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QUOTABLE: Tad Boyle, McKinley Wright IV & Jeriah Horne post-Kansas State

Below are postgame interview videos from Tad Boyle, senior forward Jeriah Horne and senior point guard McKinley Wright IV plus some key accompanying quotes:

Jeriah Horne is defended during Friday's win over Kansas State
Jeriah Horne is defended during Friday's win over Kansas State (Scott Weaver / Kansas State athletics)
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Boyle on Wright IV:

“I said it Wednesday, I’ll say it tonight — he’s an All-American, he’s playing like it and I don’t care what anybody says. He’s my All-American, I can tell you that. He’s our All-American. His teammates love him, he loves his teammates — McKinley Wright, I get tired of thinking of adjectives. I’m sick of finding new words to describe him. I love the kid.”

Boyle on the improved offensive output from junior guard Eli Parquet:

“Number one, Eli worked extremely hard in the offseason on his shot. He changed some of the mechanics, some of the release points and the speed in which he gets it off. He’s shooting it with confidence now, and confidence is such a big part of shooting. And I’ve told Eli — he doesn’t need 100 shots. His shots will find him and he just needs to be ready when he gets them and knock them down. He’s doing that."

"Eli also understands right now his defensive role on this team, which is: ‘You’re going to be asked one of (a given team’s) top perimeter players.’”

Boyle on what he's seen so far from true freshman forward Jabari Walker:

“Number one, he just plays with great energy. He goes after every rebound and he’s trying to block shots. One of the things I talked to Jabari about is: ‘Hey, if you’re going to make mistakes, make them (as you’re) playing hard.’ And he’s done that. He’s not playing perfect; his biggest challenge is the mental side of the game, in terms of running the plays we have — out of bounds plays, sets out front — those are the areas he needs to grow."

"But in terms of his ability, in terms of his effort and in terms of his competitiveness, I have absolutely zero issues with him. I love coaching him and I can tell you this: our players love playing with Jabari. They believe in him just as much as our coaching staff does. As a freshman, that’s really important."

Boyle on the difficulty of telling D'Shawn Schwartz, Keeshawn Barthelemy and Tristan da Silva that they would be out indefinitely following Schwartz's positive COVID test and the need to quarantine the latter two as part of contact tracing protocol:

“Nobody feels worse than D’Shawn (Schwartz), Keeshawn (Barthelemy) and Tristan (da Silva). I will just say this: it was the second-hardest conversation I’ve had with a student athlete in being a head coach for 15 years. The first one was telling the team at Northern Colorado, when I was fortunate enough to get the job at Colorado, to tell those kids at UNC that I was leaving. Lot of tears."

"But the second-hardest was that conversation with Keeshawn and Tristan, telling them that they’re going to be out for an indefinite period of time."

McKinley Wright IV pressures Kansas State up the court
McKinley Wright IV pressures Kansas State up the court (Scott Weaver / Kansas State athletics)

Wright IV on playing with Jabari Walker:

"I love playing with Bari. He may be a freshman, but he don’t fear nobody. He’s going to go at you, get stops, he’s going to play with a lot of energy — that’s what he does in practice and we expect him to do it in games. I told you guys early in the year that our freshmen were going to have to step up and that I really liked the pieces that we brought in (in 2020) and that they were going to be valuable for us. Jabari played huge tonight.”

Wright IV on the improved all-around game of Eli Parquet:

“This summer, I think Eli was one of the guys who put some of the most work in and it’s showing. I think Eli’s a first-team All-Pac-12 defender. His ability to guard on the defensive end is huge for us and having him and myself in the backcourt to put pressure on guards is huge for us. Eli’s playing really well right now and we need him to keep going for us.”

Jeriah Horne and Dallas Walton battle to block a shot
Jeriah Horne and Dallas Walton battle to block a shot (Scott Weaver / Kansas State athletics)

Horne on the offensive role he's crafting for himself through two games with the Buffaloes:

“The system that coach Boyle runs puts me in position to score from all three levels (short, mid-range and three-pointers) — just really playing with a feel. That’s one thing that (Boyle’s) been talking to me about: having a feel for the game. I feel that the more I play in this system and with this team, the more comfortable I’ll become.”

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