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"Four (championships) in the last five years now, and a second place finish. Hawk won four and finished second once. Stephen and Christian and Moo won three and finished second once. It’s a remarkable accomplishment. And K-State played good today. They made us earn it. That was a great crowd, it was a great atmosphere, and it’s the way it should be. They played hard and gave us everything we wanted, and we played the last six minutes really, really well. We met the challenge. "Mario carried us the first half offensively. We weren’t very good offensively the first half. We made shots, we rebounded well, and we defended well. The second half we didn’t defend quite as well. The law of averages caught up to us. We started missing shots and they started making them. They went zone, and you could see the basket getting a little bit smaller. But Russell made some great plays, and Brandon.... What a time to come out of a little mini-slump. "I’ve been really fortunate and blessed to coach some really good players and great people, and we’ve won five of the last seven and finished second twice in leagues, and none of them feel as good as this one. Now our second season is over and the most important season is starting, but we’ll enjoy this one for the rest of the day, and I am not a Sooner fan at all, but I certainly hope they beat Texas. "It’s a hard game for Julian to play when teams are that physical. We didn’t get to the free throw line at all like we thought we could. We did a better job on the boards, even though they got us the second half. We only shot 33% the second half, but we made some big shots. Guys just kept battling. It wasn’t a fun, fun game to coach, but it was certainly fun to be in a game in which there was so much competing going on. "We can talk about all our guys, but when you really talk about a guy competing, Russell Robinson is a competitive sucker. He played his butt off. We got 13 steals in this game, and those extra possessions certainly bailed us out. (On perhaps winning Big 12 Coach of the Year) "The guys who usually win the post-season honors are the guys whose kids play the hardest and the toughest. We’re feeling good. And our staff goes unnoticed. We have as good a staff, or maybe the best staff in America, and they do a great job preparing our guys, and I thought our guys were really focused and prepared today."