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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 9, 2018Bill SelfMalik NewmanDevonte' GrahamKansas City, Missouri Kansas - 83, Kansas State - 67 THE MODERATOR: We are ready to begin with the Kansas Jayhawks, Coach Self, and he brought two student-athletes, Devonte' Graham and Malik Newman. Coach, we will call on you first for your thoughts. BILL SELF: Well, I thought that it was unfortunate for K-State and certainly with Barry to go down and Dean not being able to play, so we would not want that at any time. With that being said, I thought K-State played hard. I thought they played smarter than us. Certainly their big kid, Mawien, was the best player in the game, without question. We were fortunate enough to make plays to get the W and we will look forward to getting a good night's rest and playing tomorrow. Q. Devonte', you guys opened the Big 12 with the loss of Udoka and now here you are two wins in and headed to the championship. What's been the key for you guys during this two-game stretch? DEVONTE' GRAHAM: Just playing confident. We know we don't got the inside presence. We've been talking about driving the ball, trying to get to the lane, trying to play faster, and just trying to execute. Q. For Devonte' and Malik, just going back to what you said about playing with confidence, in what ways did you see evidence of that in the second half when K-State made a 2-point game, 3-point game and you were able to pull away again? MALIK NEWMAN: We know that basketball is a game of runs. Those guys, they did a great job of going on a run but we was able to withstand the storm and we just had confidence in one another that we were going to get stops, make rebounds and make plays for each other. DEVONTE' GRAHAM: Like he said, it's a game of runs, and at this time of year we have played each other three times. They know our plays, we know their plays. So every time we called out a play they knew what was coming. So it was about players making plays, so when they went on a run we knew we had to step up and make shots. Q. For either of you, when you knew Dean was not going to play and Barry caught a hand in the eye or something, did you feel like you relaxed a little bit at that point and then maybe K-State was able to get back in the run the second half? DEVONTE' GRAHAM: I think so, maybe a little bit. I felt like we came out. We was good and when Barry went down. I feel like we took our foot off the gas a little bit knowing that our best two players had got hurt, unfortunately, and that's something we can't do. We need to be better than that and play hard no matter who is in the game. MALIK NEWMAN: Basically what he said, we can't relax no matter who is on the court and that's something we did. Devonte' was right. Q. Devonte', this time of year not only tomorrow but next week as well, what can you take from some of the other Kansas point guards, whether it's Frank, playing with him last year or some of the other guys you've talked to about the key to taking your team deep into the tournament? DEVONTE' GRAHAM: Just staying aggressive, leading, talking, doing all those little things, you know, making sure guys' heads are right and focused. Not thinking about nothing else but playing basketball and winning. Q. Just talk about 3-point shooting, you had 7 threes in the first half, 11 for the game. Obviously you were getting some spacing and Malik you were getting a lot of open looks throughout the whole game. Spacing, how important was that? MALIK NEWMAN: I mean, it's very important. Because we had four perimeter guys that can go get a shot, or they can make a shot. It's important that we get those guys the opportunity to drive and things like that and I think that's what opened up the 3-point lane was just driving and being aggressive. DEVONTE' GRAHAM: Just like he said, we always talk about spacing and driving and driving to pass, mainly. Once you drive, the defense has to react and either help or you're going to get a wide-open layup. We spot up and just be ready to shoot. THE MODERATOR: Guys, congratulations. We will see you tomorrow night in the championship game. Questions for Coach Self? Q. Bill, it seemed like they really tried to go at the rim a lot offensively, pretty much the whole game. Do you assume that people are going to challenge you guys until Udoka gets back? BILL SELF: I think they'll probably challenge us even when he gets back, but certainly there was no resistance at all with Mitch and Silvio guarding Mawien. I hope I'm pronouncing it correctly because he was by far the best player in the game, and he whipped us. We usually don't trap the post. We haven't had to with Udoka. We will trap anybody else on the post with the 5-man, but we usually haven't trapped with the 5-man. So that would be something we hadn't practiced much. We did it the second half to try to get him to thinking and we had a decent possession one time. But really disappointed in how the perimeter players allowed the easy entry passes, but more so with our big guys. Just got caught dead behind and absolutely gave no resistance, you know, to him, making basically uncontested layups. Q. Bill, what quality to you like best about your team, and what keeps you up nights? BILL SELF: I could tell you right now, if I sleep two hours tonight it will be more than what I probably think I should after how we played tonight. But I do like the fact that the guys are somewhat resilient. Usually when bad things happen they can find some way to have some great possessions or whatever, just like last night we were down 10 to Okie State. Tonight they cut it to two or three. They cut it to two and we made some plays after that. There's a lot of things to like, but certainly when you're that small and, you know, K-State was that small tonight, too. But when you're that small and you have to play scrappier and smarter and tougher, it can be frustrating sometimes because we play to our skill set rather than actually getting after people. I think that's -- and you can say with Svi and Malik that's okay and maybe Devonte', but Lagerald and Marcus have to be guys that are tenacious and we're just not right now. We need to get better at that. That's what keeps me up. Q. When this K-State team is at full strength with Dean and Barry, where do they rank with amongst the teams K-State has had with Coach Weber here? BILL SELF: I would say right at the best. I can't remember if they were his teams or Frank's teams, was Jacob ever with Bruce? He wasn't? But they've had some really nice teams that were really solid. All his teams are. But, you know, when we shared the league with them, I can't remember all the personnel, but that was a team that didn't beat themselves at all. This team has those same qualities. I think Dean Wade is terrific. I think he's a pro, and Barry Brown, if he didn't make first team he had to be sixth or seventh in the voting to make first team. So they have two players on their team that are as good as any team that has two players in our league and I like their team and they'll give anybody problems in the NCAA if they were just healthy. Unfortunately they're not and it's unfortunate that we're not. But hopefully we can have some miraculous recoveries in the next four or five days. Q. What Devonte' said at this point in time you're going to play somebody for the third time tomorrow. The fact that they know your plays and you guys know their plays. In a game like that is it what he said that it's just kinda coming down to players making plays? BILL SELF: I think it always is. I think the second time you play a team in conference play, I think it's more players than plays. In a conference tournament like this when you get, you know, 30 minutes to prepare, I think sometimes your stuff can work, especially if you haven't played 'em for a while. We haven't played K-State since January 29th. So us going over their stuff and them going over our stuff you can't do that in 30 minutes or an hour max when you do a walk-through and know it well, because you practiced during a season if you play Tuesday and then Saturday, at least Thursday and Friday you're guarding their actions and stuff like that. So I think in the postseason sometimes it can be a little bit of an advantage, but Devonte', if he's the one who answered is right, it's time for players to make plays. When you get in the NCAA tournament, maybe your plays work better, but in conference play this late it's players making plays more than plays. Q. One of the guys who is doing commentary on another tournament said whoever comes out of the late game is going to care about this a lot more than Kansas because they've won their championship, they've got bigger fish to try. Do you think your kids -- it's not that big of a deal tomorrow? BILL SELF: No, no! If you play you might as well win! That's how everybody looks at it. I get a kick out of people saying that they'll go through the motions or whatever. Now, I do think teams with edges have advantages over teams that don't have an edge, so we have to create that edge going into tomorrow. Just because you don't create that edge doesn't mean you care less. It's because you didn't get yourself as mentally ready to play. I'm excited to see how our guys react to playing tomorrow because we won two games with Udoka and I think it would mean an awful lot to our players to be able to win three without Udoka. But we gotta play a lot better than we did tonight and that's no disrespect to K-State and they were so shorthanded we didn't take advantage of that opportunity like we should have. Q. Coach, you had it at 13 at halftime and all of the sudden K-State has got it down to 2 or 4 in the second half. What's going through your mind and what are you telling your guys? BILL SELF: I thought they played better than us, but I also thought a lot of it was self-inflict because I didn't think our energy level was very good. Obviously we couldn't guard the big kid, and offensively we didn't play very smart. So when they've got it down to 2 or 4, and team falls are 7 to 1 that's a coin flip game. But what we did do we got some stops. A big play was the shot clock violation. It may not have seemed like a big play, but that was a big play. And they got it -- whatever it got to, it went from, like, 4 to 11 like that and then we were able to keep them at a distance. So that's what I was talking about, even though we didn't play well, we played well in the most important possessions to be able to keep 'em at distance. Q. Bill, you were talking about players making plays this time of year. How does Devonte' compare to other lead guards you've had in the past? How is he different? How is he the same? What kind of chance does he give you to make a deep run in March? BILL SELF: I think Devonte' gives us a good chance, but he needs Malik and Lagerald and Svi to help him. Devonte' is not like Frank that puts his head down and drives it, although he's getting better at that. Devonte' is a pick your poison kind of guy, if they back off he'll shoot it, he won't try to drive it. But he's not the guy that we can say give him the ball and let him go score. So he's one of the best leaders if not the best leader that we've every had and good guards give you a chance to win this time of year and I love him, I think he's a terrific player and he's had a terrific year. But he's got to play smarter than what he has in the first two games and hopefully we will see the real Devonte' tomorrow night. THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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