What Kansas HC Bill Self Said After Jayhawks’ Win Over Princeton

Bill Self spoke to the media following KU's 76-57 victory over Princeton on Saturday afternoon. Here are some notable quotes from his press conference.

On Darryn Peterson's injury status for Duke game:

"No, we don't know. We got some things to discuss, and we're looking at it. He's getting the best treatment, I mean, all that stuff. But he's got tightness in his right hamstring, and you know he wants to be out there so bad, but I'm not gonna put him out there until he feels well. You can say or think, well, we're trying to win the battle. Well, yeah, we are. But the battle is not nearly as important as the long-term, so to speak, and we have got to get him where he's not hesitant to play. We have seen him play, and he's pretty good, and we still haven't seen him whole yet. Think about that. We need to get him where he can explode without the thought in his mind that something negative could happen, and it probably won't. But I don't want to put him in a situation where he's got to think about that."

On his thoughts on Flory Bidunga and Tre White:

"I thought Flory was the best player in the game by far in the first half by far and gave us a lead, because we obviously weren't any good until then. And then, Tre did some good things too. So I would say, of our bright spots, those would probably be the two brightest ones."

On the upcoming matchup against Duke:

"I'm not in the best of spirits right at this moment, but we'll get fired up. We'll certainly spend the rest of today getting ourselves ready for practice tomorrow to implement how we want to guard them, or how we're going to attempt to guard them and get ready for the game. It'll be a big boy game. They're good, you know, they're young again. Somebody asked me if they're better than last year, and I said, 'Well, it's too early to tell, but this early in the season, I think they may execute their stuff better than last year, for sure.' Now, last year, what did they have, four or five first-round draft picks and three lottery picks? So, certainly, they're loaded again, and they got a guy (Cameron Boozer) who could foul out a whole team. So we've got to figure out some way to guard him."

On what frustrated him the most about KU's slow start:

"When a game plan is to deny backcuts, and they didn't throw it to him, but we were beat on the first possession twice. And then, they got up six threes, if I'm not mistaken, in the first four minutes and 30 seconds of the half. That's how you start a game. And switching up and doing all that stuff, I think that was poor, that set the tone. You know, I was pissed from the beginning. Wilder [Evers] has never entered a game that early in a game in his life. But I actually thought he did fine, and because we just didn't guard. It's okay not to be great offensively or whatnot, but you've got to be good defensively. And if you're not a great shooter or you're not making shots at this moment, then do something to help us win. And we didn't guard."

On whether he sees the 3-point shooting improving:

"It's got to get better. Yeah, it's got to get better. What were we, five of 21? What is that, 23% or whatever? I think we're better shooters than what we are. Now, granted, if Darryn is playing, it's a different deal, because hopefully he's the one shooting a third of those threes himself, but we're not obviously going to have him, at least for the immediate future. I just don't know how long that will be."