NCAA Thoughts: Bill Self Q&A before press conference
Bill Self sat down with the Jayhawk Network before he took the podium and talked about the seeding, location, opponents, the Big 12 and much more.
Thoughts on the Northeastern match-up and location of the game.
Self: I think they're both fine. I believed that we were going be a 4 seed all along. If things had gone different, Kansas City maybe be a 3, but that wasn't the case, so I think we got what we deserved without question. I think our bracket is extremely difficult, and the reason I say that is because we play Northeastern the first game. You can tell a team is good by the fact that they finish second in the Colonial and they were a 13 seed.
That's respect for their league, because you would think a second place finisher in a league that doesn't really get as much attention would be 14, 15 something else, and that's not the case with them at all, so. Bill Coen (head coach) is a guy I've known a long time. I've never had a chance to coach against him, but we'll study him hard the next 48 hours so. But they've obviously had a terrific season, and just looking at their stats briefly, they've got four guys.
One is shooting 42 for the year. The other one is shooting 41. Another one 40, and another 39 from three, and they have 55, 56, 57 makes, and the fourth guy has 93 makes. So, I don't know exactly where we're at, but they probably have four guys that are making three at a pretty high clip when you stop and think about it. So it'll be a hard match. That means we're going to have to play four guards a lot and get smaller and things like that, but one that I know we're looking forward to.
This is the first time since 2006 that KU has to travel outside of the Central time zone for its first game in the NCAA tournament. Based on the region, the seed, the matchup, what do you think, what part of KU's resume weighed the most on the selection committee?
Self: I have no idea. You don't know why things would happen, because people look at it different than if you're not a KU fan. If you're not a KU fan, what advantage they get, if they win two games, they get to play the number one seed potentially in Kansas City? So how do you think Carolina fans are going to feel about that potentially? So, the big thing is you can't get ahead of yourself. And we've been doing this a long time. It's a two-game tournament. That's it. It's a two-game tournament, and we have to be our best this Thursday and Saturday and then go from there. But it is a hard bracket, though. Obviously, when you have Northeastern and then if you're fortunate enough to win, you play the winner of New Mexico State, who took us to the last possession in the Sprint Center, and then of course Auburn, who arguably is as hot as any team in the country right now. So, you could play Auburn, and they just beat Tennessee by 20.
You know, so, those are all hard games, all hard match-ups, but like I told our guys, in order to advance in the tournament, you're gonna, you gotta beat people.
You got to play good people, and no matter what bracket we'd be in, we'd look and say, oh, geez. That's a hard matchup for us, because that's just the way it is. It is hard. Disappointed for our league a little bit, only getting 6.
25 of the 34 games that you played this year were against teams that made the tournament field this year. How did that schedule shape your team?
Self: I think it was good in some ways. I also think it wasn't good in some ways. Going into the season, you know, if you have your full compliment of guys, you think it's the perfect schedule for this team. With the way the season went and with so many things that we dealt with, it probably wasn't as good for us because they didn't give Q and Devon and David and obviously Ochai the opportunity to catch their breath.
It was by farther hardest schedule that anybody played in the country this year, and that's probably why we kind of stubbed our toe some and still were a 4 seed with a chance to even be better than that. But I think it helped us, made us more battle-tested, but on the flip side, I think the season is so long that it's nice to be able to catch your breath every now and then. And our guys have shown some toughness, because being honest with you, we haven't had the opportunity to catch ours.