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MAUI INVITATIONALNovember 21, 2011Elijah JohnsonTravis RelefordBill SelfTyshawn TaylorLAHAINA, HAWAII Kansas – 63 THE MODERATOR: From Kansas we have Coach Self, Tyshawn Taylor, Elijah Johnson and Travis Releford. Coach, an opening statement? COACH SELF: I'm really proud of our guys. I thought we played hard for the most part and fairly smart. I thought we played a really good young team. They gave us everything we wanted, and our guys did a good job down the stretch. Q. Tyshawn, could you talk about the victory and how much pain you were in and what happened? TYSHAWN TAYLOR: Well, speaking of the victory, I think it was like Coach said, I think we battled. Georgetown came out and played really good, made some big shots, but we just kept our composure and battling. I think we played pretty good. I just cramped up. Both my legs and my calves and my quads cramped. It wasn't a good feeling at all. I had to go back and get IVs and stuff. But I'm all good now. (Inaudible). Q. Was that the biggest thing you took away there was that Elijah and Travis, the way they played down the stretch there in the last couple of minutes of this game? COACH SELF: Well, Elijah may have made the biggest basket of the game. When he went flat and took his man and got a lay‑up there, late clock. That was an excellent play. Travis, I thought made about three great plays for us to really ice the win. If I'm not mistaken, didn't you get your hand on the ball that we stole there late and even if he didn't, he said he did. Then he got the ‑‑ dove on the floor and got the jump ball and made two free throws. He did a lot of good things late. He needed that. We needed that as a team, and he needed that individually too. I thought overall it was a pretty good team effort. Q. Coach, Coach Thompson said he felt like Thomas Robinson had 14 dunks tonight. Can you just talk about his play? Tyshawn, can you follow that up with the way you were able to get alley‑oops to him all night? COACH SELF: I think that I thought Thomas played really well. I thought he played to who he was, rather than sometimes on the perimeter or whatever. He knew where his bread was buttered tonight. He got the ball inside, and we were actually patient enough to get it to him. He had a lot of easy finishes by getting some angles. I thought he played really well. I thought he competed hard. TYSHAWN TAYLOR: Just like Coach said, I think he competed really hard. He got to his man a lot. Elijah got him a couple yards and the bigs opened up and scored over top. We practice that a lot. That's part of our offense. That's a big part of our offense. (Inaudible). Q. Travis, after grabbing that loose ball, you just hit two big free throws. Can you talk about what was going on in your head after grabbing that? TRAVIS RELEFORD: Well, I knew we had timeouts, so I just figured if I called it, we'd have time to set‑up and get the ball in. Q. Travis, how did you know there was one timeout? Did you look at the scoreboard? Did coach say in the huddle? TRAVIS RELEFORD: Coach had said in the huddle. He let us know. If it's on the ground, call the timeout and get the ball. Q. Travis, how big of a confidence booster is the way you finished the game just given that you struggled a little bit in the first couple games of the year? TRAVIS RELEFORD: It helped out a lot. I knocked down mid‑range jumpers, and I got my (Inaudible). But most of the game I got the opponent's best scorers, so I needed to get after it on the defensive end and the offense will come. Q. Tyshawn, what is the psychological impact for you guys on the floor when you're able to throw it up to Thomas and you can get a dunk? Do you feel like those are plays that shift the momentum in the game? TYSHAWN TAYLOR: Definitely momentum changes. When you get easy buckets like that and once he's gone, I think he's our emotional leader. He's a really emotional player, so I think when he gets going like that, I think it fires us up and fires our team up. It's definitely the momentum was up. Like I said, those are things that we look for in our offense, so we look for it. Q. Elijah, talk about the fans that KU had that many people here 2000‑something miles away, actually, 4‑thousand from KU. ELIJAH JOHNSON: It doesn't surprise me. Our fans are great. They travel everywhere we go. They're willing to support us in whatever situation it is, so it doesn't surprise me too much. But it felt good to hear people chanting out and to have some support behind the bench and to be able to see a lot of blue in the crowd like that. It always feels good. It makes you more comfortable on the floor. Q. You talked about wanting to see the offense come together a little bit and flow a little bit. How did you feel like that went tonight, an improvement? COACH SELF: Yeah, it went great. We got the ball where we needed to go. We had some of our better shooters not make shots. Elijah really didn't shoot the ball well, and Conner didn't shoot the ball well. Those guys have got to make shots. For any offense to look good, you have to knock down some shots, but Tyshawn knocked them down for us. But we were patient and got the ball inside and gave Thomas a chance to work. I think that's the one reason he got so many easy lay‑ups. He also played a makeshift lineup for a big part of the game. I don't think you ever look this good when you're playing different than you practice most of the time. Q. Tyshawn, you play UCLA tomorrow. That's two years in a row you've played them. Last year was an incredible game. What are your feelings going into that game, and Coach Self too? TYSHAWN TAYLOR: I'm excited about this game. I think it's going to be a fun game. I always like when UCLA plays the last game (Inaudible) so I'm just excited. It's good competition out there. I think we're going to come out here and try to play how we played today. Come out and compete. COACH SELF: I'm excited. Kansas‑UCLA has a pretty nice ring to it. We played them, I guess, three of the last four years; is that right? Or three of the last five years, maybe four of the last five years or something we've played them. But Ben's teams are always good and sound, and they'll continue to get better. I think for the first time this year they'll have all of their pieces for the whole game. So we'll look forward to it, but we know it will be tough, especially on the short turn around. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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