to press on a dead ball, and all of a sudden you've made it and you've got 28 seconds to go. You're still in the press and they get the ball downcourt and Carter just barely doesn't get there. The kid made a tough, running one-hander. But that's why she's turned into one of the better point guards in the league.

* Sunday is 1:00 on TV. Go to early church.