Cliff’s Notes version: Bill Self press conference, 3/23/2010

By Tom Keegan     Mar 23, 2010

Here is the Cliff’s Notes version of Kansas men’s basketball coach Bill Self’s comments at his press conference today.

Self said if you coach at a place like Kansas you can’t have a great season unless you perform in the tournament. But he said this season came as close to that word as any season that does not finish well could.

He said that there is extra pressure to being ranked No. 1 all year.

He said he hasn’t watched the tape and doesn’t know if he will. From reviewing the game in his mind he thinks his team might have played not to lose instead of playing to win, hoping to get through it instead of taking it.

Reiterated that applying full-court pressure early in the game was not the way to go. For one thing, he said, you have to score for the other team to take it out of bounds and Kansas had trouble scoring.

He said he can’t put his finger on why the team got off to such poor starts against Texas Tech and Texas A&M in the Big 12 Tournament and against Lehigh and Northern Iowa in the NCAA Tourney.

He said he thinks people who really care about the program will be disappointed in the outcome but proud of how the team represented the university throughout the season and said he does not think the loss makes the season a failure.

He said he will support whatever decision the Henry family reaches about Xavier’s future. He said when Kansas recruited Xavier Henry it did so with the idea that he would be a one-and-done player.

Self said he expects a decision in “a week or so” from Cole Aldrich and the decision will be based on what’s best for Aldrich’s family.

Self said he has coached in the tournament 12 years in a row and in 10 of those games the losing team was in it until the last possession.

• Asked if he now has shifted to fan mode, Self, said, “In a word, no.” He said he won’t watch the games but said he wishes Frank Martin well, not because Kansas State is a neighboring school, but because he likes him and respects his team. He also said he wants the conference to do well.

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35068Cliff’s Notes version: Bill Self press conference, 3/23/2010