Davidson Wildcats vs Kansas Jayhawks postgame press conference

Posted Monday, March 31, 2008

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Detroit, MI - Sasha Kaun and Mario Chalmers had 13 points apiece as Kansas survived a last-second upset bid by No. 10 Davidson for a 59-57 victory in the Midwest Regional final yesterday.

After their lose to the Kansas Jayhawks in the regional finals of the NCAA Basketball Tournament, Davidson's head basketball coach Bob McKillop and players Stephen Curry, Jason Richards and Bryant Barr talked with the press.

THE MODERATOR: We'd like to start off by having Coach McKillop make an opening statement.

COACH McKILLOP: Congratulations to the University of Kansas. This was a great basketball game in front of a great audience, both live here in the stadium as well as I'm sure across the national media market.

The challenge of having not the opportunity to celebrate the greatness of what this team has accomplished this year in the current disappointment of our loss today teaches us some great lessons. And our guys are very good learners.

The lessons that they learned throughout this year, and of course in this very difficult defeat, far transcend the basketball court. I'm sure they're going to capitalize upon them as they build very successful futures.

I couldn't be prouder of a group of men. I think they represented Davidson College with the greatest poise, with the greatest commitment of self, and with a remarkable run in this very, very compelling sporting event.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

We'll open it up for questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Seemed like your defensive strategy really kept you in this game. You played Duke, North Carolina, UCLA. Gave them all games early in the season. Was it kind of a similar strategy you used then compared to this game? How would you grade the defense you played today?

STEPHEN CURRY: No matter who we play, we take pride in our defense. And, I mean, we like to score. But we definitely take pride in getting stops and being aggressive on the defensive end.

We held them to 30 points below their average this year. We played great defense. Just down the stretch we missed a lot of shots, didn't make plays that we needed to to get ahead.

Our defense was there. Rebounding, we struggled a little bit. But our defense was definitely solid the whole game.

Q. Steph, could you describe the last play from your point of view, and especially when Brandon fell down, whether you thought you had a look. Jason, could you describe your last shot, whether it was a good look, your emotions when it missed.

STEPHEN CURRY: It was designed to be a flat ball screen at the top of the key to get penetration. But they had four guards out there and they just switched. Kind of defeated the purpose of the play. I gave them a pump fake to try to get a look, but I was off balance when he fell down. So I saw Jay open at the top of the key, so I swung it to him. He put it up. I wished it went in, but it didn't.

JASON RICHARDS: Yeah, Steph did a great job getting two guys on him. He found me. I was open at the top of the key. The guy ran me. I thought it was a good look. Felt like it was in. Unfortunately, it missed.

Emotions through my body, I don't know. It's tough to describe 'em. I mean, it's not the greatest feeling ever.

Q. Steph, four players took a chance to play defense. How did you deal with that? You had Michael Flowers Friday, then a whole tandem of Kansas players today.

STEPHEN CURRY: Just sticking to our system. Everybody I faced this weekend were great defenders. They used their athleticism to fight through screens to get a hand up. I just stuck to what I've been doing all year: feeding off my screens from big guys, allowing Jason to make plays and feed me the ball.

So I was really comfortable in my role just coming off screens and finding shots. Regardless of who was defending me, I was going to stick to the same game plan, the same system.

Q. In the final timeout in the final huddle, what happened? It looked like you were kind of holding the clipboard at one point and pointing to something.

STEPHEN CURRY: I don't remember touching the clipboard. We had a group talk about what kind of play we wanted to run. Just throwing ideas out. We came up with a solid game plan to attack the last 17 seconds.

We just didn't execute in the right way, so...

I don't know what you saw in the timeout. But we just tried to come up with a solid play to get a shot up.

BRYANT BARR: I mean, like Steph said, coach was throwing some ideas out there, and Steph and Jay are two of our team leaders. Everyone on the team respects them a whole bunch and trusts them. When they're talking, the rest of the team's listening.

Q. Steph, how successful was Kansas in making you uncomfortable out there?

STEPHEN CURRY: They had a lot of bodies and a lot of athletic guys who could chase me the whole game. Towards the end there, I got some good looks. They just didn't fall like they were the whole tournament.

I mean, credit to them. They did make me work hard and make me just fight off screens, get the shot up quicker than normal 'cause they had a great length to get hands in my face.

But I got good shots. We all had a chance to make plays on the stretch. They just didn't fall for us. We can't hang our heads on that. We had opportunities; we just didn't execute.

Q. Jason, the margin between winning and losing in this game, obviously, was very small. You missed a couple free throws. How frustrating is that when you know you're that close?

JASON RICHARDS: You can play the "what if" game in your head as many times as you want. But, I mean, we played a great game against a great Kansas team. Unfortunately we came out on the losing end of it.

You can't look at any significant play. It was a full game, an intense 40 minutes by both teams. We had the opportunity to win at the end. Unfortunately the shot didn't fall.

Q. Steph, where does this leave you? Has it sunk in how remarkable these past two weeks have been for you? Where do you go from here as a sophomore?

STEPHEN CURRY: I'm definitely proud of our team. I mean, we made history for our school. We proved a lot of people wrong, what they expected out of us this year. I mean, it hurts a lot to get this far, be so close to get to the Final Four, just succeed more as a team.

But, I mean, looking back, I'm definitely proud of what we've accomplished and what we're about and what we've just proven all year. I mean, I'm not really looking into the future right now. I mean, just looking back on this tournament, this team we have now, realizing that we've done great things this year. I mean, we're gonna -- it's gonna hurt. This game's gonna hurt a lot for the next however long. But I'm just happy to be a part of this team and be a part of what we accomplished.

Q. How tired were you in the second half?

JASON RICHARDS: Exhausted. I mean, Kansas does a great job defensively. Steph said, they rotated defenders on all of us. Good job of pressuring the ball full court. They're a very good team. They're deserving of the No. 1 seed. They deserve to be in the Final Four.

But towards the end of the game, even though we were tired, I mean, we still had the energy to try to finish it out and try to get a win.

STEPHEN CURRY: Same thing. I mean, their four-guard rotation where they could throw kind of the same defender at you, same style, it really took a toll towards the end.

Regardless of that, we had an opportunity to win. So fatigue is a factor, but we fought through to the best of our abilities and still had a shot to win it at the end.

Q. Jason, as a guy who really directs this team and has shown a lot of poise throughout the season to get this team together, can you talk about your front court guys. A lot of those guys really played physical and surprised a lot of Kansas players with how they played, the trapping in the paint. Talk about the intensity they showed today.

JASON RICHARDS: Our front court is amazing. No one ever gave us a chance in this tournament because they said our front court wasn't strong enough. But we've proved so many people wrong. I'm so proud of our big guys. Going up against bigger guys every game, physical guys every game, they battle for 40 minutes.

They did a tremendous job on Kansas' frontline, which is probably one of the better ones in the country. I'm so proud of them, I can't say anything more about them.

But, I mean, I love to have them as teammates. They've done so much for us - not just this game, not just this tournament, but the entire year.

Q. Jason, despite the last play not coming out as you planned it, did you like the look you had, your spot on the floor, the ball in your hands at that moment when you let it go?

JASON RICHARDS: Yeah, you dream about that type of stuff when you're a little kid, having the opportunity to win the game, take your team to the Final Four. I had a great look. Steph saw me open at the top of the key. We had a chance to win the game, beat Kansas, the No. 1 seed. Maybe you could say we could have got a better shot. At that point it seemed the best shot for us. I felt comfortable taking the shot. You have to have confidence as a basketball player to take that shot. My team had confidence in me. Unfortunately, I just missed the shot and fell short.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, student-athletes.

COACH McKILLOP: I'd like to follow up on a couple questions. You asked about the toughness of our front court. I don't know if this is an excuse at all, but I offer this as a statement about toughness.

Thomas Sander broke his thumb in the Gonzaga game in the first half. Has had a broken thumb since then, has not practiced since then, gets shot up before every game. You want to talk about toughness. My goodness.

Question about Jason taking that last shot. We go through dress rehearsals. We go through live situations in practice. And the number of times he's made a shot like that as the buzzer goes off in his four years, not just this year, not just last year, but in four years, he's a guy that you want with the ball in his hands in that situation.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Your team showed so much poise and didn't seem fazed by the situation at all. Have they been like that all year or is this something that developed?

COACH McKILLOP: We expected to win. We didn't come here content or satisfied. We expected to win. This has been a 12-month mission. It came down to one final play. That's the beauty of this game that we play.

Q. Could you describe how you diagrammed the final play. Was it your intention to have Steph take it in after bringing it up?

COACH McKILLOP: We have trust between our players and our coaches. I always try to get a response, a reaction, a feel from them as to what their confidence level is.

We broached the topic of the flat ball screen with Steph at the end. Wanted to make sure he was confident. And he was so confident that he also offered sort of a secondary option in which we were gonna screen for Bryant Barr, if Steph did get no look at all.
Every player and me will beat ourselves up about what we or did not do because every play counts. We believe that. That's the way we coach. That's the way we play.

I made the mistake of not realizing to tell our guys, set the ball screen with the big rather than with Chalmers guarding. In the aftermath, the immediacy of that, that did not come out in the huddle. That's the mistakes I made.

But, yet if Jason Richards makes that shot, we're geniuses and we're in the Final Four. So I'd take that shot again. I'd put it in Jason's hand again. And it was a great shot.

Q. Could you talk about Bryant's game. Seemed like when Kansas picked up their intensity midway through the second half, he sort of held the fort down with those threes.

COACH McKILLOP: There's so much attention paid to Steph that somehow, somewhere, somebody's gonna get open. Jason's gonna find 'em or Steph's gonna find 'em. That's what happened. We've expected Bryant to perform that way. That's not a surprise for us. We expect that Bryant will make that kind of statement for us next year.

Q. In the last huddle, into the final possession, to what degree was there any consideration of going for two rather than three?

COACH McKILLOP: Well, with the flat ball screen, it's not a guaranteed three. It gives a lane for penetration or it gives a step back for the three. So we never discussed two or three. It's a play that evolves into Steph Curry being able to make a play. Part of making a play is getting a shot for a jumper, getting a lane to the basket to drive, or delivering the ball as the alternative option, Bryant Barr coming off a screen.

Q. You talked about every play counts. Certain possessions where things maybe didn't go y'all's way. Missed a few throws, a couple shots roll off. Is that what's kind of agonizing about games like this, you can look back and say a couple things go differently, it's different?

COACH McKILLOP: Well, the agony of this is that we've come so far, smelled and touched and seen our dream, but haven't fully embraced it because of one possession at the end there.

But it wasn't one possession at the end; it was one possession here, one possession there. There will be so many opportunities to reflect upon which was that possession.

Q. You've talked about the perfect game. Do you feel like this whole run, you got a perfect effort? How will this change Davidson basketball? You may have guys contacting you who didn't sweep floors or weren't Mr. Main Basketball, but maybe more prestigious places.

COACH McKILLOP: We came two points away from advancing to the Final Four. For a school with 1700 students, with the academic rigor that we have, playing in the Southern Conference, which is not one of the BCS conferences, is a remarkable statement about effort.

We can talk all we want about our effort. But I think anyone that saw the game and watched it on TV saw a magnificent, magnificent effort upon the part of this team - not just today, but throughout the season.

The sadness of this whole situation is that we can't celebrate the four months of greatness because now we'll reflect upon what finished the season. My father was a New York City cop. He used to always tell me to polish the backs of your shoes because that's the last thing people see of you.

Q. Can you talk about the game plan going into this game against a well-known athletic team compared to what you had to face against Duke, UCLA, North Carolina, all games that it seemed like you were really competitive in? Was there much of a difference or a similar approach?

COACH McKILLOP: Attack the attacker. We will not back down from anybody. We see ourselves sometimes in the middle of the boxing ring and we always want to fight stepping forward, and we always want to be in the middle.

We understand we're going to get knocked to the mat. We understand we may get knocked to the ropes. But we also understand that we may have to fight it outside the ring and get into the street, and maybe even go house to house, and we're gonna do that.

Q. The second part about what this will do for Davidson College and do you want it to change?

COACH McKILLOP: I clearly believe that Davidson College has become somewhat of a darling in the country. If ever you'd want a face to be the darling of the country, it's this group of young men who represent us.

I'd be remiss if I didn't say thanks to the media for how clearly, how candidly, how professionally they have presented us, and the integrity with which they've presented us. That's a pretty good marriage.

So I'm expecting that we'll capitalize on it.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much, Coach.

Kansas head basketball coach Bill Self with players Brandon Rush, Mario Chalmers and Sasha Kaun spoke with the media.

THE MODERATOR: We'd like to have Coach Self start off things with a brief comment.

COACH SELF: Well, I apologize for my attire, but our team thought we just won a football bowl game in the locker room. They got me pretty good with the water jug.

But needless to say, I'm proud, happy, relieved. There's a lot of adjectives to describe it. I'm most happy for our players that have played so hard, won so many games. Really feel like without a win today, you know, their careers would be incomplete.
Now we have a chance to go play for the highest of stakes.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Brandon, you probably have taken the ball up court many times in your career with the crowd behind you looking to score to win. How did it feel today to be the defensive player in that situation at the end of the game?

BRANDON RUSH: I felt good. I felt confident out there. We had a great team out there. We were switching ball screens. So that was easy for us to defend. Managed to take a tough shot. That's what we did, got a win. It feels good.

Q. Talk about being one of the first groups to be all No. 1 seeds in the Final Four, what does that mean to you guys?

MARIO CHALMERS: That means a lot to us. It makes us part of history. We wanted to come in here and be part of history and be part of our first Final Four, and we was able to do that tonight.

Q. Brandon, you fell on that last defensive possession. Did you trip over a foot, slip? What were you thinking when you went down?

BRANDON RUSH: I was thinking, we was already switching, so it was easy for me to get back up and recover. I did slip on somebody's foot, but I managed to get back up. Get back into the play, switch back on Curry, make Richards take a tough shot.

Q. Brandon, you have spoken very openly about wanting to do this for Coach Self. Can you talk about the significance of coming through for him.

BRANDON RUSH: It feels good. Just for him. He's been stuck in the Elite 8 for the last few years. This feels good just to make that push into the Final Four for him.

Q. Sasha, pretty dominant performance. Did you feel you could take advantage of your height advantage going into this game?

SASHA KAUN: I mean, Coach Self was kind of emphasizing before the game, we're bigger than them, we need to get the ball inside, take advantage of the size. I thought the guards did a pretty good job of getting us the ball and using that height advantage to our game.

Q. How tough a game was that to play? It was obviously five-point differential the whole time. Was this one of the more tense games you have had this year?

MARIO CHALMERS: It was a very tough game out there. We had to focus in, guard two players. Two players had a great night tonight in Curry and Richards. Their bench did a good job, too.

It was a very tough game for us. I think it was one of our toughest games we had this year.

Q. Brandon, I know you said you got up quick when you fell down. When you saw him with the ball in that spot, did you think he had a pretty good chance to hit it?

BRANDON RUSH: No. 'Cause Sherron was on him for a while. We managed to switch back. My man set a pick. We managed to switch back, tried to get a stop. We managed to get a stop at the right time.

Q. What did you think when the ball was in the air?

MARIO CHALMERS: That last shot, I kind of had a feeling in my heart that it wasn't going in because the way he shot it. It looked like he was leaning to the left a little bit. His shot kind of faded to the left. When I turned back, I seen it hit the backboard, I was just relieved.

SASHA KAUN: For me, I was just watching from the bench. As soon as he shot it, probably the longest shot I've seen in my life, just being in the air for so long. Just relieved when I saw it hit the backboard. Just happy after that.

Q. Mario, watching them on tape, did your respect for Davidson grow throughout the game?

MARIO CHALMERS: Definitely. Watching them on tape, you don't get to see everything they do. You don't get to see as many times as they do it. They came out, executed their plays very good. Coach Manning did a very good job of going over the scouting report and preparing us for this game.

Q. What did you do on Steph to hold him to a poor shooting night?

BRANDON RUSH: We just made him take tough shots tonight. We forced him into some bad shots. He still managed to get his shots, 25. That's his average.

I think we did a pretty good job on him tonight.

MARIO CHALMERS: I agree with Brandon. We just tried to keep somebody on him the whole time. Keep him frustrated. Keep somebody in his hip pocket. Brandon did a good job of that. Sherron did a good job of that. I did a good job of that, too.

Q. Whose idea was it to get Coach Self with the water and is that guy going to San Antonio?

BRANDON RUSH: He's from San Antonio. It was Chase Buford.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks, student-athletes. Now we'll continue with questions for Coach Self.

Q. What was your strategy guarding him? Did you have a specific amount of time you were going to keep one defender on him before switching?

COACH SELF: No. Initially we were going to put Russell on him because we thought it could wear Brandon out if he guarded him too much. Put Russell on him and then when Russell went to the bench, switched and put Brandon on him. That was initially what we were going to do.

Then, you know, it really helped us during the stretch after he got off to the great start the second half, we went, we call it airplane, but a box and one, then we went triangle and two. When we went triangle and two, that's when Barr lit us up for two straight.
We tried to guard him based on personnel in the game. The guys did a pretty good job on him. When you're not scoring points like we weren't because our offense wasn't very good at all, it puts so much pressure on your defense. So when a guy makes a shot or makes two shots, you feel like you're not guarding anybody. Well, that wasn't the case at all. We made him work to get his points.
If you told me before the game he'd go for 9 for 25, I'd say our chances would be pretty good. But he's a fabulous player. I think something else, our big guys for the most part did a really good job of -- you know, Darnell didn't switch out once, and Sasha didn't switch out once, and they came away with six points on that. They did a really good job of showing, to take away that initial shot when he caught the ball in the perimeter, to let our perimeter defender recover.

Q. Security found an 800-pound gorilla with your name on it.

COACH SELF: I thought it was 1200 pounds. 800 may have been a little light.

Q. Did you have a second to think about the game in addition to the pressure that you've talked pretty frankly about, the three other No. 1's advance before your game?

COACH SELF: I was really, really wanting Texas to win big time. You know, I like Rick. They're in the same league. But there was one other reason: 'cause it's never happened before. So when Texas (sic) won, I'm like, Good gosh, we got to make history today.
But, you know, you can believe in those things or not. But I don't think that had anything to do with how we played today. I do think this: I don't want to say we played poorly, because that takes away from Davidson. They muddied up the game for us very, very well. They did a good job defensively against us. We actually did a good job defensively against them. They're good. But it was a hard game for our guys.

This game has a different feel to it than a lot of other games. I thought that we were loose. I thought everything was great. Warmups, everything was great. But I even talked to our guys in there afterwards, it just has a different feel because everybody knows the stakes are so high. Playing Davidson, you know, even though it's not -- even though they're as good, but they don't have the same "wow" factor with the name of their school, not being from a BCS conference or whatever, I think in some ways maybe put a little subtle pressure on you, as well.

Our guys didn't handle it great, but we were tough enough to get the win, which is all that matters.

Q. Can you take me or us through the last 16.8 seconds, what's going through your mind, specifically the shot that goes up?

COACH SELF: Well, Bob called timeout. We went small. So our whole deal was, you know, I just told them, We are not going to let them shoot a three. We're going to make them be drivers. Do not let them shoot a three. From my standpoint, that's the only way you could lose the game.

It surprised me that Steph brought the ball up. I figured they would run him off screens to try to get him to catch it. If you do that, there's a chance he won't touch it. They made sure they put the ball in their best player's hand. We did a good job of switching.
At the end, when Richards shot the ball, from my view, you know, it looked like it had a real good chance to go in. Of course, it was wide left. Then the horn blew. It was like, Why is the horn going off? I can't believe that 16 seconds has already passed.
But our guys did do a good job there late.

Q. You look at Sasha's numbers, 20 minutes, 13 points, perfect from the field, had a big free throw down there at the end. Talk about his performance.

COACH SELF: If we're going to give Player of the Game, you give it to Mario the first half. 'Cause Mario carried us when we didn't have any offense, made three or four shots. Then you'd give it to Sasha the second half. I think he's played very, very well for the last three or four weeks. He played good against 'Nova, as well. He had a great tournament. I'm happy for him to make the all tournament team. Nobody's represented themselves or the school anywhere any better than Sasha has. It's great to see him having some success.

Q. You talked about the different feel, the "Wow" factor, all that. Was Sasha immune to all that?

COACH SELF: He's just been really focused, really focused. I don't know how you guys viewed it, but it didn't look like we had the same quickness or speed tonight as what we've had in other games. Trust me, it wasn't a game plan. Our deal was, Let's run, let's pressure. When those things weren't allowed to take place because of Davidson, the way they played, I felt like we got pretty stale or stagnant.

I don't think it was the atmosphere or the game as much caused us to play that way. I think it was more the way Davidson played against us and how they controlled the tempo and some things like that. And then the longer the game goes on, and you can't do your deal that you want to do, then it gets a little frustrating.

You know, we had control of the game in the second half, up four or six. Then they go up four. But that's when we played our best ball, when we went from down four to up whatever we were.

Q. I'm sure you're aware that the media will make a huge thing of the game with North Carolina for a variety of reasons, first and foremost Roy coaching against Kansas. How do you plan to handle that mania this week?

COACH SELF: Well, they probably will be asking him all the questions about it as opposed to me.

I can't speak for Roy. But it's a game against -- North Carolina's players against Kansas' players. It's been five years since Roy went to Carolina. I'm sure I'll say this again, I'll say it now: as Kansas fans, representing Kansas, we should be proud of the time that Roy gave us, because excellence was definitely the standard while he was there.

There may be some talk about it, all those things. But our focus will not be on that. Our focus will be on their team. When fans get upset, all that is is a backhanded compliment because they didn't want you to leave. I'm sure Roy knows that.

But this should be about players instead of coaches.

Q. You said yesterday you think every day about going to the Final Four. What are you going to do with all that time now?

COACH SELF: Think about winning it now (smiling). Yeah, we've had a great run. At Tulsa, you get there once. You think, We'll get back. The next year at Illinois, we got back. You know, it's not that hard, we'll get back. Next thing you know, it's hard. Lot of things have to go your way.

This is one of those games where basically the game did not go as scripted, did not go our way in large part, but we did catch a couple breaks. Of course, the last missed shot was the biggest.

But I think from my vantage point, I'm just speaking off the top of my head, I don't know how I'll feel, but I think we should have a great week because, of practice and preparation, the hard part is just beginning, but in our guys and minds there's been a weight that has been lifted which should free us up a little bit.

Q. After having won a regional final, was it tougher than what you thought it was going to be to actually get it done?

COACH SELF: Well, we're 1-4 in these games, so it's pretty tough.

You know, I knew today's game would be a tough game. I thought if we could play the way that we want to play, could get up and down, those sorts of things. There was only about a five-minute stretch in the first half where that actually occurred, where there was good rhythm on both teams. I thought we would be okay.

I thought it would be a tough game. But one thing about doubt entering into the picture with me personally today, I felt good about -- I felt good about the situation because going into the tournament, I thought this was our time. I thought this was the most prepared team we had, the best team we've had. I just thought this would be our time.

Q. I think you watched that last play on one knee down there courtside.

COACH SELF: Yeah, trust me, I was on both knees (laughter).

Q. Can you recall your immediate emotions when the shot misses and the horn goes off.

COACH SELF: I would say instead of jubilation, it was probably more relief. You know, you picture the way you picture winning a big game like that, you make a shot, you celebrate, or something happens, you're able to go congratulate all your coaches and your players. This was not one of those deals. I just wanted to make sure that I hurry up and shook hands, and the officials left the court so they couldn't put any more time back on the clock (smiling).

Q. How much relief did the players express to you in the locker room?

COACH SELF: The whole thing in this situation, we never once talked about not being successful. We never once talked about bad things happening or whatever. All we've talked about is, you know, you got to go take what you want. You have to go attack mode. You have to be the aggressor in everything you do, everything you do. So that's how we've talked.

To be honest with you, the first three games of the tournament, that's how we played. But when things did not go great early, you know, we got good looks early, didn't make shots. We've been making those shots all tournament, and didn't make them. It was kind of like, Okay, this is going to be a grind-it-out game.

But I don't know if there was relief with the guys, maybe for the seniors, because there's no safety net for them. But, you know, it's a pretty proud group. You can't operate in a relief mode or hope mode. You know, you can't hope things to happen; you have to make them happen. I think our guys have had that philosophy.

But still, with all that being said, you know, definitely, you know, there was some hoping and praying going on in there late.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach.

COACH SELF: Thank you.