Bill Self took a few minutes to talk to the media about the UCLA game last Sunday and the upcoming game tonight against Radford. Self took time to address the recent woes with free throw shooting as well as the play of point guard Sherron Collins. Marcus Morris also took time to answer a few questions as well.
Coach Self started the trip by talking about the Jayhawks recent trip to UCLA and how the Jayhawks performed at Pauley Pavillion.
“It was a good trip. We had a good time. We didn’t play particularly well. We did some good things. We can play better, but I am not going to apologize for coming away with a win.”
Next, he gave his analysis on what to expect from the Radford Highlanders.
“They are real big. They have a guy, he’s not quite as big from a girth stand point as [6-10, 290 pound Texas senior center Dexter] Pittman, but he’s not far off. He looks like he goes a lot more than 260 to me. He’s very agile and athletic. He’s taller than Dexter at 6-11, but he’s a legitimate post. He’s probably the biggest, maybe as talented, true big guy that we go against all year long.”
Self also discussed the poor shooting on free throws for the season and how the Jayhawks are looking to improve at the charity stripe.
“We haven’t practiced since we got back from UCLA. Since the first game or two I think we’re shooting about 65 percent. We’ve obviously not shot them [free throws] very well, but we’ll work on them and that’s something we have down to work on everyday and will continue to do.”
Self also discussed how Kansas has been passing the basketball and how the distribution of the ball has been handled by the team.
“I’ve been pretty happy with that. In our two most competitive games we’ve had a lot more turnovers than assists and in all of our other games we’ve had twice as many assists as turnovers. Against UCLA I don’t think there was any selfishness going on, but we did miss some wide open guys because we were hesitant. We go through phases where we’re not as confident and we’re playing to not make mistakes and don’t take any chances at all. You can’t do that as a player. You have to learn how the play the percentages. You have to learn when to take risks and when not to.”
Lastly, Self discussed the play of point guard Sherron Collins and how he has performed thus far in the season.
“In the last two games he’s gotten up attempts, but he has eight turnovers on the year in seven games. He’s played 30 minutes a game for the most part. That’s pretty good. That’s probably about as good as any point guard in the country right now. He can still do a better job creating for others at times. The ball is not in his hands as much as I would like for it to be. We have to find a way to get the ball in his hands a lot more. His assist-to-turnover ratio is so good and he can score the ball.”
Sophomore Forward Marcus Morris
Marcus Morris gives his thoughts on the Radford Highlanders and the Jayhawks plan to attack them.
“They are almost as good as we are in the post. Their big guy [Art Parakhouski] leads the nation is rebounding. We’re going to use our strengths and try to run them up and down the court.”
Morris also gives his thoughts on the free throw shooting woes thus far this season.
“We can do better, a lot better. We shoot free throws everyday after practice and I feel like we should do better than that. That’s unacceptable, 65 percent. We’re shooting more at the end of practice and I feel like I’m a better free throw shooter this year than I was last year. I don’t know what it is.”
