Bill Self postgame press conference: Kansas vs. Arizona
On how big the win was:
“People talk about toughness all the time and grinding out wins and finding a way to get stops and make every possession count. Tonight was huge. We were awful early, too sped up, maybe too excited, and didn’t play well. Mari and BT kind of kept us in it early, then things leveled out and it was pretty even the last 30 minutes. We didn’t start the second half well and it went to 11, but we just kept grinding and the crowd was unbelievable. The crowd wouldn’t let us get tired. It was a fabulous night. We played a really good team and we didn’t play great, but they didn’t play great either.”
On Darryn Peterson being out:
“It’s flu-like symptoms, at least that’s what I was told. He didn’t practice yesterday, but we hoped he could play today. He came out for shootaround and wasn’t able to go. We didn’t know until about 7 or 7:30 that he probably wouldn’t be able to go. Yesterday we knew it was 50-50.”
On preparing the team short-handed:
“I didn’t have to do much. They did that on their own. One thing about Darryn that’s been positive is we’ve played without him and sometimes been more aggressive individually. We’re not as good, but we’re more aggressive. Down the stretch, Melvin getting 25 shots, Flor’s aggressiveness, Bryson — I don’t know that we play that aggressively if Darryn’s in because he gets a lot of those touches.”
On the interior battle:
“They dominated us inside in the first half. Second half it was much closer in the paint. Their big guy is really good. I knew he was good, but I didn’t know he was that good over both shoulders.”
On Bidunga’s night:
“It ranks up there. He’s gotten so much better offensively, but the defensive presence — even when he’s not blocking shots, they know he’s around, and that makes a big difference.”
On the late block:
“That last block Flory had was probably as big a play as we made.”
On the crowd:
“They took ownership of making sure we didn’t get tired. There’s a lot of great crowds out there, but nobody can say they’ve got a better joint than this one.”
On Melvin Council Jr.:
“He owns this place. He’s as popular as any kid we’ve ever had play here. The pleasant surprise of who he is has really made this enjoyable for everybody.”
On the emotion afterward:
“I’m not usually overly emotional, but that was a big win for us today.”
On Kansas beating a No. 1 team at home for the first time:
“It’s a big deal for the moment, but in the overall scheme we’re going to play bigger games than this. Arizona will too. But it probably was as big a regular-season game as college basketball has had to date.”
On Peterson not being on the availability report:
“We thought he’d go. We thought adrenaline would kick in. He tried, but he just couldn’t.”
Closing:
“We’re better than what we played when we’ve got all our pieces, and that’s exciting. I don’t know where our ceiling is yet, but I know we’re not close to it.”