Kansas State will play Kentucky in the NCAA Tournament Friday night in St. Louis.
Here are the Kansas State comments, provided by k-statesports.com. 
Kansas State Head Coach Bruce Weber
On being selected to play in the NCAA Tournament…
“You feel good about it, but if you are an SMU or St. John’s or Georgetown, there are a lot of teams that did not get in and that was the message to our players that they should be proud of themselves. The senior group, four in a row for Will (Spradling) and Shane (Southwell), which is a nice thing, and even as a school we are in the top 10 as far as the streak goes of consecutive appearances in the NCAA (Tournament). So that is a nice honor for our guys, for our program and for our university, and then we get a chance to play one of the top schools in the history of college basketball, It should be fun. I hope our guys are fired up.”
On drawing Kentucky in the first round…
“We were just looking at the eight-nine matchups, you have got a lot of very good teams, like Colorado and Stanford. You can analyze it a lot of different ways. We know Baylor beat Kentucky early in the year. They had some struggles two or three weeks ago but they did play better down the stretch and they had a good game today. We were just upstairs watching it, just as basketball fans watching the games and they have some talent, there is no doubt about it. We are going to have to play. But it does not matter who you play, you have to play good basketball. The important thing for us is we have to do all of the little things that made us successful, whether it was in that stretch in December or when we had some big wins in Big 12 play. That is just playing hard, guarding the heck out of people, just doing all of the little things that make the difference. If we can do that, I think we will be fine. My message has been ‘compete’ since last week and I think that has got to be the message going into Friday and if we get to play Sunday.”
On his initial thoughts on Kentucky…
“Talent is the number one thing. Youth, they are pretty young. It starts with (Julius) Randle. You have got a big-body guy who can do a lot of things and I have watched him through high school. They have got some size and they have athletes but we are going to have to guard them. Randle is a tough matchup. Any team that has a four-man who can do some things, that makes it tough. Maybe we can exploit some of their weaknesses, maybe he does not get the ball quite as much.”
On learning from last year’s loss to La Salle…
“I do not think we respected them as much as we needed to and that was obvious by the way we started the game. We went into the locker room at halftime and turned it on. You have got to realize that you have to play every game. It does not matter how good you are or what league you are from. If a team gets hot and gets going like La Salle did to us, we were playing in Kansas City and we were on our heels and they were taking it to us. This time, I think it is a little different. It is Kansas State and Kentucky. This will be the eighth time that we have played Kentucky. Ernie (Barrett) called me already and he is still mad about the (1951) National Championship, so he wants us to get some revenge for him. Last year, we were the hunted, the name team. We are the underdog this year and I hope we play like LaSalle did last year, with great heart, loose and free and go at them.”
On the players’ mindset going into the NCAA Tournament as compared to last year …
“It was not that they were not excited to be in the tournament last year, I just do not know if they got mentally ready to play La Salle. I do not know what is in their head or in their heart. The first thing that Coach Lowery asked after I did my speech was if anyone was scared. A lot of Texas guys have played with their Texas guys. The kid from Kansas City (Willie Cauley-Stein), a lot of our guys have played with or against him, so they all know each other. It is so different than years ago, pre-AAU, when those kids were shell-shocked by that. We play Kansas every year, Kansas and Kentucky are two of the top programs, and we beat Kansas. We are capable. We just have to do it on Friday, whatever time they set.”
Senior Forward Shane Southwell
On his thoughts when he found out K-State would face Kentucky…
“My face just lit up. I was ecstatic because I love playing against great teams and great players. When you are a high school player, you think about certain programs. You thing about Kentucky, Duke and Kansas, honestly and it would be a great opportunity to beat a team of that nature. We played against Kansas, I played against Duke my freshman year, it did not end up the way I wanted it to, but it was something that I looked forward to.”
On Kentucky’s style of play…
“I have a little bit of sense about how they like to play. We still have to scout them. We still have to watch a lot of film. They are a good team and they have a lot of talent but we have played against a lot of teams with the same amount of talent. Kansas has five or four pros on the court at all times. Oklahoma State has three NBA players, Baylor has two or three NBA players and Iowa State has three NBA players. Everyone is kind of making that a big deal of how much hype they have but we just want to go out there and play against them the way we played against those other teams in our league.”
On looking ahead to a possible matchup with Wichita State…
“As the eight of nine seed, to think about the one seed, you are foolish. Honestly with the eight and nine seed, it means that you both had the same type of year. To think about the one seed is foolish. This is going to be a big game for both of us. It will be a hard game for both teams. I do not even know who we would play if we win the first game.”
On watching Kentucky play this season…
“They play a lot on TV and I like to analyze teams when I watch them on TV. I do not think the other guys on the team analyze them the same way they analyze Kansas or Baylor when they are on TV. But I have watched them a lot and I pretty much have an idea of what they do on offense and defense. But we still have to watch a lot of film on them to get a better understanding of them.”
Senior Guard Will Spradling
On making it to the NCAA Tournament…
“It is just exciting to be in the NCAA Tournament four years in a row. It is something that only a few players in school have done.”
On Kentucky’s style of play…
“They have a lot of big guys. We like to play small so we have to try to use that to our advantage. We have really got to get on the glass because that is something that we have been struggling with.”
On the benefits of D.J. Johnson and Nino Williams playing in their hometowns…
“Every time I went back to Kansas City, I had a little extra boost of energy just knowing that I was home and that everyone was able to come out to the game. I think they will have the same thing.”
Junior Forward Thomas Gipson
On the experience of this season has prepared the team for Kentucky…
“I think we have beaten eight or nine teams that made it into the tournament. That being said, we are still young and we have to lead them and I feel like we are doing a good job of that right now. I think the excitement overall will make them take that extra step of playing hard.”
On playing in the NCAA Tournament…
“It is a blessing. Unfortunately, the two times that I have been there we lost in the first or second round. I know our young guys are excited for it and I think everybody is going to be ready to play.”
On how K-State matches up with Kentucky’s interior size…
“We do not have a lot of height but we have girth and depth on our roster, so that helps us.”