NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - HOWARD VS KANSAS

March 15, 2023

Norm Roberts

Dajuan Harris, Jr.

Jalen Wilson

Wells Fargo Arena

Kansas Jayhawks

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by the Kansas Jayhawks, Dajuan Harris and Jalen Wilson. Questions for our student-athletes.

Q. Jalen, Coach Blakeney of Howard said he worked with you at the combine and loved your name. Do you remember working with him? What do you remember about that?

JALEN WILSON: Yeah, for sure. That was the one good thing about the combine I was able to work with a lot of different people and coaches and, you know, well-respected men and I appreciate everything that we was able to encounter at the combine. It was great.

Q. How anxious are you to play a team outside the Big XII? I know you've been in the grind of the Big XII forever. Just playing somebody else.

DAJUAN HARRIS, JR.: The Big XII was the hardest conference in the country this year, or the best conference in the country. So I'm happy to play someone different, see someone knew. We just gotta be ready to play.

Q. Jalen, I know you guys have talked about the pressure to repeat, but I'm wondering if you guys appreciate how difficult it is, I don't know about to repeat, but to lose 70% of your production from last year and to do what you guys have done and be in that position again?

JALEN WILSON: It's a blessing to be back here as a Number 1 seed. I don't think anyone really is looking at it as us repeating. I think it's us going to win it again. As far as this is something for us. To do that is going to take us winning two games at a time, each weekend, and understand every game is going to be a battle, no matter who we're playing. Just appreciate the moment that we're in. Doesn't come too often that you're a Number 1 seed so it's great to have this opportunity in front of us and to go do it.

Q. How does the experience that you guys went through last year, how does that raise the bar for your expectations and you knowing what it feels like to cut down the nets?

DAJUAN HARRIS, JR.: Last year it was an older team, and we had a lot of vets. So it was easier. So we was more put together but this year, J-Wil, one of the best players in the country, he's leading us and it's going to be his last year here so we want to try to do our best for him.

Q. Jalen, I wanted to ask you about Coach Self. How is he looking here since he's come back to rejoin the team after his procedure?

JALEN WILSON: He's looking great, feeling great. We were able to talk to him today at practice and, you know, he's excited. We're all excited. It's great to have him back on the court with us. For him to be able to coach us and start off tomorrow with a bang.

Q. Guys, one, their point guard, Elijah Hawkins, 47% shooter from the three, All-Conference player. Talk about the challenge of taking him on?

DAJUAN HARRIS, JR.: He does a lot for his team, he gets in the lane, he shoots it. I think their whole team shoots threes. They got three or four guys that shot over 100 threes. So we've got to guard the three-point line and come out and be ready to play with a lot of energy.

Q. After winning the title last year, do you guys feel more or less pressure coming into the tournament this year? How do you think that run last year helps you coming into this year?

JALEN WILSON: I don't feel any pressure at all. That's the beauty of this tournament is it's a lot of one-game tournaments. This is win or go home. I embrace having fun. This is the best time of year for basketball. Even when I was a kid watching, this is the best time of year. To experience everything, see all the basketball, because I'm not only getting to play but able it to watch a lot of good basketball. I don't feel any pressure at all. I think we're here to do what we know how to do, play our basketball and have fun.

DAJUAN HARRIS, JR.: Basically what J-Wil said, come and play our best basketball, stay together, stay locked in, having Coach's back, and you gotta win, keep winning and hopefully make another great run.

Q. With Coach Self still not quite ready to do media here and certainly from our vantage point the uncertainty, what's it been like for you guys the last couple of weeks? I know how important he is to you, how important he is to the program. What's it been like for you with the uncertainty of Coach's role as we head into the tournament?

JALEN WILSON: We know Coach's role. He will be coaching. He's doing everything he's been doing. He was down for a while for the Big XII, but he's back, he's energized and excited and ready to get this going again. We're super excited to have him back, so we know we will have him.

Q. Guys, two weeks ago we were on a seven-game run of wins. Couple losses to Texas and now a lot of people are picking us to get upset early in the tournament. Does that provide an extra edge that there are some doubters out there?

JALEN WILSON: Nah, doubters are always a part of this tournament. I remember last year going to the Final Four they gave us the last percentage of winning and we won it all, so all those people who make percentages are not on the court with us. We can control what we control and how together we are, and we could care less about what someone thinks we are going to do. Upsets happen every single year so I am auto not saying it can't happen, but we're confident and we don't look to percentages and where people have us.

DAJUAN HARRIS, JR.: We don't really think about doubters. We see a lot of stuff but we play our game and stay true to where we are. You know, Kansas, we get a lot of hate sometimes so people are going to try to be on the down side of us but we gotta stay together and stay true to who we are.

Q. Jalen, knowing this is your last run in the tournament, are you taking it all in?

JALEN WILSON: For sure, for sure, I've been having fun with it all year. To be at this point, number 1 seed in a great position and the best time to play basketball is exciting and I just want to embrace it all game by game and soak it all in. It's going to be fun.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, guys. Best of luck. We are joined by Coach Norm Roberts.

NORM ROBERTS: We love coming to Des Moines. We know all the good places to eat. We love coming here.

Q. Coach, as a guy who has been around and doing this as long as you have, maybe some perspective on how difficult it is to defend a national title?

NORM ROBERTS: It is difficult, but you know the tough thing is that when you're at Kansas -- I shouldn't say the tough thing, the good thing is when you are at Kansas you are always getting everybody's best shot every time you play. So it's just added on to us being National Champions and those type of things. We haven't talked about that a ton. What we have talked about is staying in the moment and playing for now. This is a different team. What we accomplished last year was fantastic. We enjoy it. We're honored by it but we understand it's a whole new situation.

Q. You lose 70% of your production from a national title team and yet here you are Number 1 seed. How has this group been able to pick up where you left off and make it look seamless?

NORM ROBERTS: It's not seamless but I would say our motto at our place is faces change, expectations don't. Our guys understand that. The one thing we have is a great coach. He utilizes his team in the best way. He figures out a way that's going to be best for that particular group. We played a certain way last year that was very good for that team. This year we had to tweak things and play a little differently, and Coach Self is never afraid to do anything like that and our guys have really responded.

Q. Talk about finally getting out of the conference and playing someone else and a rundown of Coach Blakeney's team. Obviously they like to get out and run and shoot threes and do they remind you of any other conference team?

NORM ROBERTS: I don't know if they remind you of any other conference team but they're very, very long. They've got a lot of size on the perimeter. 6'9", Settle. So they are big and we've had to deal with that all season. They have an unbelievable point guard in Hawkins, he shoots 47% from the three. But he's an unbelievable quarterback, very similar to Juan. He gets the ball to the guys in the right position. Dockery is a tremendous shooter for them, Settle, made Second Team All-Conference, Elijah First Team -- you're playing against a champion. You're playing against a team that knows how to win, is older, battle-tested, and we know they're going to give us their best shot. Coach Blakeney has done a great job with that program and they're playing really well right now.

Q. Coach, what's the condition of Coach Self and do you expect he will coach tomorrow and how is he today?

NORM ROBERTS: He's doing well today. He was at practice today, he was at practice last night and all of our meetings. He's doing well, he's getting better all the time. We're hopeful and everything is day-to-day with him, but if you ask our guys he got after them pretty good today so he was doing really well.

Q. What about Gradey Dick and Kevin McCullar's physical condition updates?

NORM ROBERTS: Both guys practiced full speed today and had great bounce to them. So they are both doing well.

Q. How well do you think the Big XII has prepared you for making a big run in the tournament this year?

NORM ROBERTS: In the Big XII, you will play against all styles: You play against man, you play against physicality, you play against speed, you play against size. So you are going to get the gamut of everything so hopefully that has prepared us for the tournament. It's one of those things in our league it was a battle every single night, no matter where you were, home or away and hopefully that will help us in the tournament.

Q. Is Coach Self's absence from the media because he is recuperating and tired?

NORM ROBERTS: He's getting his rest and that stuff. Maybe he thinks I talk too much so he's letting me talk more. But he's back getting rest right now. He's doing good though.

Q. Joseph Yesufu played at Drake, and I don't want you to speak for Coach Self, but when he entered the portal what did you see in him to make him want to come to Kansas?

NORM ROBERTS: We saw explosiveness, scoring ability, that dunk he had was the big show of the NCAA Tournament that year. Joe has done good for us. He has been good for us, he supplies a spark off the bench both offensively and defensively.

Q. Last year you guys went into the NCAA Tournament on the high of having won the Big XII tournament, used that momentum to win a national championship. This year you come in having lost the Big XII championship game. How can you use that in a positive way to go into the tournament having learned lessons from loss in that way?

NORM ROBERTS: You can do a lot by learning from sometimes failure or a lack of success. We realized there were some things we did in those games, that game particularly that we needed to get better at. We needed to defend -- we had played well defensively the fist two games, and the last game we did not come out with that mindset.

If you don't come out with that mindset against a good team and a talented team as Texas is, you're going to put yourself behind the eight ball, and we did.

As the game went on, I thought we got a little fatigued and then we made some ill-advised mistakes at the end of the shot clock, and they took advantage of it. Give them credit with what they did, but we have watched film and looked at that and said, hey, this is where we gotta get better.

Q. You mentioned Kevin's feeling better going into this week? How important is it on the defensive end to get him back as soon as possible?

NORM ROBERTS: It's huge. You're talking about one of the best defensive players in the county in Kevin McCullar. He can guard a point guard or a center. The other thing Kevin does for us is he does so many little things, offensive rebounding and defensive rebounding and he's a great cutter, on that offense. We knew he would be out because you've got to go for the long haul but he was back today and doing really well.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.