Tuesday’s Final Four interview sessions

By Staff     Apr 1, 2008

**8:40 p.m. -** Finally had a chance to sit down and transcribe some quotes from today’s session with the players, who were spread around in chairs on the Fieldhouse floor before practice. Here ya go…**_Jeremy Case on the Coach Williams storyline:_** “I think it’s gonna be a fun game, but that was five years ago, and I’ve put it behind me. Coach Williams is a wonderful coach, and I wish the best for him, but I’m just gonna focus on what we have to do to win.”**_Jeremy Case on memories of his recruitment to KU:_** “I just remember coach (Joe) Holladay was the main one, him and coach (Ben) Miller were the main ones that recruited me. They came to a lot of my games, and it was fabulous to see them there – Kansas … Coach Williams just kinda was straight-up with me, told me that I was gonna fit great in with the offense, the run-and-gun offense, and I was excited for that.”**_Chase Buford, a San Antonio native, on what to do down there:_** “If you go down to the Riverwalk, you’re probably not gonna go wrong much anywhere. There’s Dick’s (Last Resort), there’s Rio Rio for good mexican food, I hear they have good margaritas, but I wouldn’t know. Any place on the Riverwalk’s gonna be a good time.”**_Chase Buford on some of San Antonio’s hidden gems:_** “Just mostly a bunch of small mexican restaurants and whatnot that are really good. I don’t really go out for nightlife, because I’m not 21 yet. Blanco’s Cafe and probably Sol Luna. Sol Luna’s a little nicer, Blanco’s is a little more ‘Sunday morning after a long night.'”**_Darrell Arthur on the lingering Self-to-OSU rumors:_** “We’re not even thinking about it. He addressed it and said he’s not even thinking about that, so we’re just trying to think about this next game and Carolina and move on. I expect him to be back (next year), for sure.”**_Darrell Arthur on who’s best to body up on Tyler Hansbrough:_** “Probably Sasha or Darnell. Both of them play physical like he does, both of them go after the rebounds like he does, so probably those two.”**_Russell Robinson on being part of the star-studded starting point guard group at the Final Four:_** “The difference between me and those guys is those guys have to perform and perform very well for their team to be successful, where all I have to do is go out there and get the ball places and I don’t have to score a point and my team can win. There’s not as much pressure on me as far as going out there and putting up 20 points a game like those guys.”**_Sherron Collins on where Russell Robinson fits in with the starting point guards at the Final Four:_** “I think Russell’s the underdog in that category, but Russ plays hard on defense. That’s the thing with us. Our guards don’t have to be the main scorers, do so much on offense. We’ve got bigs, and we play through our bigs a lot. Russ’s job is different, he goes out and pressures, taking the leading scorers or top guard out of the game sometimes, and that’s what we need him to do. That’s what Russ takes pride in doing, and I think he’ll do it.”**_Sherron Collins on what he expects from Darrell Arthur against Tyler Hansbrough:_** “I think Shady will be ready. I think he’ll be pumped to play in a game like this. I think that’s when Shady’s at his best, with things stacked against him or he’s facing good bigs who are talked about more than he is. I think Shady’s a good athlete and he’ll be ready to play. I mean, these last couple games, Shady had a different feel, different look to himself, and I think that’s good for us.”**_Mario Chalmers on whether there’s any pressure on KU with the Roy Williams storyline:_** “I don’t think there’s any pressure for us. None of us really dealt with Roy Williams. He recruited me a little bit, but things didn’t turn out very well and I came to Kansas. But I don’t think there’s anything like that.”Glad to be of service to you.**3:47 p.m. -** Even more firm confirmation from Self, **given to Gary Bedore** after the presser: **”I’m not a candidate.”****3:25 p.m. – Some quotes from the beginning of coach Self’s presser…****_On Scott Sutton firing and the OSU coaching situation…_** “If it has been done, I feel bad for Sean, because I feel his team got better over the course of the year. I do care deeply about my alma mater. Spent 11 years of my life at OSU. But nobody from there has contacted me, and if they did, I would strongly reccommend they move in another direction.”(Self said again moments later that he would tell OSU to move in another direction if he were contacted. He said he plans on telling his players there’s nothing to it before today’s practice.)**_On Tyler Hansbrough…_**”Stating the obvious would be his toughness, his passion, he goes after it. You hear it all the time because we watch Carolina on TV all the time, he doesn’t take possessions off. But it’s true, he’s been like that many, many years. We recruited Tyler hard, back then you knew he’d be something special. His talent, his skill set has improved dramatically…””I think that you don’t want Tyler to have a huge night, obviously. He can not have a huge night, from an X’s and O’s standpoint and still come away with 22 points and 13 rebounds from an effort standpoint. He’s going to get points, and he’s going to get rebounds … (We have to) not let them get easy baskets that’s generated through transition, through second shots.”**_On Tywon Lawson…_** “Maybe as fast as anybody I’ve ever coached against going from defense to offense…”**_On the pace of play against UNC…_** “I think that we have to be who we are, and we’re at our best when we run as well. You look at the times we’ve struggled this year, and it’s basically been a low-possession game, and we couldn’t generate points off of defense or transition … We don’t want the score to be 110-108 – unless we have 110. But we do want possessions, and we want to play fast, because that’s who we are.”**_On having talked in recent years with Roy Williams…_** “We visit. It’s not anything unfriendly. But we never have got together over soda or anything and talked about what all’s transpired. But we’ve talked about doing that. We’ve talked about talking about it, but …” (Self finished the quote by saying due to distractions and opposite schedules during the summer time, it just hasn’t happened yet).**2:14 p.m. -** Turns out there can just never be enough controversy…The week of anticipated hype (you know, the whole Roy Williams angle?) went to another level late this morning (if you can either believe it or fathom it), with reports coming out now that [Sean Sutton is out as the head basketball coach at Oklahoma State.][1]Despite KU coach Bill Self having denied the rumor over, over, over, over, over and over throughout OSU’s tumultuous 2007-08 season that he’d bolt for T. Boone Pickens’ zillion-dollar offers to return to his alma mater, for some reason it just won’t die. **Expect Self to address it today at his press conference , which takes place in Hadl Auditorium at 3 p.m.**Players will be available to the media shortly thereafter, and I’ll be back with you with Self’s reaction to the re-surfacing OSU rumors, then a bit later with a bunch of stuff from the KU player interview sessions.Some angles which will probably be approached this afternoon…-How do you gameplan for Tyler Hansbrough?-Who’s sixth man will prove more valuable between Sherron Collins and Danny Green?-How do you get in the way of Tywon Lawson, possibly the nation’s most efficient point guard?-Thoughts on the other national semifinal matchup (UCLA v. Memphis)?Those plus MUCH more, for sure, in the form of audio and the printed word.Stay tuned to KUSports.com throughout the afternoon for more. [1]: http://www.newsok.com/article/3223760/

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