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00:00 Great day to be a Mountaineer.
00:02 I don't know that one, that one felt good.
00:05 That's what our guys needed, you know, for that confidence to start snowballing in the right direction.
00:13 It's one thing to get a top 25 win in Texas.
00:15 It's another thing to, you know, beat a Hall of Fame coach and top five program, you know, at home.
00:23 So, hopefully that goes a long ways, their confidence in terms of moving forward
00:27 and continuing the grind through the Big 12's because it really is a grind.
00:32 So, I told those guys before the game, you know, we had a great game plan.
00:37 I thought we had a great game plan against Oklahoma.
00:41 I told them you might as well, you know, tear it up and start it on fire if you don't out-rebound them
00:46 and figure out a way to, you know, be neck and neck with them on the glass.
00:50 And I said, if we come in here minus 14, minus 15 on the glass, there's no chance we're winning.
00:56 And, you know, they heard it loud and clear and out-rebounded them by nine.
01:01 So, that was probably a huge difference in the game.
01:06 Questions?
01:07 So, you continue with that a little bit, rebounding.
01:09 You've talked a lot about the problems there.
01:11 So, what was it that led to the plus nine?
01:15 I think it was effort in a lot of ways.
01:17 I mean, it wasn't, you know, you look at the--
01:20 sometimes it's a little bit skewed in terms of shooting percentages and who's, you know, getting those rebounds.
01:25 But we were neck and neck with shooting percentage, and when we shot 52, they shot 53.
01:31 So, yeah, I think, you know, we were quicker to the ball in a lot of cases.
01:36 And if you look back to the Oklahoma game, it seems like they were quicker to everything in that regard as well.
01:42 So, life on the road in this league can be a bear.
01:46 And I know they had some travel issues or foresaw some travel issues.
01:50 So, they came in a day before, and they were here all day yesterday.
01:55 But, yeah, you know, some of that comes into play, even sitting around in the hotel all day on a snowy day.
02:01 So, they probably got their rest.
02:04 But regardless, you know, I felt like we were quicker to the ball in everything we did.
02:10 And that can--in a game of inches, that can be the difference.
02:14 Coach, there were obviously a lot of plays at the end of the game that are going to make the headlines.
02:18 But the first half kind of stands out to me in the fact that both teams just couldn't really stop each other.
02:25 Everyone's making, you know, fantastic shots, and the game's tied at halftime.
02:30 I mean, what can you say about the first half and then how much did it play into this game?
02:35 I'm not going to lie. I was very concerned.
02:37 You know, the game plan was, you know, shore up the paint and do everything we can to keep Hunter Dickinson from beating us.
02:44 You know, as they just force it down low.
02:46 You know, he ended up with 19 points.
02:48 But as I said, you know, the one thing that I think KU challenged--or is challenged with is they--
02:55 all the guys--or all the teams in the league, they don't shoot it all that well, or they don't shoot a high volume of threes.
03:01 So, I said, "Let's make them shoot us out of this game.
03:05 If they're going to win, they're going to have to shoot us out of it."
03:08 And so, between Furphy and Timberlake, I mean, I think they had five threes between the two of them in the first half.
03:15 And that ball kept on going down for them.
03:17 So, that was a bit concerning early.
03:19 But, consequently, on the other end, we were filling it up as well.
03:23 So, shots were falling for us.
03:25 And so, that was kind of--we were neck and neck.
03:28 But going into halftime, you look at it, and it's 51 all.
03:32 And we've had a lot of halftimes where we came out flat and didn't really perform in the second half.
03:37 But, you know, you give up 51 and a half, that's very concerning in terms of trying to win a tough, you know, Big 12 match anywhere.
03:44 Whether it be on the road or at home.
03:46 - What's going through your mind when the students come out on the court?
03:51 - I didn't really think about it.
03:53 It was--you know, I was--you know, I grew up in Kansas.
04:01 And I was a Kansas State grad.
04:03 And my entire--I have a huge Catholic family.
04:06 And 95% of people in my family go to Kansas State.
04:09 So, I've watched Big 8 basketball to Big 12 basketball, and I've always--KU's been always--always been a dominant program.
04:17 And I always respected that the year in, year out, that they were winning, winning big.
04:24 And so, I think the first thing that came to mind is--you know, I think about my dad.
04:31 You know, my dad was a K-State grad, and he didn't have much of a love affair for Kansas by any means.
04:38 And I lost him six and a half years ago, and I started thinking about him, to be honest with you, you know, how proud he'd have been.
04:46 And so, I didn't think a lot about what the students were doing.
04:50 I have a lot of respect for Coach Self, Hall of Fame coach, and their entire staff and their program,
04:55 and what they've done over the years and been able to accomplish over the years consistently year in and year out.
05:01 And for me, you know, that was the first thought that went through my head.
05:06 And, you know, it's probably--it still hasn't sank in yet.
05:11 What was your dad's name?
05:12 Jim Eilert.
05:13 Jim.
05:14 Charles, there'd be a lot of coaches that would get away from what you did, from your game plan,
05:19 after they go 6-for-12 from 3 and are, you know, staying in it like that.
05:23 Did you all have any thought of that, or were you saying, "Hey, we've got to live and die with this"?
05:28 You know, as long as we're neck and neck, I was okay with it.
05:33 If it felt like it was starting to get out of hand, I probably would have made some adjustments.
05:39 But I've seen KU as quick as they can make a run on you.
05:43 I tried to, you know, stop that when I felt like it was going in the wrong direction,
05:47 and try to stop that quick regardless of trying to--you know, a lot of times I probably get in a bad habit
05:53 of trying to save too many timeouts.
05:56 And, you know, I think I'm learning as I go to probably need to use those and fire those off early
06:01 if I can stop those runs and stop that momentum.
06:04 Coach, so many disappointments in the last eight months.
06:08 Is something like this something you'd like to savor a little bit, maybe a smidge longer,
06:12 because it's such a high?
06:14 Yeah, I'm going to savor it tonight. I promise you that.
06:17 I'm going to savor it with my family.
06:19 And, you know, we've been through a lot.
06:23 This fan base has been through a lot.
06:25 And so it's just incredible that, you know, we're 6-11 going into this game,
06:32 and we've got 12,000-plus in here supporting us.
06:36 And, yeah, I'm going to savor it, but it's this league you turn around
06:41 and you've got to prepare for a good Central Florida team that, you know, KU--
06:46 I mean, they went in there and had a 16-point lead and ended up coming out of there with a loss.
06:52 So I'm going to savor it tonight, but tomorrow it's right back to it
06:56 to figure out a game plan for Central Florida,
06:58 because we turn around and leave on Monday and play on Tuesday down in Orlando.
07:03 Josh, so Jesse warms up. He's dressed. He didn't play him.
07:06 I don't know if you ever even really sort of thought about it.
07:09 But did you think about it, and how close is he to actually getting a game action?
07:13 I think he's a lot closer than I thought he was going to be.
07:16 I didn't know how the appointment was going to go
07:18 and how the pictures and whatever it may be, the x-ray or MRI, whatever they did,
07:24 I didn't know how it was going to come out.
07:26 He got a good report, but he was in a brace until then, so he hadn't had any movement.
07:34 We threw him out in practice yesterday, and he was raring to go and raring to try it out
07:40 and wants to do everything he can to help the team.
07:42 And we went a little bit of five-on-five,
07:44 and it was a little bit tender when he started guarding the guys.
07:47 So we backed off real quick to make sure that we don't set him backwards.
07:53 We want to make sure that we have him moving forward, and we don't need to have a setback.
07:57 You weren't tempted today. That decision was already sort of made.
08:01 We had some conversations, Jesse and I, and I said,
08:05 "What happens if we got two bigs and foul trouble, and it's a tight ballgame under five minutes?"
08:10 He's like, "Coach, I'll do whatever it takes to win."
08:14 I don't know if he can be very effective with it, but he's a team guy.
08:18 He'll do anything for the team to a fault.
08:21 But at the end of the day, I have to do what's right by Jesse
08:24 and make sure we don't set him back in terms of his career, his long term.
08:30 It's a bigger picture thing with him.
08:32 Coach, would you agree that Sumnick outplayed Dickinson tonight?
08:36 He was more aggressive.
08:39 I would say tonight, yes, he got the most of him.
08:43 I would have never thought Sumnick would have been--
08:46 to get 15 field goal attempts by any means.
08:50 But yeah, he was four offensive rebounds. He was active.
08:54 I was hoping we could put Hunter in every single ball screen we could possibly put him in,
08:59 and that was kind of the game plan going into it because guys that size
09:03 have a hard time out there on the floor of the garden and showing and hedging.
09:09 So that was kind of the game plan. Let's make him-- put him out there in space.
09:14 Pat's a little different in terms-- he's not a traditional big,
09:18 and that kind of worked in our favor in some instances,
09:22 especially on the offensive end.
09:24 On the defensive end, certainly you've got to mismatch down there.
09:27 And we do everything we can to fight Hunter, and we had a game plan of doubling him
09:32 because he is such a special player in a low block.
09:36 But yeah, on the offensive end, I think the game plan in terms of attacking him
09:42 and putting him in those ball screens is the way to go.
09:46 Hey, Josh, your lineups tonight, your starting lineups,
09:49 are they just reflective of matchups in the game?
09:51 It's not like a actual defense lineup?
09:53 Yeah, it's just going to be like I told this guy,
09:55 Jozo didn't do anything wrong by any means.
09:58 He's one of the best team guys we have. He's a program guy.
10:02 And I brought him in as we're game planning, and I said,
10:06 "Jojo, this might be-- this is probably not the best matchup scenario.
10:11 And I'm going to start a cook."
10:14 And I always try to have those conversations with him
10:17 before we go into game planning and practice.
10:20 And he was 100% good with it.
10:22 He said, "Do whatever we need to do to win."
10:25 And that's the type of guys you need in your program
10:29 to where they don't hang their head and stew on something like that
10:34 when it's really just a situational thing.
10:37 I think we had a better advantage with the size down low
10:41 than having Jojo, which is kind of more of a 3 than he is a 4.
10:47 Going forward then, one of these days you get a 6'11" guy back.
10:51 You started your two centers today.
10:54 It just seemed like this idea you had that could work.
10:57 You had enough parts that you could mismatch.
10:59 You could match up.
11:01 There's so many teams that lead to it, they're not all going to be the same.
11:04 More than anything, it helps us put people in their natural positions.
11:09 Cook and Pat are really natural 4s.
11:13 Pat's got more strength to him, more size.
11:17 He can handle himself better defensively down low.
11:22 But I think what Pat-- and I told Pat to be in a year
11:26 where we never really got a backup 5.
11:28 I said, "The opportunity for you--
11:31 and I don't know that you wanted to hear it that bad--
11:33 but the best opportunity for you is to buy in to be that backup 5."
11:38 We had Quinn, we had Cook, and we had Pat.
11:41 So all those guys are natural 4s.
11:44 We didn't have that position.
11:48 It got so late in the situation we were in this summer
11:51 that we never really shored up a backup 5.
11:54 We had to go to him with Jesse down,
11:57 but we still had to figure out-- even with Jesse in the rotation--
12:00 try to figure out who was going to back him up.
12:03 But Pat's done an incredible job, and he continues to build on that confidence
12:06 each and every night, and just getting better and better for us.
12:10 Some of that is just getting an opportunity
12:12 and taking advantage of the opportunity.
12:14 He's 100% done that.
12:16 Three guards pretty much every game, you think?
12:18 You can't see yourself snapping out of three guards, like two-point guards.
12:22 I guess Ray wants more of a 2-3.
12:25 Yeah, I love having multiple point guards in at the same time.
12:30 That's kind of why I went away from Noah in the starting lineup
12:34 and went to Kobe.
12:36 Kobe's got more size and probably better matchups
12:39 for a lot of these guys defensively in this league.
12:42 But to bring Noah off the bench-- I think I've talked about this before--
12:46 he can handle the ball and he can score the ball.
12:50 Whether Ray gets two fouls or Kerr gets two fouls,
12:53 you have an opportunity to shore that up with Noah.
12:57 He's so versatile.
12:59 And he didn't-- I talked about it on the radio--
13:01 he was 0 for 5 from the field in 17 minutes, but he's plus 18.
13:06 That's how much he affects the game when he's out there.
13:11 So you don't always have to score the ball to be effective,
13:15 but he got four points, four rebounds--
13:21 or four points, four rebounds, and he drew five fouls.
13:25 So he's six assists.
13:29 So it's nice to have him out on the floor
13:31 and gives you that versatility with his game.
13:34 Coach, one more on the rebounding.
13:36 Obviously, you've talked about it since the beginning of the year.
13:40 You've harped on it after losses, and it's the reason for a lot of losses.
13:44 Tonight, you said it was more effort.
13:47 I'm thinking about the battles--
13:49 Hawkins rebounded late, Quinn obviously on the free throw.
13:52 Those are two huge plays.
13:54 When you talk about the effort, a lot of that, does it come
13:58 because the other jersey says Kansas, or is there more to it than that?
14:02 And is there any story behind those rebounds?
14:06 Because why tonight as opposed to not last week?
14:10 I had a conversation.
14:12 Like I said, the story I said about the game plan,
14:15 you might as well tear it up and put it on fire if you don't want a rebound.
14:18 The other thing I said is they're one of the best offensive transition teams.
14:22 We watched the Oklahoma tape, and we got guys in no man's land.
14:26 We got guys that aren't getting back or crashing.
14:29 So I said make a decision.
14:31 If you're not going to crash, you're not going to give us an extra possession,
14:34 which nobody other than Pat in that game gave us an offensive rebound.
14:37 If you're going to get back, don't just get caught up in no man's land
14:41 where they're going downhill and we didn't even try for the offensive rebound.
14:45 So I harped on it pretty hardcore, and it resonated with them.
14:49 So credit to them in terms of positively reacting and taking that to heart.
14:56 Thank you.
14:58 Thank you.