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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 13, 2014Wayne Selden, Jr.Bill SelfAndrew WigginsKANSAS CITY, MISSOURI Kansas – 77 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Kansas Coach Bill Self and the student‑athletes are Wayne Selden, Jr. and Andrew Wiggins. Coach? COACH SELF: It was an unbelievable game. Two teams competing hard, and certainly I think the first day of the most competitive league in America hasn't disappointed so far. That took everything we had. We had to play out of foul trouble, and I think it took everything Iowa State had to win earlier today. So you'll have two tired teams that have to recover fast and get ready tomorrow. But these two guys, I thought Wayne was unbelievable in the first half and I thought Wigs was just terrific play after play the entire game. So large credit goes to these two why we won. Q. Andrew, how have you been able to block out all the buzz and the hype that you had to deal with and still find a way to mature and grow the way you have these last couple of months? ANDREW WIGGINS: Because I know that you never know too much, you know, I'm always open to new things. Coach teaches me new things every day. Just preparation and practice. Always play hard, run the floor, defend your man and he just made me a better player. Q. Andrew, did you talk to anybody about what March is like and Big 12 tournament and NCAA tournament and how much have you kind of been looking forward to this month all season? ANDREW WIGGINS: I talked to my brother about it a lot. From his experience last year, he just said you wouldn't believe how amazing it is if you are not there to witness. So I just want to be able to feel that feeling with my team, with my coach, and to give the fans a great year. Q. Andrew, talk to me about how you guys are adjusting without having Joel on the team competing now? ANDREW WIGGINS: We have to play hard defensively, try to keep my man in front of us, playing before we get the ball. Yep. (Laughter). Q. Wayne, can you talk about the possibilities, a tough game like this with a lot of basketball coming up in a short time how much this can take out of you and what you did to recover? WAYNE SELDEN, JR.: I'm just going to rest. We know we played hard today. We know we've got to compete again tomorrow. This is what comes with it. This is what we signed up for, we're going to get our rest and come back tomorrow strong. Q. Andrew, can you talk about the shot you made to tie it there in the last minute? You guys were down 2 and you needed a bucket. Talk about the sequence and how that play developed? ANDREW WIGGINS: My shot was falling the whole game, and they cut out the baseline, stepped back one of my main moves is what I like to do. It just fell through. Q. Could you just talk about Naadir's foul shooting the last 30seconds, what was kind of your reaction when the ball was in his hands and he had to go to the line? WAYNE SELDEN, JR.: That's what a leader does. We knew he was going to knock them down. We knew we wanted the ball in his hands when it's that time of the game because we know he's going to come through for us. He's been here and he wants to take those free throws. Q. So much has been made about not having your backstop back there, but how good was your defense the first half and particularly in the overtime? COACH SELF: I thought our defense was good the first half. I thought it was excellent, to be honest with you, but it was good when we played them in Stillwater and good when we played them in Lawrence for a half. I think they got like 26, 30 and whatever it was today, 23, on us. It was good. The problem is we haven't defended them very well the second half all three games. They came out and obviously shot 52percent the second half. We didn't guard them as well, but the law of averages should be prevail. When you have good players, they're going to make shots and they've got four guys that can really score the ball, and all terrific. And I thought they actually made some hard shots. I thought they threw some hard shots. But considering we had to play small for a stretch and we hadn't practiced that much, for a team that has a lot of big guys to have them, seem like, all of them sitting over there next to me for a period of time, we kind of had to make‑shift it a little bit. But I thought our defense was good. I thought our defensive rebounding was excellent. Q. There's a lot of projections that Oklahoma State is going to be a nine seed perhaps or possibly an eight seed, if they get in that slot, how angry do you think a one seed would have to be to face that team that you just saw out there? COACH SELF: I'll say who knows what they'll be, but I'll tell you this: I've had teams in the past that was a three seed that was probably playing like a six or seven seed, and I've had teams that was a seven seed playing like a two or three seed. And I will tell you, Oklahoma State, whatever they're seeded, they're playing a lot better than that. So if you're a one seed in their bracket and both teams are fortunate to win, you're going to be playing a four seed in the second round or five seed. They're good. And Marcus deserves a lot of credit and he gets a lot, but they've got four guys that can flat out play, and that's not taking anything away from anybody else. The problem that they have, from my vantage point, they're not quite as deep as maybe some other teams. But if they can stay out of foul trouble, they can play with anybody. Q. Obviously, Andrews had two of his best games of the year these last two games, but what do you think the difference was in what the guys around him did today versus the regular season finale against West Virginia? COACH SELF: We guarded better today. I don't know that our point production was any better today because you've got two guys in double figures. I mean, that's not going to cut it over time. But we did defend better. And we're not a great ball handling team as you guys witnessed and seen if you've followed us all year long. We've got to make up for that rebounding the ball and things like that. Certainly we stole some possessions that we gave away through ball handling. But Perry's a good player. Perry can go get you 20 any night. He didn't do it tonight, but we probably need Perry to become our third scorer without question and really be a guy that other teams have to focus on rather than just those two tonight. Q. Tarik was in foul trouble again, but still 12 rebounds out of him. How important was he tonight in light of Joel obviously not being out there? COACH SELF: When you say Tarik was in foul trouble, he played 26 minutes. So that's pretty good for him because usually it doesn't take that much time to get in real foul trouble. So we needed him in there, and it certainly hurt when he and Perry both got four. We played six or seven minutes when they made their comeback took the lead when both those guys were on the bench. We definitely need them in there. I thought he was very good defensively. Q. You had Wiggins on Brown a good part of the game, looked like he did a fantastic job. Brown didn't get a lot of good looks. Could you talk about the job he did on Markel? COACH SELF: Andrew is not one dimensional. He's our best defender. I thought Markel still played well. He made a couple of really hard shots. That one 3 he made to give them the lead was a joke how good that was. He did a good job on them, and I also thought Wayne did a great job on Marcus. He's going to get in the paint. We fouled him too much the second half, but I thought we did a really good job of playing the scouting report and not stopping a good player but at least controlling him a little bit. Because, in Stillwater, down the stretch, he went nuts on us and we were able to kind of‑‑ we didn't allow that to happen again in large part due to Wayne. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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