What Bill Self Said After Kansas Upset No. 1 Arizona at Home

Although his team trailed by as many as 11 points in the second half, head coach Bill Self and the Kansas Jayhawks pulled off one of the most improbable upsets ever seen in Allen Fieldhouse. The Jayhawks defeated a previously unbeaten Arizona squad despite being without their top scorer, Darryn Peterson, who missed the game due to flu-like symptoms.

Following the victory, Self went to the podium to speak with the media about the game. Here is everything notable the Hall of Famer had to say:

On Darryn Peterson's 'flu-like symptoms':

"Well, we don't know if it's the flu. It's flu-like symptoms, at least, that's what I've been told. So he didn't practice yesterday, but we were hoping he could play today, and he came out for shootaround and wasn't able to go. But we didn't know until probably 7:00, 7:30, that he probably wasn't gonna be able to go. But we knew it was 50/50 yesterday, that he may not be able to play."

On how he got a shorthanded group ready for the country's No. 1 team:

"Well, it's that five-minute pregame talk, it just did the deal. I think the guys were ready to play regardless. You know, the one thing about Darryn that's been positive is we have played without him, and we've actually been more aggressive individually a lot of times when he was not in the game. Now, we're not as good, but we're more aggressive individually. and I didn't think we were to start the game, but down the stretch, Melvin getting 25 shots, even though, he didn't make them, but getting downhill like that, and Flory's aggressiveness, and Bryson. That was — I don't know that we would have played that aggressively if he had been in the game, because he's getting a lot of those touches and a lot of those shots. But I didn't have to do much to get them ready, they did that all on their own."

On how Flory Bidunga performed against Arizona's 'grown men':

"I thought Flory did well, but their big guy is good. I mean, he's good, and we knew he was good, but I didn't know he's that good over both shoulders and this and that. He's really good. And Koa was terrific. You bring in a guy that could have played yesterday in Santa Clara off the bench as a defensive end. But we got dominated in the first half inside, but the second half, we didn't. It was a much closer game in the second half in the paint.

On showing more emotion than usual after the game:

"Well, I never do that. I'm never like that. I thought I was just playing to the crowd. But the crowd stuck around. I don't know why they stuck around. I don't know, but they stuck around. But I was excited. You know, I can't believe we've never played No. 1 in this building, because I thought we were one, and OU was also one when we played, but maybe that was just in the AP. But that was a great team we played tonight, and we had some things go right down the stretch that gave us the best chance to win. I think I was probably a little bit more emotional, because we're better than what we played when we get all our pieces. And to me, that's exciting. Now, whether or not that happens or not, I don't know, but I've said this all along. A lot of teams this time of year, when you get to early February, they know where their ceiling is, and the great teams are operating pretty close to their ceiling. I don't know where our ceiling is, and I know that we're not close to it yet. So I think that we've got another big step that we can take, and it's exciting to know that I believe our best ball can still be well ahead of us."

On Allen Fieldhouse's impact:

"I don't know that they were rattled. The first half against BYU, I think, was the best I've ever heard this building in a first half, but it wasn't any good the second half because we didn't do anything to play well to keep people excited. I think today was, and maybe it's because Darryn didn't play, they would have been excited regardless. They took ownership of making sure we didn't get tired. It's hard to get tired with Melvin playing 40 and everything else, it's hard to get tired when that crowd is like that. So there's a lot of great crowds out there, and everybody will think I'm biased by saying that we're the best, because I shouldn't say that, because I don't know exactly what everybody else has. But I can guarantee you, there's no place better than this place. Nobody can say they got a better joint than this one."

On Jamari McDowell's excellent first half:

"I thought he was great, you know, he and Bryson kept us in it in the first half. If it weren't for those two guys, we would have been behind and probably put ourselves in a position that may have been too much to come back."

On what a win over the No. 1 team can do for the team's confidence:

"I think it'll give us confidence, but I don't think that confidence has really been a big issue with us in the last three weeks or four weeks, or whatever. But I think it gives a confidence. Also, the way it went down, it was grimy. The way it went down, we didn't score, but we can't allow anybody else to score, and that's how we won the game late. And that's how you win. You know, the key to winning games isn't always about playing better than your opponent. It's making sure your opponent doesn't play as good as you, and we were able to do that in the second half."

On if it was one of his favorite regular season wins at Kansas:

"Yeah, you know, hopefully we're going play bigger games than this, or it'd be a disappointment. But I can't remember. I can't remember, with one day prep, of course, they had the same thing, 30-minute practice. Winning the last two Big Mondays the way that we've won them, Texas Tech and this one."