K-Stated

Must give thanks for this to Levi, who listened in on Kansas State basketball coach Frank Martin’s conference call this morning. Sorry for the delay.

On Jacob Pullen:
“Here’s the reality of the matter: Jacob, in high school, they ball-screened for him, and he came down and shot it every time. OK, so now he comes to college, he’s 17 years old, he’s got this 6-foot-3, 285-pound guy screaming at him every time he makes a mistake rather than just let him shoot the ball like he did for four years in high school. And you know, he’s got to understand how to balance what he needs to do. Here’s the other adjustment he’s got to make: If we played slow, where you walk it up the floor and the swing guard passes the ball, cuts through and goes through 27 cuts then he gets it back, then his touches are down. Then his opportunities for turnovers, just like opportunities for assists are down. Well, you know, we don’t play that way. We get the ball to a point guard and we ask him to go as fast as he can and go make a decision in a split of a second, so he’s making that adjustment also. Again, Jake is fine; I’ve got no problem with Jake. He’s got to figure out a way to cut out the lackadaisical turnovers — that’s the one that bothers me.”

On the point guard making the easy play instead of the fancy one:
“Well that’s the transition from high school to college. In high school, you can make the magnificent play and nobody gets hurt from it if it doesn’t happen. In college, you make just a bad mistake like that and the team pays, because the other team has five good players that are going to get the ball and go down and score. With him, it’s not a matter of him being aggressive — he’s always aggressive. With him, he makes a lackadaisical pass, and those are the ones he’s got to eliminate.”

On Winston Salem:
“They’re pretty good. They compete. I mean, they’re not a Big 12 championship team, but they’re a good basketball team. They went to Iowa State and played them nose-to-nose for 35 minutes of that game, and they went into Wake Forest and gave them a heck of a run. So they’re battle-tested. They’ve got five returning starters back, they’ve got a fifth-year point guard, you know, they’ve got some good players. And I think that once they get back to playing games in their league that they’re going to win a whole bunch of games. But we need to continue to make progress defensively. We need to continue to make progress rebounding the basketball. Then offensively, what we just talked about, we’ve got to get to where we make good decisions with the basketball. You know, that’s the one thing that I was kind of bothered by in the A&M game. I thought we made poor decisions with the basketball. We’ve got to get back to making better decisions.”

What are the holiday plans for the team?
“We’ll dismiss the team after the Winston Salem State game, and we’ll reconvene here on the 26th.”

Is this a tough time of the year to coach?
“Sometimes it is, sometimes it’s not. Last week was obviously a problem for us with finals and the ice storm and things of that nature. Guys just weren’t zoned in at practice. But the last two days, they’ve been great. I anticipate us having a good practice again today.”

Any David Hoskins update?
“No. We’re still status quo on that.”

On Dominique Sutton and Jamar Samuels:
“Uh, can’t answer that. They’re not students at our school.”

Do you anticipate Sutton and Samuels being students at you school?
“You’ve got to ask me about guys that are enrolled here and play for me and I’ll be more than happy to talk about them.”

Can Mike Beasley be too unselfish?
“He’s only like third in the country in scoring at 25 points a game. I mean, he’s averaging 14 rebounds a game. Someone was making a big deal about Tyler Hansbrough having his fifth consecutive double-double. Mike’s had 10 consecutive double-doubles. Mike plays to win the game, that’s what he cares about.”

On Bill Walker after six points against Florida A&M:
“Bill’s going to do what he’s got to do to win the game. Against Notre Dame, he didn’t feel we were playing well, so he tried to score the ball every time. Against Cal, because of matchups, he knew he had to be extremely aggressive on offense and he did it every time. If we had to replay the Oregon game, I think he would have went about it a little bit differently, just as far as his aggression on offense. I thought he played well against Oregon, he just didn’t look to score. Bill’s told you himself, and I’ve told you because that’s who I know Bill is, Bill’s not into averaging 18 points. Bill’s going to do what he needs to do on a night-in-and-night-out basis to win the game he’s playing in. That’s the only thing he cares about.”

On Walker’s knee:
“It’s fine. He’s fine.”

What do you want for Christmas?
“A heck of a lot more wins.”