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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 12, 2015Landen LucasKelly OubreBill SelfKANSAS CITY, MISSOURI Kansas – 64 THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by Coach Self and his two student‑athletes from Kansas, Kelly Oubre and Landen Lucas. Coach, congratulations on your victory today. COACH SELF: Thank you. It was obviously a win which we're happy about, and, you know, we didn't play particularly well. And I thought TCU played really smart and really tough. Obviously we didn't make as many plays as I would have liked throughout the game, but Kelly and Landen basically made enough plays to allow us to win because basically they were the two best performers we had today by a long shot. Q. When you guys play a team three times that you've beaten twice, is it difficult knowing that they know what you guys are going to do and you know what they're going to do? KELLY OUBRE: Not necessarily difficult because they're a great team. We kind of underestimated them the first two, maybe the first two times and they showed us what they were about. This game we wanted to show them that we can handle their punches and they threw a lot of them today, but we withstood them and came out with a victory. Q. For Kelly and Landen, Coach was crediting you all with making enough plays in the end to win it. What do you feel like the guys around you did to hold off a team that kept hanging around? LANDEN LUCAS: You know, we did enough to win, but credit to TCU for playing great game. We just wanted it. We got to play better moving forward and we all know that. And I think the other guys know what they can do better and they'll step up for sure. Q. Kelly, this is the second game out of three that I think you guys haven't hit a 3‑pointer. Is that concerning to you? Also can you tell by a way the game is going that the shot is not going, the 3‑pointers aren't going down and you're going to have to figure out a different way to score? KELLY OUBRE: Not concerning because we know we can shoot, we know we have to get our attitudes right, just know that they are going in, and just confined by the confines of the game. If the shot's there, take it. If it's open, take it. If you have an extra pass, make the extra pass. But we can't hunt shots. We have to just play within ourselves, but we know the shots are going to fall if we have a great attitudes. Q. Kelly, I think late in the game there was four straight possessions where you went to the hole, got fouled, went to the foul line. Was that something they were giving you or did you feel you need to do take control at that point? KELLY OUBRE: Within our offense the lanes were opening up, so the play was to drive and kick. But I had a bigger, slower guy on me, so I took him and got fouled. Q. Kelly, you haven't really played the 4 much this year. How do you think you exploited that mismatch bigger bodied Washburn? KELLY OUBRE: I can move better on the defensive end, I have a lot to learn and I will learn that. I will do anything to help my team to win. Q. Kelly, your thoughts on how the game changed without Kyan Anderson and the job that Trey Zeigler did as you saw them in the backcourt? KELLY OUBRE: Both great players, both can step up and get a bucket anytime they want to. We have to strap down on defense because Zeigler was getting in the paint a lot. They're both great players and they step up big for their team. They're two seniors, I believe, or whatever. I credit them for putting their team on their back and TCU is a great team. Q. Kelly, you guys played Baylor twice, you're going to play them tomorrow. Two close games. Why are they so tough to play for you guys? KELLY OUBRE: They run a "Y" zone. They have great players, also, on the offensive and defensive end. We have to bring our game, play with heart and come ready to play tomorrow because we can be beat on any given night if we're not ready to play. Q. Kelly and Landen, what advantages do you think playing four guards gave you in the game today? LANDEN LUCAS: I think Kelly did a good job with guarding. You know, he's learning it, so it's going to take a little bit of time. But on the offensive end, when he has a bigger guy on him, he's able to go around them. And I think it will be good for us moving forward because we will be quicker on offense and we can spread them out and open the floor up a little bit, let them drive to the floor, get fouled. THE MODERATOR: Okay, guys, we will let you go back to the locker rooms. Congratulations. We will see you tomorrow. Q. Bill, player personnel questions, I guess. If you can update us on Perry's situation and how close is he? And I saw Cliff Alexander's lawyer put out a statement today. Are you planning for this to be a drawn‑out process? COACH SELF: I heard that he put out a statement. I haven't seen it so I'm really not capable of commenting on it because I have no idea what it said. To my knowledge, everything is status quo. We have approached it like we're just moving forward where we're not going to have him. And if we have him it will be a bonus, but certainly I'm not going to let it be a distraction for our team. Everybody says Cliff Perry, Cliff Perry, Cliff Perry, and you're talking about two guys that didn't even play. It'll be a bonus if we get him, but certainly after being around the situation for a couple of weeks and there hasn't been much movement, I'm not certainly holding my breath. Then on Perry, Perry practiced a little bit Monday, noncontact. Some contact Tuesday, full speed Wednesday, and then we practiced him this morning at 8:00. He felt really good. When I talked to him he said "Coach, I feel really good. I think another day would probably do me some good, but I can play." And I said, "Well, if you think another day would do you some good, then we're going to wait another day." He said he wanted to play, but when he threw in there, I think another day would help me, I made the decision right there, we're going on play him tomorrow. Hopefully he will play tomorrow. But we will get him up and practice him in the morning. He went through a 30‑minute workout and if he feels good, which he tells me he feels great‑‑ he said he could have played today. So there was no reason to put him out there, but I would like to see him play in this tournament, because I think he would do well to put him in competitive‑type situations before next week. Q. Coach, I remember earlier in the year you guys shot 3‑pointer so well and you might have used the term "fool's gold" at one point. You guys haven't shot them well as of late. You found a way to win those games. What is your concern with shooting the 3‑pointer, and is it something you can shoot yourself out of them or are you guys just finding ways around not making them? COACH SELF: I think we're finding a way to piece it together right now. And that's not a great way to go into the postseason. You usually have an identity of who you are and how you're going to play. But you're playing three bigs and two of the bigs get two fouls in the first five minutes, so you've got to play the rest of the game. So it's just different. We're just kind of make shifting. Today was a good game for us in this regard because we had to play a way that we haven't practiced very much at all for a large percentage of the game. You're not going to advantage in the tournament‑‑ I think if you ask all coaches, what's the most important thing in the tournament, probably making shots. You got at that make shots. Everybody can guard and rebound, but you gotta step up and make shots. But there is a positive about not making shots, if there is such a thing, because I'll spin it that's really a positive because we haven't made any. It really focuses you to be better on the defensive end and better rebounding, because now those things become the way you carry your team. If you guys remember back, which you won't remember as well as I do because I was a part of it, in 2012, we didn't make any shots and we went to the Finals. Tyshawn madehis first three of the tournament with three minutes left in the Championship game. You figure out how to win by defending, rebounding. We played North Carolina State in the Sweet 16 game and made two shots outside of three feet and we still won. So the mindset was, let's guard, guard, guard. This team doesn't quite have that mindset, but I do think I'm not going to talk about, we gotta make shots because if you don't make shots, what do you do? What we gotta do is just play the game. Take 'em as you get 'em. And today there be wasn't‑‑ we didn't play to a lot of threes, but we took about eight good ones and came up empty. But the last few games, we have become a team that drives it hard and that's been good for us, too. We didn't play well today, obviously, offensively, but TCU had a lot to do with that. I know the reality is you're not going to score over a lot of length inside and things like that unless you can stretch it and, yeah, we need to stretch it. But you don't shoot 50% for three weeks and have bad shooters, we're just in a rut right now. THE MODERATOR: Time for one more question‑‑ COACH SELF: If I talk a real long, it's one question. We've only got time for one more. It's perfect. That was the plan. Q. Can you talk about TCU's effort, really not having Anderson the full second half? COACH SELF: Frank didn't have a good game, but Frank did a good job on Anderson. I think he's a good guard and very deserving of All‑League honors. I watched him play yesterday a lot and I thought their attitudes were perfect. The postseason was perfect, happy we won and looking forward to the next game and challenge. And Trent has done such a good job with them. They've gotten so much better. It was probably good for us that he was out. But on the flip side when he's out that meant that the Zeigler had the ball the whole time and he's the one who killed us. So, I'm glad that he was out, but on the flip side, I don't know if we took total advantage of it because Zeigler got wherever he wanted to go. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. We will see you tomorrow. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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