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

March 19, 2025

KJ Adams

Dajuan Harris, Jr.

Amica Mutual Pavilion

Kansas Jayhawks

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'll open up the floor to questions.

Q. What's the vibe with the team right now? You come in, get this seed here. You got Calipari on the other side. There's got to be a lot of excitement playing a game like Arkansas and Calipari.

DAJUAN HARRIS JR.: The vibes are high, everyone is 0-0, so it's a new season and it's March Madness, two coaches going at it. We're really excited to play.

KJ ADAMS: I think mostly exciting. Everybody is 0-0. Whatever happens happens, and everybody is just ready to play hard and start that new season.

Q. What do you remember about Zuby Ejiofor and how much better has he gotten?

KJ ADAMS: He does a lot of things to help St. John's win. Not really surprised. He's having a really good season so far, so I'm excited to see him grow.

Q. And Dajuan, too, what do you remember about Zuby?

DAJUAN HARRIS JR.: We recruited him. He's done great things at St. John's. I'm really, really happy for him. Hopefully we meet up with him in the next round. We just have to worry about our match-up and take care of business and then we can talk about the Zuby thing, so, yeah.

THE MODERATOR: Anything else out there?

Q. For both you guys, you have had a lot of last home game, last season opener, last road game, last big 12 tournament, is that stuff starting to hit you? No matter what happens the next couple of weeks, this is the end of the road for you guys.

KJ ADAMS: Yeah, we have had a lot of laughs the last couple of weeks and I don't think that's the mindset we're thinking of now. We're just trying to advance as much as we can. I hope this is not our last week and I don't plan for it to be, so we're just thinking about next game, next game and trying not to make it our last.

DAJUAN HARRIS JR.: Yeah, I have been here at KU for six years. It hit me, but I want to take it one game at a time, play my best ball and try to win games, get out that first weekend that's the most important thing. If I can do that, we have a good shot of going far in the tournament, just got to take care of business this weekend.

Q. Obviously in Fayetteville, you weren't whole, some key pieces were out, but what stood out that day that will help you five months later?

KJ ADAMS: They're just really athletic. They got into us the first matchup but it didn't matter, me and Dajuan played and they out-physicaled and out-toughed us and I think we'll be ready tomorrow.

DAJUAN HARRIS JR.: Yeah, what KJ said. They hit us in the mouth. They were ready and we weren't ready. We should be ready tomorrow. We have a great game plan. We have our big back. We run our offense through him, so really I'm just excited to play them again. We lost to them two years ago, and this is basically like a revenge game for me and KJ. We want this game back. It's going to be really exciting to play, so...

THE MODERATOR: Anything else? All right, thanks for your time. Good luck tomorrow.