Nov. 9, 2004
Volleyball Coach Jim Barnes-
"Well, we had a good solid match for us last Saturday against Iowa State, beating them here. We had three games there that we won, two of them we beat them 30-20, really solid volleyball. As much as we are capable of as far as consistency and then the last game, we beat them...30-28. Our team is gaining, and, to their credibility, they are working extremely hard every practice. These ladies aren't taking any time off. They really want to make a really good run here at the end of the season. With the five matches left, we've matched the wins they had last year in conference and in season and so there are some gains to be made these next five and they are all conference matches. Starting with Kansas, tomorrow, they were ranked #24 in the nation last time we played them and we knocked them out of the rankings so they will be pretty fired up to play us up there and we are pretty evenly matched. They have two Brazilians on the team and it really gets our Brazilian. Adeline Meira fired up to play them. Last time we played them she had a career high 11 or 12 blocks and just played like a woman possessed. Going to their place they are really going to be aggressive and we need to put back to back wins together and really make a run here at the end and just put a positive note to the end of the season. The girls have really worked hard and, with their inexperience, they have had up and downs but I would just really like to see them finish strong. Physically we scare opponents and if we can just mentally get the game under our belts, we will consistently win games. We hope to start that this Kansas match tomorrow night and get back to back wins."
Cross Country Coach Todd Harbour-
"We came off our conference meet last week where our ladies ended up 4th and our men ended up 7th. Our men, we don't have any seniors on that squad, our women, we have one senior, so we thought we did a pretty good showing up there considering what both teams have been through this year. One of our top young ladies, Brittany Brockman, lost her best friend last week to a suicide so that was a pretty traumatic event for her as well as the whole team so they ran with some heavy hearts at the conference meet. We were very pleased overall with how we competed and that takes us to this week's regional meet. This is the third year that we have hosted the NCAA regional meet. It will be this Saturday and the ladies run at 10 a.m. and the men run at 11:15 a.m. Our ladies right now have a pretty good shot at reaching a national meet. We are sitting at the thirty-third ranked team in our region... We dropped out of the polls after our not-so-good showing at the Pre-Nat (Pre-National Meet)... so; we have a pretty good shot at getting an automatic. We did that last year but we would like to take care of that and not wait around until Monday to be selected as one of the 13 at-large teams. We are as healthy as we can be and our top two girls from last year are not running this weekend so we are running with the crew that has been running all week...We have had several good work-outs this past week and I think we are ready to go. Brittany Brockman has been running super all year and I think she has an outside shot at winning the region individually. On the men's side, Bo Price had our highest finish in the Big 12, he finished 8th ...We've got some things to run for this weekend. Our men, probably top four or five and we can do that, I will be very happy with that...We are going to battle and looking forward to this weekend and hopefully it will be a nice day. We appreciate your support"
Football Coach Guy Morriss-
On road games
"I wish I could play every game at home but unfortunately that is the nature of the beast. About half of them are going to be in hostile environments. I think, for me, I like going into places like LSU. Your bus pulls up and they have fans rocking your bus, throwing beer bottles at you, rocks at you, spitting at you, throwing beer on you. That fires me up and we need to turn some of that into a positive for our kids. You know, it's all how you see it and how you can deal with it from a mental standpoint and that's something we've got to do is using the opposing fans to our favor and our benefit because in a way it's like slapping you in the face, like someone telling you that you can't do something and I'm like an old mule, the more you tell me I can't do something, I'm going to prove to you that I can and we need to have a little bit more of that attitude. We hit the road going to some of these places that we play, there is hostile environments and some tough places to play but we obviously can't throw in the towel so we've got to learn how to deal with it."
On winning a game on the road
" That was one of our goals going in and we are going to have a chat about that here in an hour and half and we are going to try and figure out how to get that done."
On Oklahoma State's Vernand Morency
"They are ranked pretty high in the rushing game and obviously he's the guy that makes it go. They've got a good offensive line but he's the kind of a kid who, he's not a power guy I don't think although he can run through tackles and stuff but to me he's more kind of a slasher, darter kind of kid. You don't just see him getting hit he's an elusive kind of kid. He's got good body control, he doesn't take a lot of shots so I think that's why you say he's a durable kind of kid because you just don't see him taking a lot of punishment."
On the Texas Tech game
"I think we were all disappointed. I think I was more so disappointed in the way that we played. We did not play with a lot of energy I don't think and we didn't seem like we were really fired up about playing on Saturday in my opinion. From what I observed on the sideline and what I see on tape. We are the kind of football team that has to understand that for us to have a chance to win games in this conference, we have got to play with a high degree of effort, emotion, and redline every play. So, if we can figure out how to muster that kind of energy whether it be at home or on the road, that's the way we have to play. We have to have all three phases working together on any given day for us to win those kinds of games. I don't feel like we did that Saturday for whatever reasons. I'm not interested in excuses. We need to find a go reason to go get it done and that is what we are going to talk about today."
On Oklahoma State
" We are pretty close (matching up physically) I think we match up with them fairly well physically and I think they are more of a conventional offense and that will help us more. Defensively they are a four-two-five and I haven't seen a lot from them that we haven't seen already and handles so I just think that, yeah, we match up better with Oklahoma State. I think the offense that they run is more like we see on a week-in, week-out basis and we have a lot of time invested in shutting down those kinds of offenses. There should be a lot of recalls over the past few weeks put in and it's not so unique. You are getting your kids to see what they need to see and get prepared for it and we have seen it before so that should make it a little easier to get prepared. We just have to go do it. We know what they are going to do we just have to do something about it and get it stopped."
On Team Personality
" I think as long as things happen naturally in the progression of how your program is moving and how you are playing I don't have a problem with that. We need our kids to learn that they have to focus and work hard but at the same time they can have fun and play the game of football. I think we have made some strides in that area. When we first got here, we were stretching in silence and the kids wouldn't say a word. We have come miles from there. We like for them to be loose and relax and not so uptight that they can go make plays but at the same time be focused and concentrate...You want to go play the game, that is what you came to school for. To be a football player in the Big 12...I love to play games. I'm accustomed to playing 20 games a year in my career for a lot of years. To me, that's what football is all about is Saturday's, it's the love of playing the game...Our kids are no different than anyone else. They love to play. There is a certain degree of educating them on how to go win and so forth but as far as just the sheer love of the game I think they really love to play games."
