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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 14, 2019Bill SelfMarcus GarrettDavid McCormackKansas City, Missouri Kansas 65, Texas 57 THE MODERATOR: We are ready to begin with the Kansas Jayhawks, Coach Self and the student-athletes are Marcus Garrett and David McCormack. Coach, congratulations on your victory tonight. Your thoughts? BILL SELF: I thought it was, you know, kind of a typical March game when you played somebody for the third time. Not many easy baskets. I thought both teams guarded the first half. The second half, I didn't think we guarded great and we got lucky that they missed some good looks. We made 4 shots outside of 3 feet for the night. So to come away with a win when the ball didn't go in the basket, certainly I'm happy with that and happy that we get to spend another night here and play a much improved and tough West Virginia team. THE MODERATOR: Questions for our student-athletes? Q. David, could you talk about the difference between the last game against Texas and the job you did on Jaxson Hayes trying to guard him tonight? DAVID McCORMACK: Just playing them for the third time, you know, you get a really good feel for your opponents and I know we have to get physical with him. As far as getting inside of them because he likes to be a shot blocker, so I used my size and strength to my advantage as far as playing against him. Q. David, do you feel like you are able to push it inside and then on defense just force them to take perimeter shots that you would win this game? DAVID McCORMACK: I definitely think so. Having the presence inside and making them take outside shots is definitely an advantage that we had, and it was the right things we did to force them to take bad shots. Q. Marcus, what do you think of KU's defense tonight and the challenges that Texas presented? MARCUS GARRETT: I feel like we guarded great tonight knowing that when we played at Texas our ball screen defense wasn't great at all. I feel like they got anywhere they wanted to go on the court. We played great defensively. Q. Marcus, how important was it for you to mix it up on the glass today, 8 defensive rebounds? MARCUS GARRETT: Coach tell us to rebound before the game and I just trying to help out and put all the rebounds on the bigs, help out the bigs. Not just put all the rebounds on the bigs. THE MODERATOR: Guys, we will let you get back to the locker room. Congratulations. Questions for Coach Self? Q. Bill, how much do you think Jaxson Hayes getting into foul trouble changed the complex of the game for Texas? BILL SELF: I thought it did. He got two so fast and he got his third if I'm not mistaken to start the second. But Lawson got two fast, too, not as fast as Jaxson. But we have to have Dedric in the game, offensively. So I thought it probably kept both teams from being their very best. Candidly. Certainly I don't know what happened after the game, did they take him to the locker room? You haven't heard anything, but I hope he's okay. He's a tremendous talent and got a great future. That was a break for us for him only to play 14 minutes. Although Jericho did play well. Q. Coach, you mentioned West Virginia briefly in your opening remarks, certainly a team you scouted during the season and played twice. I don't know if you had a chance to see them earlier, but how much different do you view them now with the run they've gone on as opposed to maybe what you saw a couple of weeks ago? BILL SELF: Well, they beat us at their place, obviously, and that was basically to start the league. That was around January 20th, and then we played them, I can't remember, eight games ago, maybe, and that was right when they had just let some guys go and they obviously weren't together like they are now. So we caught a break by playing them at maybe one of the lowest points. And every team goes through ebbs and flows and ups and downs, but the team I watched play tonight is hungry. They're playing with a free mind. The basket looks big to them and certainly they're rebounding the ball like Huggins' teams have historically done at West Virginia. Forget about the records when Kansas and West Virginia play you usually get your money's worth as a game and I'm sure it will be that way tomorrow night as well. Q. Did Roach seem to timid to you and how did you plan to attack him on defense? BILL SELF: We didn't have a game plan to attack anybody. I was asked that question earlier, what I would expect and I would expect nothing different than what we have known for the last four years. I assume he's been practicing with them. So that's a little bit different than an injury where you have been out and you worry about conditioning and those sorts of things. But, you know, he didn't have a great game numberswise, but he's a really good player and he played 20 minutes and he made a big three late when we totally screwed up, defense coming off a missed free throw. But I like Texas' team talent, and I certainly love Kerwin's talent and I've enjoyed competing against him the last four years. You probably wasn't, you know, maybe had his A game maybe because of a little rust. But we didn't try to game plan for that at all. Q. Bill, I know you're focused primarily on the games, right, but how much thought if any have you given to sort of what this weekend could do for you guys staying closer to home next weekend, the weekend after that? BILL SELF: You know, Sam, in years past I've given it a lot of thought. If we can do this or win two over here or one over here that solidifies something. I have no idea where we are right now. I obviously think and maybe people will disagree with me, but a great showing this weekend, I think we could at worst be a three with a great showing this weekend, with an average showing this weekend. I don't know, 4 or 5. I have no idea. But I do think that, you know, the ultimate goal of being in Kansas City, if you could win two games, I think that's a little bit of a reach to be candid. I don't think it's a reach that we could still play in Des Moines or Tulsa. But I think things will have to happen positively for us to do that because right now I would say the chances are we would probably be out of our area, but I don't know. The way I understood it, or understand it is if you're a top 4 seed they try to keep you in the area. So we've got a chance to be that if we play well the rest of the weekend. So I think that could happen, but I think Kansas City would probably be a long shot. Q. Coach, another strong game for David McCormack, 13 points, 9 rebounds. Have you placed emphasis on getting him touches, getting him in the rhythm, getting him going early to keep his confidence up, or is that something that just happened in the flow of the game tonight? BILL SELF: If you followed us at all for the last 20 years, we love throwing the ball inside early in the game. That's how we've always played. He's the beneficiary of that usually. But we did want to give their bigs something to guard. That was something we wanted to do. David has scored the ball better of late and he's getting more and more confident and obviously playing at a much higher level now that he's had more opportunities in the last month, month and a half. Q. Bill, are you surprised Shaka has had more struggles getting wins, momentum? Is there any way you could make a case for Texas getting in the NCAA Tournament? BILL SELF: Well, I can make a case for Texas because I really think Texas is one of the more talented teams in our league, without question. I think that they played a really good schedule and they've got some wins that I could be wrong, but was Purdue and North Carolina? So they have two of the best nonconference wins that anybody's had all year long as a nonconference situation and going 8-10 in the league certainly in a year where you could have as many as eight get in, I think for sure, seven. But I think that's very respectable without question. So Shaka hasn't had some great luck in some games. They've had some, I'm thinking of the Baylor game. That was a game down there that they played great in and it just kinda got away late and every team has a game or two like that. But it seems like to me that's kinda bit them a little bit. But from the a talent standpoint nobody is going to see Texas when they're in the tournament. I think they're positively a tournament team. The thing you are probably looking at from a one-loss standpoint how many teams historically have gotten in. But you have to look at now teams who are considered bubble teams whose conference record was 7-11, 6-12. So if you look at it that way I think there is a strong case to be made for Texas being in the tournament. Q. Dotson and Grimes only had one turnover. They scored a lot of points. What do you think of your freshmen in their first tournament game? BILL SELF: Quentin didn't have a great start early. He had maybe one point at halftime and maybe one or two from the line. But second half he got his free throws and made a big 3 and he got a run out. I thought he played well. I thought Devon was solid the whole game. He played a lot of minutes. He accepted the challenge to guard Matt, and I think it wore him down. So he needs to get some rest, but I thought they both did well. I've got to get Ochai playing like he was playing before, but certainly those two did well. I thought Marcus gave us a nice lift off the bench as well. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. Congratulations. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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