No. 19 Kansas' Melvin Council, Jr. and Flory Bidunga met with the media to discuss their overtime win at NC State.
Yeah, Melvin, what was your initial reaction when you saw how far they were playing off of you on the three-point line, and how are you able to take advantage of it so consistently?
COUNCIL JR: My scout team does that to me in practice, and my guys and coaches are telling me this: Be confident in your shot and just take it. I talked to Mario Chalmers a couple of weeks ago, and he was telling me to be aggressive, shoot the ball. So that's what I just tried to do today.
And Flory, what was your reaction to Melvin's performance?
BIDUNGA: Man, we have a dog right here with us, he's incredible, he puts the team on his back, and then, it's, how many points did we score, 70 something, he got like 38, so that's a bad man right here, I'm really impressed.
Melvin, right here. I think you had the last 13 points for Kansas in regulation, especially with Darrion going out late. What was your mindset during the closing few minutes there?
COUNCIL JR.: We gotta have DP back, that's it, we gotta have DP back. This is the last conference away game. We have two more games left, so we're trying to just go in before Christmas break, 10-3, that's it.
For both of you, just wanted to ask you about the atmosphere here, playing a true road game in the Lenovo Center. What did you think of the atmosphere, and how much does this kind of prepare you guys for what you have to come in the future too?
BIDUNGA: I mean, it was great, I feel like they were ready for us, and it wasn't disappointing. The crowd went loud, but we still have to stick to our mission, don't really pay attention to the crowd, and just do our job.
Melvin, it was very close the entire time. What separated you guys in this game?
COUNCIL JR: Just the tight huddles that we talked about, we know that it was going to be a dogfight, the crowd was against us, the refs, so we just had to make sure we had a tight huddle and I was keep telling them we need to kill, that means get three stops on defense, take the lead and that's what we were doing, but, we was messing up a lot, but it's okay, we're gonna get better.
Flory, you've obviously seen Williams hit a bunch of big shots against you guys last year when he was at Tech, and also in this game, what was your, I guess, reaction as those last couple shots of his were going through the air?
BIDUNGA: I mean, he's a good player. I played him last year; he made some big shots, I think he went 9 for 9, 10 for 10, or something like that, so I was expecting it. The deal with us was just to make it as hard as possible for everybody on our team, and we tried to do that as much as possible.
And Melvin, obviously, you guys have had the opportunity to play without DP a fair bit, I guess. How much did that experience help you guys when he went out unexpectedly late in the second half?
COUNCIL JR.: We've been doing that since the minute now, so we just know what to do, just next guy up.
Melvin over here, I think you started 5 of 27 from 3 early coming into this game, and you talked about talking to Mario Chalmers to help, but how did you, beyond that, how did you sort of stay up, when the shots were just not going down and, not letting that get on your back in a game like this and come through like you did?
COUNCIL JR. My best friend, Jalen Pickett from Denver Nuggets, he was telling me, keep shooing, and for me, like, I be having confidence down when I see one of them go in, I stop shooing, but it's life, I'm a human being, you're gonna make some, you're gonna miss some, that's how I preach it now.
Yeah, Melvin, I guess you said you get confidence after you see Mario too early, and at what point did you kind of get the sense that this could be an all-timer?
COUNCIL JR: Oh, it was last night, the shootaround. I was feeling it, I was missing, but I wasn't missing that much, so I knew today was gonna be a good day.
Melvin, to do so much, how tired were you on those last free throws?
COUNCIL JR.: Oh, I wasn't tired, I don't know why I missed those free throws, I gotta do better, but I could play another 40 right now, so, I mean, another overtime game for five minutes, whatever it is, but yeah, I'm not tired.
The last play, like they said, Williams put up that shot. What was your view of the play, and what were you thinking with one second left?
COUNCIL JR: I hope this doesn't go in, but Paul (Mbiya) did a good job. It was almost a five-second count, but Ellmarko played solid defense and fouled.
