Quotes & video from weekly basketball press conference

Billy Kennedy

* Unfortunately against Missouri we obviously didn't make enough shots. You have to get to the free throw line and finish layups. Missouri makes you pay. When they get open shots, they make them. Against this team that's so good offensively, you've got to be good offensively as well.

* On Dash, I have no clue (when). All the answers I've given have been wrong. He did practice on Friday. But he hasn't been able to get through a full practice yet. We've established what we want to do without him, but (not having him) has hurt us defensively and in close games.

* I don't think Elston was worn out and that was why he didn't shoot well on Saturday, but we do need to be more conservative with his minutes and in practice. But he loves to play. He doesn't want to come out of the game and never takes himself out. I think he's doing well.

* David Loubeau played 23 minutes ... he got in foul trouble. He got his second foul in the first half and we didn't get him the ball enough before that. But we are trying to get him the ball. We need to do a better job of getting him the ball. For the most part, we've been able to. We've got shooters on the perimeter that haven't been helping him as much, and he's been effective.

* There were about four or five fouls that may not even be called in some games. But when they're being called, we have to adjust. Missouri's guards did a good job of selling some of those.

* Missouri and Kansas are totally different. I'm going to tell our guys, you have to love playing. You get two great teams back-to-back. We played well at Kansas, and we have to play really well here to give ourselves a chance. But we've been playing well at home. I've got tremendous respect for their program (at Kansas) and what Bill Self has done. I hired a guy from their program in Kyle Keller. We'll have to play great basketball and we'll have to play not-so-well. I thought Missouri played well. We've got to catch some breaks at some point.

* We get to play our bigger guys against Kansas, but their guards don't get enough respect. Tyshawn Taylor can get into the lane. We match up a bit better with them than Missouri, but their big men are pretty dominant.

* Naji has done some good things for us, and I thought Zach Kinsley did some really good things for us. We need guys that can play well offensively and defensively. I think Jordan Green, lately has played as well on both ends as anybody on our team. Khris has been getting better on his knee every day.

* It's a learning process for Dan Alexander. Khris being back was a factor in (the reduction in) his minutes. We thought they way we played that game we matched up better, playing against Kim English. We need to be deep enough that, if you're not getting it done, you're not going to get to play. Right now, guys are playing because ... we need them. We don't have anybody else. There needs to be that sense of work ethic and we're getting there. We're much further ahead now than we were earlier in the year. Effort and attitude have been good, at home and on the road for the most part. We've just got to be consistent, one through nine. Guys are playing valuable minutes and they've all got to be ready to play and help us.

* Oklahoma State is playing well. If Keiton Page gets 40, you're not going to win there. I truly believe they're one of the more talented teams in this league, it's just young talent. They've proven that they're a force at home. We had a bunch of guys buy in to defending him (in the first game against the Cowboys). A bunch of guys were chasing him. And you can't let him get going early. He's such a great shooter, and he's a senior now. They probably feel comfortable now with him shooting the ball anytime. He shoots such a high percentage from three and he's a great shooter ... and he's a senior.

Gary Blair

* Oklahoma game: Battle for second place. They're through with Baylor. All of us have nothing but Big 12 south games left, that's how the schedule goes. Everybody's sort of in a panic mode on who's going to get the 2-4 seeds and who of the 5-9 seeds will make the NCAA Tournament. We're 10-4 and we'd love to keep that four there as long as we can. The schedule gets tough now. Every game is going to go right down to the wire. We'll be working on a lot of situation plays. We'll be getting ready for the games on hand and both the Big 12 and NCAA tournament. When you look at Oklahoma, ourselves and Baylor, those are the only three that have (guaranteed) made the NCAA Tournament. K-State has to get one more and I'm sure they will.

We had a good workout yesterday and we'll get going and leave by 5:00. They really play to their crowd up there. The crowd gets going and Whitney Hand gets going, it's like Tebow up there. They respond to whatever she does. She'll go down as one of the top players that Sherry Cole has ever had. She rebounds, scores, just a glue-type player.

We're going in and can't think ahead to anything. Last week we had Missouri and OK State, two teams we thought we could beat from the beginning and we barely got out alive. One thing we do do is play to the competition. Oklahoma seems to bring out the best in us. When we played them here earlier in the year, we played well. Kelsey Bone had a good game and so did Pratcher.

* You have to have some key wins. Who are your wins against? When you have Oklahoma down there, even though they're not in the top 25, they have been. I think they were when we beat them. They're a good ballclub, they're an NCAA team. We responded very well in our game here against them. I think we were coming off of a lost and responded very well.

Oklahoma knows they're going to the NCAA Tournament. What's their seed going to be? There's only four of us that can be in the top four in the league, with K-State being the last. I don't see anything changing.

* This is a different team. Kelsey Bone and Alexia Standish are both getting better. That's where you have a different team. Danielle Adams would bring it every night, but if she didn't, we also had other options. We need Bone every night, offensively and defensively, with Gilbert coming off the bench and Pratcher behind Standish. The consistency of Elonu, White and Carter has been pretty good all year except for Carter not shooting well. Carter is still doing her job even though the shooting percentage is not good. Elonu and White are solid, good seniors. Bone can be very, very good ... when she's on. But now she's going against 6-6, 6-5 girls and good shot-blockers.

OU has a lot of people they can rotate in. Due to injuries, they've been able to play their freshmen. They're going to be a lot better ballclub next year. Are we playing our best basketball of the year? No, I think it's in front of us. Maybe we can catch Olsen Magic, or what our softball team just did with the three-run homer. I love going against the four Big 12 south teams to finish up because that'll get us ready for the postseason. The last time we go to Norman and Austin, then Baylor and Texas Tech here. It's going to be fun.

* Our kids do not fear Baylor. We respect Baylor. They're a better team this year than they were last year, because Griner's better. Sims is a year older. They have the best 1-2 punch at the four in the league with Destiny Williams and Brooklyn Pope. One through seven, they're very good. Baylor has seen every different type of zone in the world, but hey, so have we. They're playing the zone not to stop Bone but to stop our outside shooting as well and the speed of the game we want to play at.

We'll look at that, but we've got to look at the simple zone offense we want to run right now. I think Texas Tech shot 34 percent, but they shot 54 percent in the first half. Baylor is a second-half team. They make adjustments in every second half and find a way.

* We're going to have a lot of one-possession games at the end. This is something we have to do a better job of. Lately we've done a better job at breaking presses and half-court traps, making free throws and all of that. But I've got to work on a few things that you save for this type of the year. You save for special situations that you work and work on in practice but you never use until you have to.

We have a few things. You work ahead and behind — when you need to win a ballgame at the end, holding onto a lead, or when you need to get a steal to tie it again. I love playing these teams, playing them for the last time, so this is going to be fun. They're going to be recruiting against us for a long time, even in the SEC.