Bill Self Played Quotations

He's probably never played with other good players. And learning how to get those guys involved will be a process for him; one that he will catch onto, but not one he will catch onto overnight.

We played well last week. We've played really well the past five games.

It's a very tough place to play. If you've played well enough to win there, you've done a nice job.

We've been on a pretty good roll and certainly played a bad game tonight. Texas didn't become a bad team after Duke (a 31-point setback December 10) and we didn't become a bad team after these 40 minutes. We certainly aren't going to dwell on that.

Mario, Brandon and Russell all played very, very well. When they play well, they're about as good as any guards around, in my opinion.

Julian needs to play more. When he's played well, he's looked great. When he doesn't play well, he doesn't find a way to piece it together. It's been a feast-or-famine situation. He is getting more consistent.

He's young and just is trying to figure it out. ... I probably played Brandon too many minutes, and that may have contributed to him not being as effective. He said he wasn't tired, but certainly we've got to do a better job of getting guys in there and hopefully put them in a position where they can knock down a shot and give us a boost.

Their guards were terrific. They played well and certainly controlled the game.

We played great offensively. We made shots. The offense looks a lot better, and certainly we did (shoot threes) the best we've done all year.

We played bad tonight, but a large part of that was due to Texas. They could be a team that can challenge for it all. They were certainly too much for us to handle tonight. To play with teams that have it all, on their floor, we have another huge step to take.

We played bad. But that was in large part due to them. They would be a team that could challenge for it all tonight. They'd be tough for anybody to deal with. Certainly they were way too much for us.

We played bad, but that was a large part due to them. I haven't seen them all, but they would definitely be a team that could challenge for it all when they shoot so well.

We've actually played better away from home. Our four road games are the best games we've played all year. Our fourth-best home game hasn't been as good as our worst road game.

Yes, we played better than what we did during the regular season.

I don't think we played with the same energy we did last night. We did what we needed to do but certainly we can improve in a lot of areas.

I don't think we played with the same energy we did last night. But we made shots. ... Yesterday we made three shots outside of 6 feet for the game. Three. Today, if we did not make shots, it would have really been an ugly offensive game.

We needed a win like this. We've played better since Cal (a 69-56 win on Dec. 10), but we really haven't rocked anybody. But tonight we kept the foot on the gas.

I thought it was two teams playing really hard. I thought Oklahoma State played really tough and it rebounded well and pressured us out of what we wanted to do. We kind of did the same to them for awhile.

I thought Mario deserved third team, and I thought Russell (Robinson) deserved honorable mention, but there's a lot of other coaches that say the same thing about their players. Brandon certainly played at a certain level and led us from start to finish. He's deserving of that.

If we'd played man, he would have had 25 points.

I think every team goes through phases where they don't play quite as well, especially away from home. They probably haven't played as well in the last two games as they had been, but we've had numerous games like this as well. I don't know if the recent performances by either team will have much bearing on the game Saturday.

That was big because people forget that Young was the guy who really hurt us in Columbia with 14 points and six offensive rebounds. I thought that (Kaun) played great post defense, and C.J., too.

He deserves it. If you're going to tie for the championship, I think you have to have one guy up there. Brandon certainly played at a level deserving of that.

They had a better non-conference season than we did. But regardless of what happens (today), I think we've played well enough to be a four seed.

Down the stretch I just thought we executed and got stops defensively and of course rebounded the ball a lot better than we did the first time we played them.

I was disappointed in how we played not how we lost because Arizona's a great team. I thought we might be nervous and then Arizona's pressure set the tone early. Then we dug ourselves another hole we couldn't climb out of.

We played a lot better. We played a lot of different guys. I wanted to do that, to have everybody go home feeling good, and they should.

We probably played as good a defense the first 15 minutes as we've played all year. I thought our defense was great. We had a comfortable lead, but we should have scored eight or 10 more points.

I don't think they got many open looks at the basket. But, even when you shoot bad, you're going to make five of them. But, I thought we really played hard out there. Some of the guys didn't play well, but they played hard.

I will not go on record with you guys and comment on something he and I have not talked about. I'll let the dust settle a bit so emotion doesn't make the decision. He had a great freshman year, not played as well lately. We all get spoiled. He had a great year.