STATE FARM CHAMPIONS CLASSIC: KANSAS VS DUKE

November 10, 2026

Bill Self

Kansas Jayhawks

Press Conference

Kansas 89, Kentucky 69

Q. Obviously you've seen quite a lot of Momcilovic. What did you guys go into tonight trying to do with him, and what did you think of the job you did?

BILL SELF: I thought we did a good job. I've seen him play, and he can score 12 points in a minute and a half span. At least we saw it in Hilton Coliseum more than once.

And so our deal was to have no closeouts with him, to be there on the catch where you're not actually running at him to try to take away his shot or it's taken away before he actually caught the ball.

Then our switches were pretty good. But what we told our guys was it wasn't numbers, because you can play good defense, he gets off six; that could still be 18 points or 15 points.

Our deal was numbers of threes he attempted. So that number being three tonight, that was about as good as I could hope for, because I set our goal at four tonight.

Q. You've played so many big games. What makes the Champions Classic special and unique?

BILL SELF: Well, you know, I said this earlier. Regardless of what you play in in the early season, there's still not one that has the bluebloods, the hype around it, the promotion stuff around it, and then the platform that it is.

A lot of these kids, this is their first time running out there in a real situation, and I know they had some, and we definitely had some.

So I still think it's as good a way to start off a season, and certainly happy that we're a part of it.

Q. Tyran said that this game was personal for him. How impressed were you by his poise and maturity on this stage?

BILL SELF: I think that personal means he's from Kentucky and they recruited him hard. I don't think it was anything more than that, at least to my knowledge. I actually thought he handled the moment better than I actually anticipated him doing.

He's very emotional, which is a big, big plus. Nobody should take that as a negative. But I didn't want him to be too geeked up where he couldn't play.

What helped him a lot tonight was seeing that first three go down, and after that, I thought he played under control. I thought he played within what we were trying to do, and he still found a way to be aggressive at the same time. I thought it was pretty impressive.

Q. Where do you feel like your chemistry is at? TKR has only been around a few weeks.

BILL SELF: I actually think our chemistry on the court is pretty good, but it could be a lot better if we had our full complement of guys.

But I thought the young kids did great on the team even if they didn't make shots. I think they played for each other.

I think one thing that we have become much better at, which helps chemistry, is we've become much better cutters. We weren't cutters until we get Trey Kaufman-Renn, and then you become a cutting team, which is an element we didn't have two weeks ago. I think it's pretty good. I think it's pretty good.

Q. How much hope does it give you?

BILL SELF: Yeah, I think we have a chance. I like our guys. I like our roster. But it's also the 1st of November. Our team won't look anything like this probably hopefully by December 1, and theirs certainly won't either.

These games are great to win, but they're also great games to find out more about yourself. I'm not giddy after this at all, but I do think we've taken some steps forward in the last couple weeks.

Q. You called a time-out when it was 10-5 and it felt like the defense improved dramatically after that. What was the key to that time-out?

BILL SELF: I don't think there was a key, but they got anything they wanted. They were scoring in tight the first five possessions. I don't think we got a stop. Our whole deal was physicality and not giving up easy baskets, and we were actually nervous to guard them for whatever reason.

I do think after that point though -- I know they missed some shots. They normally shoot a better percentage. But I thought we guarded them pretty damn good after the first five minutes or so.

Q. What did you think of Tre's performance, and did you think he wanted to step it up even more with Melvin out?

BILL SELF: I'm sure the guys thinks like that, but I don't want them to think like that. I think we've got enough if we just play the right way and share the ball. I thought he was great, obviously. But he also made a couple that were -- that one in the corner with the guy all over him, that was probably as much good fortune as anything.

But he's a good player, and certainly he needs to prove that he's better than what he showed them last year, and so he's off go a good start.

Q. You spoke to Tyran being an emotional player and Tre and some of these other guys. It's a fiery team. What is the fun and challenge of coaching a group that has so much fire and passion out there?

BILL SELF: Well, you'd much rather coach a team that you want to try to calm down than you have to do this. I think the last couple years we've been doing more of this.

I like them. I like being around them. They're young and don't know better, and sometimes that's the most fun guys to coach.

Q. I think when you went to Kansas, KD was 3 of 19 against Kentucky. Tonight was your 10th win in the series. What does flipping that mean?

BILL SELF: That's one that I never would have thought of, but I'll put that on my tombstone, I guess, at some point in time.

You know, Kentucky had dominated the series up until a certain time, and since then it's been much more even. But when you play enough good teams, you're bound to win some sometimes. So we've just won our fair share of late.

Q. How much did competing in a high-level exhibition game against a high-level basketball team prepare you for a night like tonight?

BILL SELF: I actually think it helped us. We played Louisville and Duke to hopefully prepare us to win tonight, and that's what I've said all along. The two exhibition games were designed to prepare us for the first week of the regular season.

I'm not saying that's all the reason why and we got our butts handed to us both times, but I think it was good for us to go through that and get exposed because there were some obvious things that came out of those things that our guys couldn't deny and think they're not real. It probably helped us a lot.

Q. I think a lot of people didn't know Tyran can shoot like that. How have you seen his shot develop since you got him on campus?

BILL SELF: I've always thought he could shoot. He's inconsistent, but there's no reason why he can't be in that 40 percent range as a three-point shooter, in my opinion. He can shoot the ball.

Q. Points off turnovers, could you ever have imagined 22-0?

BILL SELF: No, probably not. And a lot of that's luck. But a lot of times when we've not played well, our offense led to their offense because it was turn it over, and turnovers you can't get back a lot of times.

Tonight when we did turn it over, at least they were turnovers where we could at least get back in transition.

Q. Tyran and Taylen's first kind of regular season game under the spotlight. How was their performance, what does that say for the rest of the season?

BILL SELF: Well, I don't know. I think obviously TK didn't have the numbers game, but if you watch eight assists and didn't turn it over, I thought he played really solid.

But I think it should give them both a lot of confidence. That was a big game for both of them obviously since they were recruited by Kentucky and they live there.