Participants: Bill Self, Jamari McDowell, Melvin Council Jr.

Opening Statement – Bill Self

“Well obviously, we weren’t very good tonight. They got off to a good start and we were playing catch-up and never had offense the entire game. So it’s disappointing. I actually thought we tried defensively for the most part the entire game, but certainly when you can’t score it puts you in a hole, and certainly we were in a big hole tonight.”

Self: “That’s actually a good question because I think that’ll be the key thing we have to come up with. We beat a team yesterday that will be the type of team we play either on Thursday or Friday, so hopefully we can get a little confidence from that.

But the thing about it is the conference tournament is important, it’s a great tournament. That first game was probably as good a game as college basketball has seen this year from what I saw of it. But after Sunday, nobody’s going to remember this tournament. Everybody’s going to be focused on next week.

Hopefully it’s an opportunity to get our batteries recharged and do the same thing. I would have loved to have played longer and been more competitive tonight, but the reality is Sunday is a new day where everybody’s 0-0 and everybody will be fired up to play.”

Self: “I didn’t think our energy was as good as it has been at times. I didn’t think it was great yesterday either. We were so bad early offensively, but when we got it to 29-25 I actually thought we’d be fine if we finished the last minute and a half decent.

Then they scored four to end the half and that was disappointing. Coming out the second half down eight, we’ve been down eight many times this year and come back. But that first couple minutes was disappointing.

We got the ball exactly where we wanted it and missed a shot, and then they make a harder shot on the other end. It wasn’t game over, but it was deflating enough that it took a lot of the wind out of us.”

Self: “I haven’t really talked to them postgame yet. I told them obviously we weren’t very good tonight and we weren’t as competitive as we want to be.

But in life, it’s easy to be a good person and add value when things are going well. The key is can you do it when things aren’t going well. That’s what good teammates do — they pick each other up. That’s what we’re going to have to do as well.”

Self: “We were terrible playing behind ball screens. We knew how we wanted to attack it and we didn’t attack it. They did a great job loading up.

They weren’t going to let Darryn beat them. They had two guys on him, switching and dragging guys to him so he always felt guarded. But when they pressured, you’ve got to play four-on-three behind that pressure and we didn’t do that but maybe once or twice the entire game.

I didn’t do a good job getting the guys ready for that.”

Melvin Council Jr.: “I feel like this loss hurts, but March Madness is win or go home. That’s basically what we’re looking at. Starting with me, leading in practice, we’ve just got to get ready for March Madness.”

Jamari McDowell:“Yeah, I’m going to follow up on Melvin. This is behind us now. We’ve got to look forward to next week and get prepared. It’s either we’re going to be there or we’re not.”

Self (adding):“If we’d played better and gone 22-for-52 instead of 14-for-52, does that make us more prepared for next week? I’m not sure it does.

What we can control is our personality, our energy, our physicality — hitting first instead of being hit first.

This game didn’t camouflage our deficiencies. It exposed them in a big way. Sometimes when a game is close you can rationalize things, but it wasn’t close tonight. That gives us a clear picture of what we didn’t do well.”

Self: “He hasn’t made a lot of shots lately, but he made a couple tonight which was great to see. Cole tries so hard every day.

It was good for him to see a couple go down. He actually could’ve had four more points on layups that could have easily gone in.

Us shooting the ball better — whether it’s him or Mari — that’s a bonus because we definitely need that.”

Self: “Physical play, rebounding, and limiting turnovers. They’re great at turning people over and scoring off defense. They didn’t really do that to us.

They’re also great at offensive rebounding, and they did that some. But the combination of the two we were actually decent at.

The best thing they did tonight was make threes and get off to a good start.”

Self: “That was just my call. My message is rebound and play competitive. Be physical, rebound, play competitive.”

Self: “I think it’s two really good teams playing. Three of the four teams that played today looked like teams that could go deep in the tournament. We didn’t obviously.

It should be a coin-flip game and a fabulous final.”

Self: “There could be a benefit to not playing. If you play Saturday you might as well win because you’re playing regardless. But sometimes rest can actually be more beneficial. When the Big 12 switched to a Saturday final it was one of the smartest things the league did because Sunday finals made the turnaround too tight.

So yes, it could be a positive. Our bodies could be better rested.”

Self: “He was wide open on a layup to start the game and we didn’t get him the ball. So yeah, it’s disappointing he didn’t get looks.

But he also didn’t put himself in position very often to get looks. We ran something early to get him a layup and just didn’t make the pass.

Flory having success early usually bodes well for us.”