Postgame Notes
Nov. 2, 2006
Recap | Final Stats | Notes |
Postgame Quotes
Kansas 99, Washburn 69
November 2, 2006
Kansas Head Coach Bill Self
On the game:
“I thought we did some good things. I thought we changed ends very well. We ran downhill from defense to offense and unfortunately we ran uphill from offense back to defense. They’re not supposed to build the courts that way, but that’s what we do. But our transition defense isn’t very good, lowpost defense is bad, and rebounding is bad. We said all along our biggest concern is rebounding, low post defense and getting where we guard better. There’s a lot of things that we can tighten up that we hadn’t talked about, like guarding out of bounds plays and like guarding the end of the shot clock better. We made shots early. Fools gold in large respect because now you get content with that so we go stale. When we went stale, we should have been attacking the basket. But those are good learning lessons. It was a good thing to see our young players come out and play well. That’s a pretty young team out there even when you have Darnell and Russell and other than that, that’s primarily freshmen and sophomores.”
On Darrell Arthur and Sherron Collins:
“I thought they both did some good things. Neither are very good at playing defense yet. Offensively, they’re pretty good. Shady (Arthur) is still scared to play a little bit with his hands, I mean going after balls. So, he’s a better rebounder and a shot blocker than what he showed tonight. He’s a little nervous about his hands since he still has the stitches in one. But good gosh, he scores 21 points in 22 minutes. He’s a natural in a lot of ways. [He had] Too many jump shots, and [he] needs to be stronger going to the rim. But, I was impressed with him. Sherron [was] average in the first half and in the second half. I told him he needs to be more aggressive and he is, he can get his shot off. He did some good things. Russell was solid. Mario, I thought played very well, especially in spurts. I thought Brandon played very well but he just didn’t make his shots. And Darnell Jackson, let’s not forget about DJ, and for him to come in there and get a double-double, I was really pleased with him also.”
On 23 assists:
“Yeah, that’s pretty good. The assists we didn’t get were off dribble-drive things and a lot of those were in transition. I thought we did a good job on getting to the paint. I hope this team stays unselfish. And Bob [Chipman], he played a lot of people too and this is a great opportunity for him and his kids to come in here. And I thought they played us pretty well for 28-38 minutes or whatever. They’re an unorthodox team, they’re small, they’re hard to guard. For the most part, I wasn’t displeased at all. We’ve got a lot of improvements to make before next Saturday.”
Junior Forward Darnell Jackson
On the game:
“I was fired up that it was the first game of the season and everyone got the chance to go out there and show what they can do. Washburn played well. I started cramping in my legs late in the game.”
On the pace of play:
“The goal for us is to play run and gun, but sometimes we let our conditioning get in the way of that. Everyday in practice we try to get it and go. If we don’t have any numbers we need to slow it down and kick it back out. We need to just keep it up because when Sasha gets back he will give us some height and length. Sasha takes up a lot of room in the post.”
Sophomore Forward Julian Wright
On the game:
“We know we have a lot of work to do, but both the coaches and the players are pleased with the effort tonight. It will be good to look back on film and see how we can improve on some things and tighten up some things. It was just great to get back out there and play in front of 16,300 fans. We have a lot of respect for Washburn and Coach Chipman.”
On Coach Self:
“Coach Self is not worried so much about the points we score and he appreciates the effort we make out there. Sometimes freshmen don’t always know what they are doing out there, but if they are hustling and making the hustle plays they can’t help but to get better.”
Freshman Forward Darrell Arthur
On the game:
“I was tired for most of the game. We need to work on things and conditioning is one of them. I was afraid when guarding smaller guys that they would get around me and get to the lane, but Coach was telling me to stay low and that is what I tried to do. I thought we played good team ball out there tonight. We passed the ball a lot and worked on our offense. We just went out there and tried to execute most of our plays. I try to get in the passing lanes so I can get breakaways and get out in the open floor to get dunks.”
On being nervous in his first game:
“I had butterflies through the entire game. I felt some pressure on what to do on some defense, but the rest of the guys helped me through it.”
On working on his jump hook:
“I have been working with Coach Manning on it and we probably spend out about 20 percent of practice working on it. I thought we shot more jump shots than we did go to the hole, but most of our jump shots were going in. Sometimes I bail out the defender by shooting jumpers and I need to continue to focus on going to the basket.”
Washburn Head Coach Bob Chipman
On the game:
“I thought after the initial shock that they put us on the board early, and got the 15-point lead, we battled them on the board pretty good. We were trying to get inside the frame and use weapons. I thought we did that decently. We were trying to work on our man-defense. Trying to guard guys (Kansas) like that, that’s not going to make you look real good. They are a fabulous group, and they are so fun to watch. If I wasn’t coaching Washburn I would buy season tickets. They all go get shots, they all can run, they all can shoot – they were just a fun group to watch.
On Kansas:
“They play hard, they run their offense, they give each other great shots and they are so athletic in every position. Surely somebody can backoff and put in a weak defensive player, but not them. I told the guys (Washburn) they are going to get all the scoring from the perimeter – Rush, Chalmers and Robinson, and the big guys aren’t going to score other than around the basket off the boards. I was wrong. Julian (Wright) has worked on his shot, Darnell (Jackson) is looking great in there. Then there’s the guy named Darrell Arthur. He is not the freshman of the year, he is the freshman of the century. He is a fabulous player and has athletic ability. They are so athletic that they do things that good teams do like run an offense, and play really hard on the defensive end. That’s a credit to Coach (Bill) Self. To get those guys (Kansas) that are so talented to do all the dirty work, it is a nice group.”
Washburn Sophomore Forward Paul Byers
On the experience at Kansas:
“It was one heck of an experience. Coming into this season, you can’t ask for more than that to get out in front of that big of a crowd and have that good of a time. It’s great competition.”
On guarding Brandon Rush:
“We had to come into it with the right mindset. He was All-American last year. (I had to) try to stay in front of him, don’t let him dunk too bad, try to keep him under 20 points and just play some solid defense.”
On what Washburn accomplished:
“I think we played tough. I definitely think we have a stronger team than last year. There’s not as many injuries. We have two guys playing hurt but we’re definitely a lot tougher. Things do feel a lot better as far as that goes.”
Washburn Senior Forward Frank Phifer
On returning from an injury:
“I’m rusty. I got the nerves out of my system already. Coming back from my injury, my main thing is to come out and return against some good competition to see what type of game I’d have, and how my leg would do playing with some big guys at KU. I’m not back to the way I was before my injury. I’m 85 percent. I feel like I could have done better if I was 100 percent.”
On playing KU:
“I just approached it as a practice. I just used these guys (Kansas) as practice guys like when we practice every day. I just got tired of playing against my same teammates every day and I just wanted to see how it was to play against different guys that don’t know the plays.”
On conference play:
“I see this as my grand opening to make the people in the conference think twice about me because I know they’re probably thinking I’m going to come back the way I was. By me playing today, I think I have everyone in the conference a little shaky now.”