Self Discusses Temple at Weekly Press Conference
Dec. 18, 2008
LAWRENCE, Kan. —Kansas men’s basketball head coach Bill Self met with the media Wednesday afternoon in Hadl Auditorium to discuss his team’s performance against UMass and to preview Saturday’s game against Temple at Allen Fieldhouse.
Men’s Basketball Press Conference
Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2008
Head Coach Bill Self Quotes
On Mario Little:
“He’s frustrated just like anybody would be who wants to play. He just can’t quite get out there. Really the concern is not his hand. We know the hand is going to heal. The concern is whether or not he can be pain-free playing on his leg.”
On sending a message to his team after poor performances:
“You shouldn’t have to crack the whip to be a good practice team, especially coming off some pretty stale performances in practice last week and in the UMass game. I think if you’re a good practice team and really want to get better, then the coach doesn’t have to send a message verbally on those particular days. We have to become a more consistent practice team, there’s no doubt about that. You can say coach-speak, but over time, you play like you practice. You may every now and then play a great game when you practice poorly, but if you’re a consistent practice team you’re probably going to play to the level of your practice.”
On Sherron Collins’ shot selection:
“I don’t think his shot selection was very good that day (against UMass). But he’s going to take some marginal shots. It hasn’t been like in years past where the go-to guy is the open man. He’s the go-to guy. He and Cole (Aldrich) need to get the most touches. So he’s going to take some marginal shots, but I thought that he took five or six that were pretty ill-advised based on time, score and momentum. And we talked about that, and he’ll get better with that.”
On Temple:
“I think they’re good. Fran (Dunphy)’s a great coach, he always has been. He won big at Penn. (Dionte) Christmas is a terrific player, and he’s not their only piece. They were very, very impressive against Tennessee. They play two bigs, they can play small but they traditionally like to play two big guys and play a lot of high-low and do a lot of things to get Christmas shots. They’re a nice team. Very nice.”
On if it will take a road game to really determine how good his team is:
“I think we will know a lot more about ourselves as a team a week from today because we’ll have played a very good Temple team and then we’re going to play (obviously) a very good Arizona team at Tucson. So we’ll know a lot more about ourselves in the next week.”
On last year’s game against Arizona:
“It was a day after the Missouri football game, and the students were definitely hung-over that game. I don’t mean hung-over literally, but there was a carry-over from the disappointment of not winning that game. It was just kind of a ‘blah’ game, we played poorly, they hung around and basically controlled the game most of the way, and then it got really good late. We played really well down the stretch and Brandon (Rush) almost made a three-quarter court shot to win it in regulation. I think what I remember most is that the doctors told me he could play 18 minutes, maybe 20 minutes that game and we played him 37. So I really remember Brandon more than anything else about that game.”
On what he sees in the team’s future:
“The thing I love about coaching is that, no matter what the situation is, when you go into a game, you kind of know what to expect from the team. I’m not quite to that point with this team. I still think we’re kind of emotionally up-and-down. I think it will be fun for me to learn about them and see how they’re going to react on the road.”
