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NCAA MEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: LOUISVILLE

March 26, 2016

Louisville, Kentucky

Villanova - 64, Kansas 59

Q. (Indiscernible)?
LANDEN LUCAS: You know, some of it was, but not all of it. We had some open looks that usually we knock down, and we just weren\'t hitting them tonight. But we stayed in the game and had an opportunity late, and that\'s all we could ask for without making shots.

Q. Down two there late, 41 seconds or so, you call the timeout and Wayne gets the shot from the corner. Was that drawn up for him?
LANDEN LUCAS: It wasn\'t a drawn-up play. We were just playing in our offense and his man got caught on the inside. Tried to at least get a piece of him on the screen. Wayne had a chance to knock it down. It didn\'t go in for him, but that\'s all right. We got a good look and we just missed it.

Q. They played a lot of more big guys than they usually do. Did they do anything you guys weren\'t expecting?
LANDEN LUCAS: I don\'t think it was anything they weren\'t expecting. They did a great job just kind of being everywhere. It\'s hard to simulate that, and I guess the closest thing to it would probably be West Virginia. But we just didn\'t do a good job playing our basketball, and that\'s what\'s got us here and we kind of got away from that today.

Q. How different is this feeling? You\'ve talked a lot about the last couple years and that disappointment. What\'s this one like, compared to those?
LANDEN LUCAS: On those, I felt like we came out and weren\'t focused and whatnot. This one, we were focused and we were ready to go. We just didn\'t hit shots and things didn\'t go our way. So it hurts because I\'m proud of our seniors and whatnot, but it\'s a different feeling the last couple years.

Q. Landen, would it be fair to say you guys did not play your best basketball tonight?
LANDEN LUCAS: Our best, yeah. It\'s hard to play your best every night. I think that all we needed to do was play good. And we didn\'t. I don\'t think we played close to that. We weren\'t ourselves 100 percent tonight. But credit to the team. We stayed in it. We gave ourself a chance to win at the end, and we just came up short.

Q. Start of the second half, you guys cut that thing and got on top in, I think, six, seven minutes. A seven-point lead is big in a game like that. You erased it quickly. Did you feel like you stole the momentum and were going to cruise not easily, but take it home from there?
LANDEN LUCAS: That was the run, yeah, that we were looking for and that we usually make. Usually we build off of it a little bit better. We missed some shots that could have built on it. On defense, we didn\'t get all the shots we usually do to continue that run. Some of it\'s on me inside. He scored, I think, four points on me.

But it was just a combination of things that didn\'t lead to us continuing that run. And then once they got it back, we were just kind of, I guess, playing catchup after that.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
WAYNE SELDEN JR.: You know, I had a bunch of good looks, tonight was a little long every time, but stuff\'s going to happen like that.

Q. You got Kris Jenkins to his fourth foul. He went to the bench and Villanova made a run. Seems like that would have been an opportune time to kind of make some ground on him and they kind of took the lead back. Just talk about what happened during that stretch for you guys.
WAYNE SELDEN JR.: They got stops and we didn\'t. They scored the ball and we didn\'t.

Q. Wayne, what happened during the stretch, the scoreless stretch in the first half?
WAYNE SELDEN JR.: We didn\'t score like we wanted to. They guarded us pretty well, and they got stops and they made some big plays down the stretch, definitely.

Q. Were they doing anything different? You guys didn\'t have any turnovers during that stretch?
WAYNE SELDEN JR.: Beginning of the game?

Q. First half.
WAYNE SELDEN JR.: They switched defense a lot. They\'re a good team, well coached, and they\'ve got guys that can go out there and execute it.

Q. What did Coach tell you after the game?
WAYNE SELDEN JR.: He was proud of us, stuff like that. Not too much.

Q. Wayne, what were they doing against Perry that made him have such a tough night?
WAYNE SELDEN JR.: They focused on him. You could tell their game plan was to try to really bother him. They were just doubling down. They were really diving hard on him.

Q. Since they were so focused on Perry, is that what opened up the threes for Devonte\'?
WAYNE SELDEN JR.: Ball movement, stuff like that. They were really over on Perry so that\'s how Devonte\' got open at times.

Q. How frustrating was it for the rest of the guards when your shots start falling like that?
WAYNE SELDEN JR.: It\'s tough when shots not going in and stuff like that, but you\'ve got to find different ways to impact it. Try to do different things, stuff like that. But at the end of the day, you\'ve got to make shots.

Q. Do you feel like you guys executed your game plan the way you wanted to tonight and just came down the last seconds or no?
WAYNE SELDEN JR.: No, we didn\'t. But we didn\'t execute how we wanted to, but we were in a pretty good spot coming down to the end. And those games like that, you know, it\'s really a small margin of error, and messed up a couple times.

Q. You\'re down seven at half and go on a big run in the second half. What does it say about the heart of the team?
JAMARI TRAYLOR: We\'ve been in that position before, coming into the second half saying we\'re just going to fight back as hard as we could, but we\'ve been down before a half a few times and we normally come out on top. We fought pretty hard this game, but we just ran out of time.

Q. They struggled (indiscernible).
JAMARI TRAYLOR: We just had to switch up on to their shooters, and we did a pretty good job of that most of the time. They ended up making more shots than us.

Q. What is your legacy in this program?
JAMARI TRAYLOR: I feel like me and the seniors won a lot of games here. I just still wish we could have ended a little bit better this year. Still proud of my guys.

And as far as me, I just feel like I was just a guy that did whatever he had to do to make his team win. I just want to be a good person, a good teammate.

Q. What are you going to miss the most about playing with these guys?
JAMARI TRAYLOR: Just going to remember the moments in the games, the big games that we played, the laughs we have in the locker room, on and off the court, with the coaches. Just going to miss everybody pretty much.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
PERRY ELLIS: Somebody that just wanted to step in and do the best he could and be a positive role model to everybody and try to do the right thing.

Q. It\'s been just an incredible run for you. Can you talk about the memories and what you\'re going to miss and what you\'ll think about?
PERRY ELLIS: Just miss family being able to come to games, the fans, my teammates and everybody, just missing -- never going to be practicing again with these guys. My last time. And, I mean, they just helped me grow as a person so much. I just thank God for being able to be in this position.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
PERRY ELLIS: Yeah, we were up five. And, you know, they got on a run. We made some mistakes and they really keyed in on. And they got up five, and they -- we fought back, but fell short.

Q. Seemed like there was an opportunity when you got Kris Jenkins to his fourth foul that you got a group in there actually able to take the lead. What happened during that sequence?
PERRY ELLIS: We started going on a great run early. And we got up five, and I felt like we had the momentum. Then we just made some plays that really hurt us and they really keyed in on.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
PERRY ELLIS: No, just how he had the pleasure coaching all of us. You know, how we became a team. We became a team, believed in each other. Just how, I mean, it will be a different team next year. And just really just how much he enjoyed us.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
PERRY ELLIS: It\'s meant so much. Every year, got better as a player and I grew as a person and just thankful for everybody, coaches, players and everybody in this organization. That\'s helped me become who I am today.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
PERRY ELLIS: A lot. I mean, just knowing it\'s the last time. My last time taking off this jersey. Never going to put it on again. Just knowing that. Just honored to be able to even play.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
FRANK MASON III: Well, you know, Coach has told us to do like a pitch-back play, and I didn\'t execute that well. I kind of picked my dribble up, was expecting Svi to come for a handoff, but he faked backdoor, and I think one of the players got his hand in. That caused the turnover.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
FRANK MASON III: You know, it was a plan, if I had an open shot, to take it. But I didn\'t have an open shot so I was going to hand it off.

Q. Did you have a specific play called there?
FRANK MASON III: I guess you could say a specific play called, but not really. Just a play, a pitch-back, draw a defender, pitch it back. I thought Svi was going to come around for the handoff or pitch-back, but he kind of, you know, came up, then went backdoor. By the time he went backdoor, I lost the ball. So it didn\'t work out.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
FRANK MASON III: Definitely. We need Devonte\' out there. He just keeps our team -- once he got his fifth foul, we just knew that the next man had to be ready and prepared to get in and take over his shot.

Q. Frank, what are you going to miss the most?
FRANK MASON III: Just them in general. Two great guys, two good teammates. They do everything we ask them to do as a team and everything Coach asks them to do. I know everyone will miss them.

Q. Seemed like when you got Kris Jenkins to the bench with the fourth foul, that was a big opportunity for you guys to really close the door. They actually made a run. What happened during that time?
FRANK MASON III: I don\'t think we executed as well on the offensive or defensive end. We kind of took some rushed shots and when we could have got the ball moving and got it inside and played inside-out. Better things probably would have happened, but we can\'t get that back now. We only can learn from it.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
DEVONTE\' GRAHAM: Yeah, a lot of it, I mean, especially that play. But, yeah, it could have went either way, but it definitely didn\'t go our way. So yeah.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
DEVONTE\' GRAHAM: I mean, it is what it is. He hit the ball according to the refs and I tripped the guy. So --

Q. Were you surprised?
DEVONTE\' GRAHAM: I was surprised that it was a foul. I thought he was going to call travel at first or something like that. But I was definitely surprised it was a foul.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
DEVONTE\' GRAHAM: Just how special we were. We had a great season. It\'s hard when people tell you not to hold your head down because we felt like we could have really did something special. And I feel bad for Perry, Jamari, Hunter, Evan because them guys are seniors. But we had a special group, and hopefully we\'ll be back next year.

Q. I was going to ask if it\'s more difficult with four seniors like those guys who have been around so long.
DEVONTE\' GRAHAM: Yeah, they\'ve done so much for the program. Perry is going to be a KU legend. It\'s going to be tough moving forward without them.

Q. Your name is in the All-Region Team. Is that bittersweet for you at all?
DEVONTE\' GRAHAM: I mean, it doesn\'t really matter now. It don\'t.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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NCAA MEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: LOUISVILLE

March 26, 2016

Perry Ellis

Devonte' Graham

Landen Lucas

Frank Mason

Wayne Selden

Jamari Traylor