Postgame Quotes

Nov. 18, 2008

Recap | Box Score | Notes |

Postgame Quotes

Kansas 85, FGCU 45

Nov. 18, 2008

Kansas Head Coach Bill Self

On raising the 2008 championship banner:

“I don’t know how the guys felt, but I got close to tearing up before the game. That was pretty cool. I thought the game day production did a fabulous job. It was pretty moving. I thought that it was pretty cool looking at all the people with their cell phones out taking pictures.”

On what he thought the players that weren’t here last year felt before the game:

“I think that you have to (be excited) if you have a pulse. I hope that it happens every year, but odds are that it is not going to. Tonight was a special night. We are reminded of last year all of the time, maybe now that was the finality of it. So hopefully we can now focus on this year.”

Oh his message to the team at halftime:

“My main message was that offensively the ball was sticking. Last year if we made 16 field goals in a half we never had only seven assists. Sherron (Collins) played great, but he got all of his shots on his own. He didn’t get his shots with his teammates helping him. Our guys don’t quite understand yet where the shots are going to come from and how to score out of our offense. They are young and new, but we have to do some things to help Sherron because against quality competition you can’t just showcase him.”

On Marcus Morris’ rebounding:

“He did some good things, we challenged him to rebound the ball. We haven’t really gotten any of our freshmen on the same page yet. They are close to becoming good players and playing well, but we get in our own way too much. I thought that Marcus was good, but our freshmen shot selection wasn’t great tonight. I think that we can do a better job defensively and I think that we can rebound the ball collectively a little better. We are learning, growing, and getting better and we just need to keep on going after it, but the season officially begins on Monday.”

On the Washington game:

“They are fast, they are real fast, they are fast like we were last year. We have got some time to practice for them. We are getting a little bit better each and every day. Hopefully by the beginning of next week we will look like a little bit better ball club. Although tonight during the first half I thought that we played pretty well.”

Junior Guard Sherron Collins

On playing healthy this year:

“I feel 100 percent. I practice fine and I’m happy to be here. It’s a big relief, and I’m kind of speechless about it right now. Knock on wood and maybe I’ll stay this healthy.”

On being efficient with his shots:

“Coach says I should take 18-to-20 shots a game. I don’t really count my shots or pay attention to them. I’m just hot right now and they are all falling. I got two easy early buckets and that kind of got me going.”

On the difference between game one and game two with the newcomers:

“They are trying to understand and get it. They just need to take it day-by-day and try to keep moving forward. They are out there trying, just sometimes they don’t get it fully yet.”

On playing with confidence:

“I’m confident right now because coach has given me the freedom to go out there and get my own shot and do what I want. From time-to-time, I try to get my teammates involved because I know I’ll eventually get going.”

On his new step-back jumper:

“Coach (Joe) Dooley did a great job with me this summer to try and get me to do different moves so that I could score different ways. There were a lot of different things that I worked on all summer.”

Sophomore

Cole Aldrich Center

On his performance:

“It’s a good lift when I came back in, but I shouldn’t get those two quick fouls because I’ve got to play a little smarter. It’s the second game that it’s happened. Coach has really emphasized not picking up those two quick fouls, just staying in the game, and to keep adding energy throughout the game.

On his first two fouls:

“They were tough fouls. On one, I was just a second late on a trap. The other one was just kind of unfortunate. I tried to crash the board hard, and I gave a little elbow to him, and got called for it. I’ve got to be a little smarter and not pick up those fouls.”

Freshman Travis Releford

On attacking the basket:

“Coach wanted me to be more aggressive, coming off the pick and looking to score.”

On his dunk that drew a foul:

“Well, it was a good pass by Tyshawn. I got out and ran the floor. He made a good pass, and I finished.

On feeling more comfortable:

“It’s doing the little things: rebounding on the offensive and defensive end, making stops, making sure that my team is getting in it defensively. I’m feeling less nervous. As the season goes on, that’s how it’s going to be.

On Sherron Collins’ performance:

“Sherron is the best player on the team. Coach has been telling us about getting him shots, getting him open looks and just playing together as a team.”

On raising the 2008 championship banner:

“I don’t know how the guys felt, but I got close to tearing up before the game. That was pretty cool. I thought the game day production did a fabulous job. It was pretty moving. I thought that it was pretty cool looking at all the people with their cell phones out taking pictures.”

On what he thought the players that weren’t here last year felt before the game:

“I think that you have to (be excited) if you have a pulse. I hope that it happens every year, but odds are that it is not going to. Tonight was a special night. We are reminded of last year all of the time, maybe now that was the finality of it. So hopefully we can now focus on this year.”

Oh his message to the team at halftime:

“My main message was that offensively the ball was sticking. Last year if we made 16 field goals in a half we never had only seven assists. Sherron (Collins) played great, but he got all of his shots on his own. He didn’t get his shots with his teammates helping him. Our guys don’t quite understand yet where the shots are going to come from and how to score out of our offense. They are young and new, but we have to do some things to help Sherron because against quality competition you can’t just showcase him.”

On Marcus Morris’ rebounding:

“He did some good things, we challenged him to rebound the ball. We haven’t really gotten any of our freshmen on the same page yet. They are close to becoming good players and playing well, but we get in our own way too much. I thought that Marcus was good, but our freshmen shot selection wasn’t great tonight. I think that we can do a better job defensively and I think that we can rebound the ball collectively a little better. We are learning, growing, and getting better and we just need to keep on going after it, but the season officially begins on Monday.”

On the Washington game:

“They are fast, they are real fast, they are fast like we were last year. We have got some time to practice for them. We are getting a little bit better each and every day. Hopefully by the beginning of next week we will look like a little bit better ball club. Although tonight during the first half I thought that we played pretty well.”

On raising the 2008 championship banner:

“I don’t know how the guys felt, but I got close to tearing up before the game. That was pretty cool. I thought the game day production did a fabulous job. It was pretty moving. I thought that it was pretty cool looking at all the people with their cell phones out taking pictures.”

On what he thought the players that weren’t here last year felt before the game:

“I think that you have to (be excited) if you have a pulse. I hope that it happens every year, but odds are that it is not going to. Tonight was a special night. We are reminded of last year all of the time, maybe now that was the finality of it. So hopefully we can now focus on this year.”

Oh his message to the team at halftime:

“My main message was that offensively the ball was sticking. Last year if we made 16 field goals in a half we never had only seven assists. Sherron (Collins) played great, but he got all of his shots on his own. He didn’t get his shots with his teammates helping him. Our guys don’t quite understand yet where the shots are going to come from and how to score out of our offense. They are young and new, but we have to do some things to help Sherron because against quality competition you can’t just showcase him.”

On Marcus Morris’ rebounding:

“He did some good things, we challenged him to rebound the ball. We haven’t really gotten any of our freshmen on the same page yet. They are close to becoming good players and playing well, but we get in our own way too much. I thought that Marcus was good, but our freshmen shot selection wasn’t great tonight. I think that we can do a better job defensively and I think that we can rebound the ball collectively a little better. We are learning, growing, and getting better and we just need to keep on going after it, but the season officially begins on Monday.”

On the Washington game:

“They are fast, they are real fast, they are fast like we were last year. We have got some time to practice for them. We are getting a little bit better each and every day. Hopefully by the beginning of next week we will look like a little bit better ball club. Although tonight during the first half I thought that we played pretty well.”

Florida Gulf Coast head coach Dave Balza

On the team’s low shooting percentage tonight:

“I’ve got a lot to talk about there. There weren’t a lot of shots going in. Our biggest issue is our young team. We have two guys that have never played for us before in a game and only four guys have played in Division I. I thought we were really out of sync and I give credit to Kansas. They pressured us well and took us out of every entry in their offense. We didn’t get much flow to our offense in the first half. (Kyle) Marks and (Christian) Wolf were sidelined with foul trouble a good portion of the game too, so we didn’t get post touches for them. It kind of put everything into our guards’ hands, and our three best shooters came out and went three for 12. Again, I give Kansas a lot of credit for some rushed shots as opposed to open looks.”

On using last year’s upset as motivation:

“We talked about that a little bit. One of the things we used from that is the Belmont coach always trying to break the game into small segments when they play high-major teams. They break the game into four-minute segments, from one media time out to the next. We used that a lot. We talked about trying to win segments, but in the end I think we tied one and won one of the 10 segments. That’s not going to do it. We still have to win half of the segments. There are going to be some times when Kansas is going to make a little run and that’s fine, but then we need to come back and win the next segment. We even broke it down possession by possession, and talked about not looking at the big picture, but looking at each possession one at a time and winning each possession. If we do that enough times we’ll have a chance. Our defense was solid, but our offense was suspect.”

On using the Rock Chalk chant in practice:

“We talked about not wanting to hear that too early, but we heard it a little earlier than we wanted to. I was just trying to get used to the noise. I just wanted to be able to communicate on the floor with four guys that have never played Division I basketball. I thought we had a few issues with that. I actually didn’t think that was as big an issue as the fact that we couldn’t move the basketball well.”

Guard Reed Baker

His thoughts on the game:

“The ball just wasn’t going in the hole for us tonight. Kansas had great pressure defense, which we haven’t really seen in practice. It was the first college game for a lot of our guys and our other key guys hadn’t played in a while. It was tough getting the ball to fall tonight, and you have to credit Kansas’ defense for that.

On the atmosphere at Allen Fieldhouse:

“For some of our guys it might have been overwhelming, but I don’t know if we were intimidated. We aren’t really intimidated by anyone. It might have been a little overwhelming in the first half, but it was a great experience.”

On Head Coach Dave Balza playing the Rock Chalk Chant at his team’s practices:

“He did that to simulate the noise we would hear when we played. A lot of guys on our team haven’t played in front of 1,000 people, let alone 16,300. He did that to let us know what we would be up against and what we would experience. For one practice he played it the whole time and we had to talk over the noise in order to prepare for this game and for the rest of the season.”