As talented a team as the #5 Kansas Jayhawks are, they really got annihilated by the #1 Kentucky Wildcats tonight. KU Coach Bill Self rolled with it in the post game press conference.
Fresh off a 72-40 beat down, he opened with a little joke:
Kansas Coach Bill Self grabs a bottled water in the postgame presser “I was hoping that was vodka” LOLOLOL #KUvsUK
— Paul M. Banks (@PaulMBanks) November 19, 2014
More gems from Bill Self:
“this game-plan crap that everybody talks about, this isn’t football. We play a certain way and play to our strengths.”
“As bad as we shot it in the first half, we proved that we could shoot it a hell of a lot worse in the second half. You might have said there’s no way in hell they’re going to shoot 24%, they’re right, we shot 13%”
Yes, Kansas finished the game shooting 19% (11-56) from the floor. Kentucky blocked 11 of their shots; so KU had as many FGs as UK had blocks.
Not one Jayhawk finished in double figures. Cliff Alexander finished with 8 points and 8 rebounds, but he didn’t even score until shortly before the half and his efficiency was terrible as he shot 2-7 from the floor and 4-8 from the line.
More from Bill Self on how great Kentucky might or might not be:
On Calipari saying ‘No, we’re not that good’: “Well, I mean, you guys that cover Kentucky, how much stuff do you actually believe that John says? So, so … I’m joking on that. But no, I would say that he’s gotta say that. For this early in the season, though, they’re pretty good. I mean, I think the one thing I will say that will be challenging to them, and this is a compliment to them: right now, they’re so much ahead of probably where other people are – I don’t know about Arizona and some other teams, but obviously with us – but also teams have a tendency to get better, too. There will be teams out there that can challenge them. Now, whether or not they can beat them, I don’t know. But teams do get better throughout the course of the year. His team will get better, but there will be some other teams make some great strides also.”
On if it’s crazy to say UK could go undefeated: “Is it crazy to think that? Oh, I don’t think it’s crazy to think that. I don’t know if I’d base everything on this one game, because that was obviously not much of a contest. I don’t know their schedule in and out, but they’re going to go somewhere where they’re going to catch somebody great, and it’s going to be hard, but Wichita State did it last year. So there’s no reason why that would not be something that would be a goal. I don’t know if you talk about that now, but I would say by February if they’re still undefeated, that would be something that could happen.”
On how to beat UK: “Somebody’s going to have to play a great game to beat them. There’s no question about that. That could happen, but especially away from home. But somebody’s going to have to be special a certain night for them to get knocked off.”
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and very often writes The Sports Bank.net ,which is partners with Fox Sports. Read his features stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. Listen to him on 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks). His work has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including The Washington Post and ESPN 2