Kansas University men's basketball coach Bill Self answered questions from KUsports.com readers for 20 minutes Tuesday morning. Self discussed Russell Robinson, J.R. Giddens and KU's big-man rotation, among other topics.

Moderator: Our chat with coach Self will begin in just a few moments. We'd like to thank coach and our readers for their time this morning.

Matt - Bethlehem, PA: Coach Self, Have you ever played or coached at Rupp Arena before?

Coach Self: My first year at Tulsa we went there and played Kentucky the year they won the national championship. I think they ended up winning by 20, but we were actually ahead at halftime. It's one of the great venues in college basketball.

NE Jayhawk: Is a deep bench a problem or a blessing?

Coach Self: You'd always rather have too much than not enough. I think a deep bench is a blessing because you never know what could happen with injuries or foul problems. Though you may not play everybody, you certainly want capable guys who can come off the bench.

Mel W Lawrence: I was proud of the team for not giving up during the hard struggle with Georgia Tech. Were you at all surprised at their determination?

Coach Self: No, I wasn't surprised. I knew that we would play hard to the end. The thing that was most pleasing to me was that when things weren't going well it could have been worse if we hadn't played hard. These guys did that because they rebounded. For us to outrebound them without Wayne and guard them the way we did was pretty special. I knew we had the heart, but we hadn't guarded that well for 45 minutes rather than just in spurts.

Ira - Topeka: With his apparent athletic ability why doesn't Giddens drive to the hoop more often? Is it the system or his style to shoot the 3 rather than drive the lane?

Coach Self: It's certainly not the system. That's something we work on each and every day - working on his handles to drive it. He's getting better at it. He made some nice moves against Georgia Tech, but that's certainly not the system. It's something he needs to get better at, but that's not his game right now. He's gotten much better at it but he still has a ways to go.

Neiha: What did you see in Moody that others haven't? I feel he is doing a great job for KU

Coach Self: I don't know if I've seen anything in him that others haven't. I know our staff has a lot of confidence and trust in him, but the big thing about Christian is that he's a good player. You take away his walk-on tag and no one would think twice about him starting at Kansas. He's just a good player. I believe in him and trust him, and I think this team would have no shot at being undefeated if he weren't a part of it. In Canada, I'd say he was our fourth or fifth best big guy, but once we got into more practices and more structured, I think he's definitely elevated his game and he certainly deserves everything he's getting.

Jon - Atlanta: Great job with the crew this year. How hard to you consider the task of keeping the team focused on the immediate future in light of some of the big games later (e.g. tomorrow vs. Sunday)? Thanks, and Happy New Year!

Coach Self: I think that our players should be, and I know we're promoting it this way - this is the start of our second season. We have goals in conference, and we're playing a team that's undefeated. From our perspective, we have to take them one at a time. And this is a bigger game than nonconference games because it affects our goals more. In all honesty, we hope the Georgia Tech and Kentucky games prepare us for the conference and that's what we've been selling to the players all along.

Greg - Lenexa: As a coach of 4th grade boys what are the most important things we can be teaching the kids?

Coach Self: I've never coached fourth grade before, but I have a son who's been there and the things I always try to stress to him are the basic fundamentals - how to shoot and pass the ball. I think the biggest problem kids don't understand is spacing. Keeping floor spacing would put kids way ahead of the game at an early age.

Kristin - Mission: Being the start of a new year, I'm thinking about resolutions. At the beginning of basketball season, do you write down any specific goals for the players (besides winning the championship)?

Coach Self: We've talked about a lot of things - being undefeated at home, outrebounding our opponents, where our turnovers should be, and a lot of things. I've done that just about every year with our guys, and we've done it as a group. Sometimes those work out, and sometimes they don't. You just have to adjust on the fly, but we have individual and team goals, no doubt about that. We've had speakers come in and talk to our team about personal goals and stuff like that. My goal, and I think the players' goal, is just to be as good as we possibly can be and then everything else just takes care of itself.

Kevin - Wichita: What is going on with Micah Downs? Is he going straight to the NBA and if so, is there any plans for a replacement?

Coach Self: Micah and his family made a statement that he planned on going to the league, which caught us way off guard because we didn't think he was in a position to make that decision yet, and to be honest he's not - and his parents know that. He's certainly been told from some people that he has NBA-type potential, and we agree wholeheartedly - but he's still a ways away and needs a great senior year to seriously consider leaving from high school. I guess that's always a possibility, but I don't think that's something we need to seriously worry about. If he comes to Kansas we'll all be happy, but if he doesn't then hopefully they've made an informed decision that he can afford to skip college. I don't think they intended their statement the way it came out.

Mel - Liberal: Congratulations on a great win against Georgia Tech, Coach! Do you see any of the freshman big guys making significant progress toward filling Wayne Simien's spot until he returns, or will it be more by committee?

Coach Self: It'll be more by committee. We're going to start C.J., but I think they all did well. I think Sasha did more good things than he's done, and I think there were some good things that happened. Alex obviously did some good things, but I think it's going to be by committee. Even when Wayne comes back I think it might be by committee with the other slot, but those big guys are doing fine.

Paul - Overland Park: Do you see Robinson eventually maturing into an Aaron Miles?

Coach Self: I think Russell's going to be a terrific player. I don't see him being the same type player as Aaron. I hope Russell can mature to play off the ball because he's a combo guard who can play the 1 or the 2. And Mario's very similar, so those two will play very well together. I see Russell as being one of the very good guards to play here.

Thomas - Denver: Would you prefer to schedule more non-conference road games in the future than we have this season?

Coach Self: What I think a perfect schedule for KU would be, depending on NCAA rules, would be to play two big nonconference games like we are this year, and then an exempt tournament. That's what the majority of other teams from power conferences are trying to do, and I think that's a pretty good schedule as long as it's quality competition.

Moderator: That does it for our chat. Thanks again to coach Self and our readers for their time this morning, and good luck to the Jayhawks tomorrow against Texas A&M.