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NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FINAL FOUR

March 31, 2018

San Antonio, Texas

Villanova - 95, Kansas - 79

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Kansas Jayhawks head coach Bill Self and student-athletes Malik Newman and Devonte' Graham. Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Devonte', wanted to ask you, what did Coach tell you all in the dressing room afterwards?
DEVONTE' GRAHAM: He told us we should keep our heads up. We had an unbelievable season. You know, it's not the way you want it to end. But even if you lost by one point it will still hurt. And we all just -- we just need to keep our heads up, and it's going to hurt now but we'll be all right.

Q. Devonte', do you just tip your hat to Villanova the way they shot the ball? What are things you could have done better defensively to stem the tide a little bit?
DEVONTE' GRAHAM: I'm not sure. They did a great job of knocking down shots, obviously, and you know making an extra pass. They had us rotating a lot, and Spellman picking and popping, he was kind of hard to guard for us. So you just gotta give them a lot of credit for what they do.

Q. Malik, how does that kind of, the start of the game, 22-4, how does that change the dynamics of the way the game plays out from there?
MALIK NEWMAN: It's tough. It's tough, especially when most of the points come from the 3-point line. You feel like you don't really give yourself a chance to win. You put yourself in a deep hole. And it's hard to climb out of it.

And like I just said, it's just tough. It's a tough situation to put yourself in.

Q. Devonte', just the last minute or so when you came off the court, what was going through your mind when you came off the last time?
DEVONTE' GRAHAM: You know, I just knew it was my last time coming off the court in a Kansas uniform and just got really emotional. But it has been a great ride, great journey. These last four years have been a blessing. And I just got really emotional.

Q. Obviously their 3-point shooting was just phenomenal tonight, but what did they do that just hampered y'all offensively, their defense?
DEVONTE' GRAHAM: They did a good job, I feel, like on their ball-screen defense, not letting us get open 3s or they didn't over-rotate, really. And kind of limiting us to one shot.

MALIK NEWMAN: I mean, I agree with the same thing that Devonte' said. And I mean also I thought we were stagnant on offense. So it gave them a better chance to go at us. We didn't move the ball; bodies wasn't moving. So they were just kind of guarding areas. And when you play a good defensive team like Villanova, you definitely have to move and get the ball moving. So I think we did a poor job on offense, and they did a great job on defense by not having to rotate.

Q. Devonte', I'm sure an impossible question to answer right now, but four incredible years at KU, what are you going to miss the most about being a Jayhawk?
DEVONTE' GRAHAM: Everything. I can't say just one thing. The coaching staff, all the friends you make and the fan base is amazing. And just waking up in our dorm and being able to walk over to the Fieldhouse and shooting and practices. Man, just everything I'm going to miss for real.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Coach, an opening statement and then we'll take questions.

COACH SELF: I apologize I was late. I drank a little too much water during the game. It was a game that we knew we'd have to play well. And we knew that they would probably have to miss some decent looks.

But they got anything they wanted early. And then, of course, they made the most of it, knocking them down. And I thought -- as good as everybody was, I thought Spellman and Paschall kind of set the tone because Doke was on Spellman; and in theory, if he could kind of maybe back off of anybody, it may be Paschall, even though he's more than capable of making them.

But I thought they were great. That's as good a team as we've played against that I can remember. And we didn't play very well, obviously, and when we got spread out and our game plan went to crap on how we were going to guard certain actions, then we got caught in between and that's the worst thing you can do defensively is be caught in between.

So credit to them, a superior team, and they were superior, obviously handled us today. And they'd be hard for anybody to deal with if they shoot the ball like that.

Q. Can you just sort of describe where you're going to see this team ultimately; you had the pendulum swing wildly in a lot of ways, quite a thing to get to the Final Four and the sour ending, just wonder if you could speak to that and also how you try to get that across to the guys after the game?
COACH SELF: I don't know if I totally agree with that. To me it would be a sour ending if you lost on the last possession. Do you feel better, you know, losing the way we did today or losing on the last possession?

You always want to perform in a way to put yourself in position to win. But when it's the last game, certainly it stings and hurts no matter what. I'm really proud of our guys. We did not have the perfect roster in many ways to probably win 31 games and win the league in a great league and conference tournament and get to the Final Four, in a lot of ways. And to be honest with you, it felt like today it kind of just caught up with us.

We had performed at a pretty high level and our margin for error is not as great as what it has been in some of our past years. And the kids laid it out there and it seemed to catch up to us today in large part because Villanova was so good.

I'm not going to think sour about this at all. We've been in enough Elite Eight games and lost them. So getting here was obviously special and everything would have had to go, the way Villanova played, we would have had to play a perfect basketball game in order to put ourselves in a position to win. And obviously that didn't occur.

Q. You've obviously seen a ton of basketball, coached a lot. There were times today where Villanova did something that you don't see much, as far as making the 3s. What were you thinking, I guess?
COACH SELF: You know what, when they got up 9-2, I think we'd got up 9-2 called timeout, I thought we're okay, but we need a couple of good possessions fast. And then I don't know what it went to right after that. But then it gets to 22-4 and it's like, oh, my gosh, we're seven minutes in and this thing is -- we're going to have to play just about perfect to get back.

And I thought if we could get it to single figures at halftime maybe we could have a chance. And we didn't. But we've been down to good teams on the road by at least 15 or more. But we haven't been down to Villanova by 15. And they had us caught in between on everything we did defensively. I thought they were really good defensively. But in all honesty, 79 points, even though a lot of them were kind of late-game stuff, if you get to 70, you know, used to be the first one to 70 won.

And we certainly eliminate ourselves from having a chance to do that because they got 47 the first half. But I'll look at it, and if I ever watch the game tape, which I know what happened so I probably won't, but I'll think more about how good Villanova was today.

Q. This isn't game-related. I was curious to get your perspective, what was it like to meet Florence Azubuike for the first time and to see her reunited with Udoka?
COACH SELF: She didn't get in last night until midnight, got back to the hotel about 12:30. There was a brief exchange, certainly, with us and everything. She was exhausted. So I haven't talked to her again. I'm sure we'll connect tonight. And Udoka will connect with her.

But, you know, sports in so many ways, it's just amazing to me how so many good things can come out of competition and who would have thought that winning and having a chance to play at the highest level would allow a mother and her son to reconnect after six years. That's the only way they would have. So there's no telling how long they would have gone without ever seeing each other.

That was a proud moment for all of us. And certainly it doesn't seem near as proud -- it's not the fairytale story, if we had won the game, but certainly it was really a special moment for those two.

Q. What was your defensive game plan coming in? And then also what challenges did you have with the roster you feel defensively this year?
COACH SELF: The thing is when I texted Hugs I said, What do you think? He said, You better hope Spellman doesn't shoot the ball well.

They were 13 of 24 against West Virginia. I personally knew it would be hard if he got off to a good start, because Doke's never guarded out there, never. And Silvio has never guarded out there.

We tried to devise a ball screen defensive plan which, we thought, would eliminate some of the actions. But after we got behind and it became obvious that we weren't defending the 3 after they made six in the first seven or eight minutes or whatever it was, we got halfway. We didn't do what we were really supposed to do with the aggressiveness that we should have because we were worried about the results because they'd already picked on us some. So it was one of those things.

If the game had started out differently where we had some success defensively, we probably would have played a much better game. But after we didn't have any success defensively, you can't switch five. Are you going to put Azubuike on Brunson? Certain things we can't do, which obviously Villanova can do. And it wasn't very good. It looked good in practice, though, but it certainly wasn't very good.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

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