Earlier today, Bill Self, Ochai Agbaji, and Mitch Lightfoot met with the media in Lawrence to preview the Nevada game and much more. This press conference went a bit longer than I expected, so I want to make sure that I share as much information with you as possible. Quite a few things stood out when listening to Self, Agbaji, and Lightfoot earlier today.
-- Self was asked about the shooting percentage of both Christian Braun and Ochai Agbaji. For the season, Braun is shooting 63% from the field and 35% from behind the arc. Agbaji is shooting 56% from the field and 48% from three. Self was asked if Braun and Agbaji remind him of any wings from the past that have played at such a high level?
"CB's a little different," said Self. "One reason why CB is shooting a very high percentage is because he's not shooting enough threes. Naturally if, if Christian was shooting... Christian is attempting the same number of that we had hoped he would make a game. So it's right around 2.7, 2.8. So if he was doing that, his percentages would come down because obviously you're probably not going to shoot 50% from free, but no, they're both having great years. I think Juan and Remy have done a good job of getting them shots, but I don't know if it's as much them from a number standpoint, because collectively they're averaging about seven assists a game, I think. Isn't that about right? About 3-9 and 3-1 or something like that? Isn't that about right Chris? That's not a ton for 50 minutes or 55 minutes.
"So I think the ball movement has been a big reason why they've been getting shots, not just off of their penetration, even though it's helped, don't get me wrong," he added. "But I actually think that that's something that we can improve on. I believe Remy and Juan should get more assists a game. Sometimes it's hard to get as many assists a game when you don't throw it to a big guy. That's the easiest way to get an assist, throw it to a big guy and have him bounce it once and get a basket. And we haven't scored as much inside this year, but I think that they certainly contributed to their success on shot selection. But I think ball movement by everybody's probably helped just as much as anything."
-- Self was asked about the situation on Saturday with the TCU game being canceled. At this time, Self expects to play a game, which would be a non-conference game, but nothing has been announced yet. I know that many of you bought tickets for the game on Saturday, so when an announcement is made, I expect that to be covered in terms of how that is going to be handled.
"Yeah, I think we'll play Saturday, but I don't know that for a fact, but we're working on it," said Self. "We're working on it. So. The way it looks right now, and I think I can speak definitely on this, Saturday's game will be a non-conference game. That game isn't going to be replaced with another conference team. So it will be a non-conference game if we get a game on Saturday, and I think that that's a very strong possibility."
I'm guessing that something has been put in place by now, but one thing that Self made clear, the opponent on Saturday will not be Stephen F. Austin.
"No, no, they're out," said Self. "They're out. I said that that was a talk that we had, but then they were eliminated themselves. So yeah, they're out."
Before Self met with the media, Ochai Agbaji and Mitch Lightfoot spent time answering questions from those in attendance and via Zoom. Somebody asked Ochai if Self gave a New Year's resolution to the team, what would it be? Agbaji said defensive intensity, but does Self agree with that? Would he add to it at all?
"Well, I told them, "We can't control a lot of things about this year," said Self. "You can't control health, you can't control exposures, you can't control a lot of different things, but you can control being in a stance. You can control competing on that end. You can control hitting somebody every time the ball's shot. You can control certain things that we haven't done." So I think if Oak said that, that would probably be the right thing. Our defensive stats misleading though. Our defensive stats are poor. But the biggest reason why they're poor is because of pace of play. Whenever you play faster and have more possessions in the game, you give up more points. How many points you give up four out of five times doesn't have anything to do with how good you defend, in my opinion, because if you play fast, there's more possessions, you're going to give up more points.
"If you play slow, less possession, you give up less points," he continued. "It's not that complicated. And when you play fast, the game gets looser. Every coach will tell you this. When the game gets looser, the end that's most effective is the defensive end. It's the same in football. I hadn't thought this through, I'm just talking off the cuff, but in football, you huddle up every play. So everybody's fresh, everybody's set, everybody knows that this is our coverage, this is what we're trying to do. In basketball, when it gets going like that, there's no control. There's broken floor plays, there's bigs guarding littles. There's littles guarding bigs. There's bad match ups. There's a lot of things that happen, which good defensive teams obviously are able o play through and adjust with that and all those things.
"And something else that really affects your defensive numbers is your offense," he continued. "If you turn it over, which we have done, we haven't turned the ball over much this year, I don't know if you guys noticed that, but when we do, it's for layups. It's like we have more live ball turnovers that lead to layups than anybody right now that I can see. Well, if you do that four times a game, the other team goes 4-4, it's hard to hold a team under 40% if you're giving up four uncontested layups. So I think there's ways that our defense will be better if we are better offensively in those situations and if we can just tighten up some things that is obviously created by loose play, more open floors. And we've talked about that quite a bit. So our defensive numbers are not great, but they're not as bad as what you think they are because you can't say, "Well, they're giving up 67 points a game. That's the worst in league." Well, yeah, we're scoring more points than everybody too. It doesn't go hand in hand. But we'll find out how good we are defensively starting in league play, because teams that play slow or with not as much tempo in league play will slow us down, which will naturally slow the other team down also. So we'll know more starting up, but our defensive field goal percentage is not what it needs to be. But I really think if you take away four layups a game, it's probably right where it should be. And the other thing is our rebound margin, considering how small we've been playing, isn't bad. If you're plus seven and you're playing that small, that's not a bad number, regardless of who you're playing."
Taking better care of the ball, especially live-ball situations, converting dunks/layups/free-throws, getting after it defensively, and learning how to put opponents away are things I'd like to see improvement in moving forward. Kansas had a chance to crack Dayton and lost at the buzzer and almost let one slip away at home against Stephen F. Austin. You can't miss three or four dunks a game, especially when conference play begins. This team has a chance to be really good, and they've won eight games by double-digits and should have made it nine against Stephen F. Austin. Far from a finished product, but the pieces are absolutely in place.
-- With a matchup against Nevada looming on Wednesday night, Self, on Tuesday afternoon, said that everybody, for the most part, is healthy and ready to go.
"Oh yeah," said Self. "Knock on wood, we've been good. So everybody's practiced. That can change obviously overnight, but as of now, we've been good."
The only major injury at this time is Bobby Pettiford, and Self provided the latest update on Pettiford on Tuesday.
"The update is he's still doing the same thing, which is almost nothing right now," he added. "He's doing spot shooting and very little things like that, but supposedly it's got to run its course before we can really test that. And as of now, we've still got a couple of weeks probably to go before we'll know if we can put him out there and have him be pretty much pain-free."
-- Zach Clemence, the 6-foot-10, 225-pound forward from San Antonio, Texas, and K.J. Adams, the 6-foot-7, 225-pound forward from Austin, Texas aren't getting a ton of playing time right now. Clemence has played 55 minutes this season, while Adams has played just 48 minutes. Despite the lack of playing time early on, Self spoke highly of both on Tuesday afternoon. The hardest thing to do is sit back and wait for your number to be called, but the best thing you can do as a player, especially early on, is do everything you can to be ready when your number is called.
"Well, I think Zach is coming fast," said Self. "His hands are good. He's strength away. So let's not get too carried away, but the floor is more stretched with him in the game. I think we've been better offensively in practice many days with him in the game just because it opens up other things for people that are pretty good at driving the ball and those sorts of things. I think KJ has kind of emerged as maybe our second-best offender behind Juan. I like where he is. Offensively, he's, I don't want to say behind because there's some things he does actually as well as anybody else on the team as far as moving the ball and drive to pass and those sorts of things, but we probably have more confidence in KJ at this juncture defensively than offensively, and probably more with Zach offensively than defensively, to be candid, but they're both going to be really good players. Really good."
-- Self was asked about the shooting percentage of both Christian Braun and Ochai Agbaji. For the season, Braun is shooting 63% from the field and 35% from behind the arc. Agbaji is shooting 56% from the field and 48% from three. Self was asked if Braun and Agbaji remind him of any wings from the past that have played at such a high level?
"CB's a little different," said Self. "One reason why CB is shooting a very high percentage is because he's not shooting enough threes. Naturally if, if Christian was shooting... Christian is attempting the same number of that we had hoped he would make a game. So it's right around 2.7, 2.8. So if he was doing that, his percentages would come down because obviously you're probably not going to shoot 50% from free, but no, they're both having great years. I think Juan and Remy have done a good job of getting them shots, but I don't know if it's as much them from a number standpoint, because collectively they're averaging about seven assists a game, I think. Isn't that about right? About 3-9 and 3-1 or something like that? Isn't that about right Chris? That's not a ton for 50 minutes or 55 minutes.
"So I think the ball movement has been a big reason why they've been getting shots, not just off of their penetration, even though it's helped, don't get me wrong," he added. "But I actually think that that's something that we can improve on. I believe Remy and Juan should get more assists a game. Sometimes it's hard to get as many assists a game when you don't throw it to a big guy. That's the easiest way to get an assist, throw it to a big guy and have him bounce it once and get a basket. And we haven't scored as much inside this year, but I think that they certainly contributed to their success on shot selection. But I think ball movement by everybody's probably helped just as much as anything."
-- Self was asked about the situation on Saturday with the TCU game being canceled. At this time, Self expects to play a game, which would be a non-conference game, but nothing has been announced yet. I know that many of you bought tickets for the game on Saturday, so when an announcement is made, I expect that to be covered in terms of how that is going to be handled.
"Yeah, I think we'll play Saturday, but I don't know that for a fact, but we're working on it," said Self. "We're working on it. So. The way it looks right now, and I think I can speak definitely on this, Saturday's game will be a non-conference game. That game isn't going to be replaced with another conference team. So it will be a non-conference game if we get a game on Saturday, and I think that that's a very strong possibility."
I'm guessing that something has been put in place by now, but one thing that Self made clear, the opponent on Saturday will not be Stephen F. Austin.
"No, no, they're out," said Self. "They're out. I said that that was a talk that we had, but then they were eliminated themselves. So yeah, they're out."
Before Self met with the media, Ochai Agbaji and Mitch Lightfoot spent time answering questions from those in attendance and via Zoom. Somebody asked Ochai if Self gave a New Year's resolution to the team, what would it be? Agbaji said defensive intensity, but does Self agree with that? Would he add to it at all?
"Well, I told them, "We can't control a lot of things about this year," said Self. "You can't control health, you can't control exposures, you can't control a lot of different things, but you can control being in a stance. You can control competing on that end. You can control hitting somebody every time the ball's shot. You can control certain things that we haven't done." So I think if Oak said that, that would probably be the right thing. Our defensive stats misleading though. Our defensive stats are poor. But the biggest reason why they're poor is because of pace of play. Whenever you play faster and have more possessions in the game, you give up more points. How many points you give up four out of five times doesn't have anything to do with how good you defend, in my opinion, because if you play fast, there's more possessions, you're going to give up more points.
"If you play slow, less possession, you give up less points," he continued. "It's not that complicated. And when you play fast, the game gets looser. Every coach will tell you this. When the game gets looser, the end that's most effective is the defensive end. It's the same in football. I hadn't thought this through, I'm just talking off the cuff, but in football, you huddle up every play. So everybody's fresh, everybody's set, everybody knows that this is our coverage, this is what we're trying to do. In basketball, when it gets going like that, there's no control. There's broken floor plays, there's bigs guarding littles. There's littles guarding bigs. There's bad match ups. There's a lot of things that happen, which good defensive teams obviously are able o play through and adjust with that and all those things.
"And something else that really affects your defensive numbers is your offense," he continued. "If you turn it over, which we have done, we haven't turned the ball over much this year, I don't know if you guys noticed that, but when we do, it's for layups. It's like we have more live ball turnovers that lead to layups than anybody right now that I can see. Well, if you do that four times a game, the other team goes 4-4, it's hard to hold a team under 40% if you're giving up four uncontested layups. So I think there's ways that our defense will be better if we are better offensively in those situations and if we can just tighten up some things that is obviously created by loose play, more open floors. And we've talked about that quite a bit. So our defensive numbers are not great, but they're not as bad as what you think they are because you can't say, "Well, they're giving up 67 points a game. That's the worst in league." Well, yeah, we're scoring more points than everybody too. It doesn't go hand in hand. But we'll find out how good we are defensively starting in league play, because teams that play slow or with not as much tempo in league play will slow us down, which will naturally slow the other team down also. So we'll know more starting up, but our defensive field goal percentage is not what it needs to be. But I really think if you take away four layups a game, it's probably right where it should be. And the other thing is our rebound margin, considering how small we've been playing, isn't bad. If you're plus seven and you're playing that small, that's not a bad number, regardless of who you're playing."
Taking better care of the ball, especially live-ball situations, converting dunks/layups/free-throws, getting after it defensively, and learning how to put opponents away are things I'd like to see improvement in moving forward. Kansas had a chance to crack Dayton and lost at the buzzer and almost let one slip away at home against Stephen F. Austin. You can't miss three or four dunks a game, especially when conference play begins. This team has a chance to be really good, and they've won eight games by double-digits and should have made it nine against Stephen F. Austin. Far from a finished product, but the pieces are absolutely in place.
-- With a matchup against Nevada looming on Wednesday night, Self, on Tuesday afternoon, said that everybody, for the most part, is healthy and ready to go.
"Oh yeah," said Self. "Knock on wood, we've been good. So everybody's practiced. That can change obviously overnight, but as of now, we've been good."
The only major injury at this time is Bobby Pettiford, and Self provided the latest update on Pettiford on Tuesday.
"The update is he's still doing the same thing, which is almost nothing right now," he added. "He's doing spot shooting and very little things like that, but supposedly it's got to run its course before we can really test that. And as of now, we've still got a couple of weeks probably to go before we'll know if we can put him out there and have him be pretty much pain-free."
-- Zach Clemence, the 6-foot-10, 225-pound forward from San Antonio, Texas, and K.J. Adams, the 6-foot-7, 225-pound forward from Austin, Texas aren't getting a ton of playing time right now. Clemence has played 55 minutes this season, while Adams has played just 48 minutes. Despite the lack of playing time early on, Self spoke highly of both on Tuesday afternoon. The hardest thing to do is sit back and wait for your number to be called, but the best thing you can do as a player, especially early on, is do everything you can to be ready when your number is called.
"Well, I think Zach is coming fast," said Self. "His hands are good. He's strength away. So let's not get too carried away, but the floor is more stretched with him in the game. I think we've been better offensively in practice many days with him in the game just because it opens up other things for people that are pretty good at driving the ball and those sorts of things. I think KJ has kind of emerged as maybe our second-best offender behind Juan. I like where he is. Offensively, he's, I don't want to say behind because there's some things he does actually as well as anybody else on the team as far as moving the ball and drive to pass and those sorts of things, but we probably have more confidence in KJ at this juncture defensively than offensively, and probably more with Zach offensively than defensively, to be candid, but they're both going to be really good players. Really good."
