No. 19 Kansas head coach Bill Self met with the media following the Jayhawks' 77-76 overtime win over NC State Saturday evening.
NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Self’s press conference.
Initial thoughts…
From a fan perspective, which I'm not, I would think it would be a pretty entertaining game to watch: not a lot of turnovers and certainly not a lot of fouls. I would think it'd be a fairly entertaining game to watch because there weren't that many stoppages. I thought that neither team played great. I didn't think we did at all. Their switches really bothered us, and we didn't have ball and body movement the whole night, but we did compete just like they did. We had one guy that was probably the best performer that I've had on the road in my 23 years at Kansas. [Melvin Council, Jr.] was unbelievable. He made hard shots. They dared him to shoot, and then when he made a couple, he started looking at a big basket, and then he was unbelievable. He got downhill play, but if you look at his entire line, [he had] nine threes, seven rebounds, four assists, no turnovers, and played 43 minutes. That’s a pretty good stat line. I'm really happy for Mel. I'm happy for our team, but I'm especially happy for him because he put us on his back tonight.
On limiting NC State’s three-point offense…
I actually thought our best chance coming in here was to not let them shoot the ball beyond the arc and switch. Now, they actually shot it well when it counted down the stretch with Darrion [Williams] making those two, but for the most part, we did a decent job at that. [Quadir] Copeland got his [shot opportunities], and you're going to give up something, but I thought we did a decent job on that until the very end. Fortunately for us, Darrion missed the hardest one at the very, very end, but he's been a KU killer for years. He had 30 against us in Lubbock and didn't miss a shot from the free-throw line or anywhere. Then last year, he had 25 or whatever against us. Even though he got his 17, I'll take that and go the house.
If he’d anticipated the Wolfpack letting Council shoot…
I didn't anticipate it. I think it's pretty sound. I don't think anybody would say it's not a sound philosophy, based on his numbers up until this point. You look at his stroke; his stroke ain't broke. He’s got a good looking stroke. It just hadn't gone in, and the thing about it is, with shooters, even though he didn't shoot it well the first half, but shooters don't remember their misses. They only remember their makes, and so in his mind, he's looking at a big basket which was really good for us.
On Darryn Peterson leaving the game early…
I think he was getting tight. I haven't talked to the doctor yet or the trainer about it, but he said he needed to come out. He's experienced this every game that we've played, so I was happy that he got that deep into the game because it's happened to start the second half every other game. I think it's just tightness, but I hadn't even found out yet. It's just tightness in his hamstrings.
On playing all three Triangle teams…
Well, I've seen enough of the Research Triangle. We played Duke in [Madison Square Garden], and then we played in Chapel Hill and here in Raleigh. One thing that is very evident is people love ball here which is great. People should be excited about the Wolfpack and their team because, if you really look at their team, they can stretch it from four spots. They've got good guard play and good length on the perimeter, and their big fellows are having a really nice year. They're going to have a good season. We're fortunate they didn't shoot the ball tonight like they shot it against Liberty earlier in the week.
On subbing Paul Mbiya into the game with one second remaining…
I just put Paul in to try to make it hard to throw a lob pass. We didn't switch. We don't switch out of bounds. We'll switch once it gets in bounds, but we don't switch out of bounds. I don't know that we guarded it well, but we guarded it good enough that they had to take an off-balance long [pass].
On NC State’s ceiling from his perspective…
I can't answer that. I’m not at their practice. From the outside looking in, they've got good guard play. They can stretch it from four spots. They’ve got a guy that is a clutch player, obviously. Their big guys are good enough to defend and rebound at their position. I would think they're going to have a really nice year, but I don't know enough to have a strong opinion because I'm not there seeing what goes on.
On Matt Able’s fourth foul where Council may have elbowed him…
I did see it, but I don't think... He got fouled, but whether or not he elbowed him because of the foul or what the case was, but that crew said it was a common foul, so I assume it was.
On not playing well but still winning…
It's good. It's getting old not playing great, though, to be real honest. It was great. The guys competed. They tried hard, and it was actually fun to watch. We didn't execute as well as we did against Tennessee, but it was kind of like that game a little bit where the guys had to toughen up.
On defending the Wolfpack…
We switched everything, so we decided to switch like they switch to try to take away the shots off the catch behind the arc. That's what we did. They hurt us driving the ball some, and they played the mismatches some, but for the most part, we did a pretty nice job.
On scheduling more home-and-home against top-tier opponents…
I'm open to that. I'm open to that because all three of them would need to come to our place next. I got my guy right here that does the scheduling, and I actually think college basketball has done a much better job this year scheduling to create more interest than what we have in years past. There's a lot of big-time games. Today's a laundry list of big time games going on, and so I'm definitely open to it. The thing about it is, with scheduling, money is going to dictate how you schedule because of NIL and other things that you have to create some income streams in different ways like the Players Era Tournament or whatever. I think that anytime you could play the three that you just mentioned in, and then you throw Louisville in the mix, those are four teams that would be great home-and-homes.
On planning the final seconds of regulation…
The game plan was just trying to get a shot — because we didn't have much going on — and drive it. [Council] did a great job of driving the ball downhill. He did a great job.
