Q. Coach, you talked about last week being a little down, you know, not coming out of the league without a championship. How excited are your kids going to be pumped up. They've seen it all their lives, the tournament, now they get to play in it.
"I think we will be excited," said Bill Self. "I'll be honest. I'm more excited about my team after watching them play today than I have all year long. We had nothing go well, nothing, and they battled their asses off for forty minutes. Even it though it wasn't pretty, I thought we did a lot of good things. When the ball leaves your hand, if it's a good or bad shot when it leaves your hand, for both teams we both did pretty well. Their players were better than our players at making shots. That's just what it is. I don't think we defended them perfectly by any stretch, but I thought we got some good looks, too. They were better than us, make no mistake.
"They were better than us," he added. "But I loved how we competed for forty minutes, but there is a difference in competing and trying real hard, still, and what the young kids learned today, trying harder and harder and harder doesn't necessarily mean you're competing better, because we got tighter, the rim shrunk. You gotta be able to relax and play through those things and know if we're not making shots, hey, we gotta get inside touch here, we gotta do this. We haven't quite got that yet, but I thought there were some things that we could move forward that will help the young kids later on without question."
"I think we will be excited," said Bill Self. "I'll be honest. I'm more excited about my team after watching them play today than I have all year long. We had nothing go well, nothing, and they battled their asses off for forty minutes. Even it though it wasn't pretty, I thought we did a lot of good things. When the ball leaves your hand, if it's a good or bad shot when it leaves your hand, for both teams we both did pretty well. Their players were better than our players at making shots. That's just what it is. I don't think we defended them perfectly by any stretch, but I thought we got some good looks, too. They were better than us, make no mistake.
"They were better than us," he added. "But I loved how we competed for forty minutes, but there is a difference in competing and trying real hard, still, and what the young kids learned today, trying harder and harder and harder doesn't necessarily mean you're competing better, because we got tighter, the rim shrunk. You gotta be able to relax and play through those things and know if we're not making shots, hey, we gotta get inside touch here, we gotta do this. We haven't quite got that yet, but I thought there were some things that we could move forward that will help the young kids later on without question."
