March 8, 2006

NO. 9 SEED KANSAS STATE WILDCATS

Head Coach Jim Wooldridge
Opening Statement:
"It is good to be back in Dallas, the conference tournament is always an exciting time of year. Dallas does a great job with the tournament. I know our guys are excited to be here."

On talk about his future:
"It has been interesting. I think you guys (media) have been the ones who handle it all--the talking and writing you think is important. I think people can see that we are a pretty good team with a good shot in this tournament. On Saturday we did not play very well and the topic of my future came up. I think the fact that we have been playing good basketball has kept this topic down. I think how we answered those questions on Saturday really made us concentrate our play. "

Junior Forward Cartier Martin
On close games giving team confidence:
"We feel that the close games that we have encountered lets us feel that we can play with any of the teams in the league."

On the loss to Texas Tech:
"Once you lose to a team once then you know that you have to do play them again -- it gets us motivated to play them."

On tough losses and how it plays psychologically:
"The losses that we had are ones that we cannot look back and move on and prepare for the next game."

Senior Forward Dramane Diarra
On what his team learned from the Texas Tech game:
"We didn't play hard enough and we need to play harder and better offensively next time."

On what a player learns from close losses:
"Obviously you learn that you can play with anyone in this league. Like Cartier said, you have to look back and move forward."