Here is the Cliff’s Notes version of Kansas men’s basketball coach Bill Self’s comments at his weekly press conference today.
• Self is not worried about Sherron Collins. Self doesn’t agree with Bob Knight saying Collins should have been benched to start the second half. You play your best players. If a quarterback throws two picks in the first half, you still start him in the second half. If it had been a discipline or effort issue, you can do whatever. But Self isn’t going to put the winningest player in the history of KU basketball on the bench because he’s shooting poorly. Self wasn’t happy with Collins’ play in the first half, and he did jump on him at halftime.
• Collins is not being aggressive. He’s not driving the ball. He needs to get his shoulders past his defender. Collins has been through stretches like this before. The Texas A&M game was probably Collins’ poorest game since the UMass game last year.
• Self agrees more with Knight on his evaluation saying Cole Aldrich is the most efficient player in the Big 12. If you look at shooting percentage and rebounds per minute and blocks per minute, he’s done well. Aldrich didn’t play his best against A&M, either. But Marcus Morris is playing pretty good right now, too. Self a few years ago was asked about Brandon Rush being in a slump of Mario Chalmers being in a slump. Self still thinks he hasn’t seen this team all on the same page offensively.
• KU’s chemistry is really good. The biggest reason for that is that they genuinely like each other off the court. The old guys have accepted the young guys, and Xavier Henry has done a great job with his teammates. Guys are open to giving up themselves to making the team better. These guys don’t have egos, and they don’t care who scores the points. Guys like the feeling of winning better than they like the feeling of getting a shot up in a key situation.
• Xavier in interviews is always team-first. He never talks about situations that don’t impact this year’s team. There’s been a lot of speculation about his status in the future, but he never talks about that.
• Self thought Texas A&M was quicker than KU on the boards. Self thought his bigs did a poor job. Sometimes, rebounding is the luck of the bounce, and KU had some bad bounces in that game. The Jayhawks were good on the boards, though, with the game on the line.
• The reason that KU went to overtime against Colorado wasn’t because the Jayhawks weren’t ready — it was because the Jayhawks didn’t play well. KU played tired. Self’s goal against CU is to have his guys look fresh.
• Tyshawn Taylor will start against CU over Brady Morningstar. Self wants to see his speed in there. This isn’t a result of Morningstar playing poorly. Self just thinks KU needs more out of Taylor. Self knows this won’t affect Morningstar. Taylor is a guy that can make plays that you can’t coach. KU needs to focus on getting him playing his best.
• Taylor is trying really hard. He’s tried really hard in practice. The last two games, Self felt like KU played its best when Taylor was in the game.
• KU guarded CU’s stuff average last game. The Jayhawks didn’t create any havoc defensively. KU has to do something to not allow them to get comfortable. Over time, KU has shown it can guard pretty well.
