Head coach Gregg Marshall on...

...Opening remarks.
"I don't know how well we played, (but) I thought we played well defensively in the second half. To beat that team as well as they've been playing by 29, we must've been doing something right. We out-rebounded them substantially (48-23). I thought we did a good job on a couple of their primary scorers, Klint Carlson and Jeremy Morgan. We'll take that victory, we'll take that margin and move on."

...Shamet's three early in the second half to halt UNI's run.
"I don't think, at this point, Landry considers himself a freshman, but he is. He's a redshirt freshman. He's played a lot of basketball now. I just think Landry's a very good player. Every night he does it for us: handling the basketball, scoring the basketball, playing pretty good defense. Honestly I think he's an all-conference player. Who knows how that voting will go. I don't know how many guys we can get on that first team or second team, but he's somebody that should definitely be in that conversation. He's had a tremendous year. Ever since he assumed the point guard position, he's flourished. He goes 4-of-6 from three, has 14 points, four assists, one turnover. He's got one of the best assist-to-turnover ratios in the country, especially for a freshman. He's scoring the ball at a very high level and doing a lot of good things for us...That was a big shot for him to stem the tide."

...Why Wichita State deserves an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament
"...I was asked the same question with ESPN and SportsCenter. We tried to schedule what we thought was the best schedule in my ten years here. We chose to go to the Bahamas and play in a tournament where we played LSU, then Louisville, then Michigan State. Those are three pretty good teams. We also chose to play Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, Colorado State on the road, Tulsa, Saint Louis and Long Beach State. Look at those type of teams, and take out what they've done this year. We can't control - and that's the part of the RPI that I can't stand - what happens with Oklahoma now with Jordan Woodard going down. We played against Jordan Woodard. He dropped 28 points. (He's a) pretty good player, who I like, and I hate that he's hurt...We're just playing the game about as well as we can play it. We're playing better than we were earlier in the year. We lost two NBA guards. We were starting a freshman and a JUCO guard. Now we're playing a freshman and a guy - Conner (Frankamp) - who played half a year with us last year. Those guys have gotten so much better since earlier this year...The only thing I can say to anyone who doesn't think we're an NCAA Tournament team...is they don't watch enough basketball. All you have to do is watch our team."

...How the team was able to start out on a 14-4 run.
"It seemed to come a little easier against them than it normally does, and I don't know why. I'll have to go back and look at the film. I know Markis (McDuffie) hit a jump shot that looked really good. Maybe we got a couple of drives. We scored 14 points pretty quickly, and that's not the way it goes usually against them. The rest of the game seemed to be more on-par with the way they defend, which is really good."

...The team not fading after a long scoreless stretch in the second half.
"Well we've got really good players, and my coaching staff does a wonderful job of game planning. Coach (Chris) Jans and coach (Greg) Heiar, in this particular game, put a lot of time and effort into this game plan and I thought we did a marvelous job of executing, with a few exceptions."

...Willis bouncing back with a double-double today.
"Everybody on our team goes through (struggles) at some point in the year...The luxury we have is that if a guy like him isn't playing well, we have a guy like Shaq (Morris) or Rauno (Nurger) or Eric (Hamilton) that we can put in instead. That's not good for the individual that's craving minutes, but answer is to just play better. Use your opportunity and you'll get more opportunities.

He was taking advantage of his matchups, it was a great matchup for him. Rauno was not playing well. He got in quick foul trouble, Shaq got in foul trouble. So now he gets to play extended minutes and gets a double-double in 19 minutes. He looked very comfortable out there. Defensively he was working hard. That's been his big bugaboo - execution and defense - and he was very good at that today."

...The biggest adjustment the team has made for this 10-game win streak.
"I think we're just a little bit better defensively. Our numbers defensively have been off the chain. Today, (UNI) goes 27.5 percent (from the field) and 21 percent from three, and that's a team that can really shoot the ball. We gave them very few easy shots...We ended up with 36 defensive rebounds, and a margin of plus-25 on the glass."
 

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Markis McDuffie on...

...Shamet's three early in the second half to stop UNI.
"He's a great shooter. Every time I pass it to him, he makes it...No matter what the score is, he knocks down that big shot; it's money."

...If last year's home loss against UNI was extra motivation.
"It's a new year, new team, new responsibilities. We just wanted to come out and defend our home court, whether they beat us last year or not. We have to handle our business and finish out the conference 17-1."

...Reaching 25 wins on the season.
"It feels great, but obviously we want more than just 25 wins. A lot of people doubted us coming in, but we just continue to grind and get better every day, and we're going to continue to do that."

...Ron Baker, Fred VanVleet and Evan Wessel returning.
"With those guys in here, we just wanted to show that we want to continue the tradition that they've brought to this program. I'm glad they were able to see all the hard work we've put in...and we'll continue that tradition."
 

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Landry Shamet on...

...The 14-4 run to start the game against a tough UNI defense.
"We just wanted to come out and punch first and be aggressive. That was a big part of it. We tried to make a statement...We had a really good scout(ing report) from Coach Heiar, we know them pretty well and what they like to do defensively. We took advantage of what they were trying to do to us and turn it (against) them."

...If the team feels like they've got something to prove.
"Yeah, we kinda all have a chip on our shoulder. We blew some opportunities early in the season, so we found ourselves outside the top-25. Everybody in our locker room knows we're an NCAA Tournament team. The fact that it's a conversation about whether or not we should be in...I think we all kind of have a little chip on our shoulders."

...Baker, VanVleet and Wessel returning.
"They've been here for a couple days so we got to see them, catch up a little bit. Fred came to the bench today and chirped a little bit."
 

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Darral Willis on...

...Bouncing back today with a double-double.
"It feels pretty good. My teammates just kept telling me to trust the process...I got the (playing) time, and just did what I had to do."

...Improving his defense.
"I've been trying to buckle down on the defensive end and just stop my man from scoring. That's what I did today, and I think that's why I got more (playing time)."

...What's been the biggest adjustment the team has made during this 10-game winning streak.
"We just got a lot of players that are playing really (well). Rashard Kelly is being aggressive, trying to dunk everything. We've got Rauno Nurger playing really well. Ee've got Shaq Morris back to being Shaq Morris. We've got sharpshooters on our team as well, such as Markis McDuffie, Landry and Conner (Frankamp)...We're being more aggressive and we've got that chip on our shoulder like Landry said."