Q. Cason, I know this entire season is all brand new, but getting a chance to go through the playoffs for the very first time after, I assume, hearing about it for so long, just what was that experience like for you?
CASON WALLACE: A lot of fun. It was fun competing with the guys, going against some of the best players in the world.
We fell short. We all feel the same way about that, but I feel like we learned a lot as a team, me as a player. But it was nothing like competing with my teammates. Those guys are great.
Q. For you, playing the entire season, playing in all 82 games and playing in the postseason as well, what went into that for you? Was that something you expected yourself to do from the outset?
CASON WALLACE: Playing the whole season was one of my goals. I just want to be available. I was told that availability is the best ability. Just making sure I was there for every game, even with feeling the way I felt sometimes, you know I had to push through it.
I still had to come out and contribute to the team. So just doing that to the best of my ability all year.
Q. I asked you earlier this season if you watched players growing up, and you said you watched offensive players for their highlights and stuff, and you said one of the guys you watched was Kyrie. Can you talk about guarding him in six games?
CASON WALLACE: Tough cover. Tough cover. Some of the stuff you see on the highlights, where people are on islands by themselves, that wasn't really my case. I was guarding him, but it was all five of us guarding him as well. We showed him a crowd the whole series.
I appreciate my teammates for that as well, not having me out there looking like a fool. So, yeah, it was great going against him.
Q. Who are some of the guys on the team or on the staff that you really leaned on to help you navigate your season?
CASON WALLACE: Coach E-Maynor, he helped a lot, working on my offensive game. This is some of the best shooting I've done in my life. Just getting in the lab with him every day and getting shots up and making sure I'm sharp on that. Trying to be the best at my role offensively.
Defensively, it took everybody on the team to help me navigate on ball, off ball, getting through screens, communicating. So, yeah, I got a lot of people to thank.
Q. What are some of the things you need to work on?
CASON WALLACE: Being more decisive when I have the ball in my hands. Not just being a shooter, being able to play inside the line as well.
Q. Do you know what the plans are for you to play Summer League?
CASON WALLACE: I don't know. I haven't talked to the coaches about it yet.
Q. As you look back over the season, how much fun was it to be part of this group? You guys just seemed so tight-knit and connected out there.
CASON WALLACE: It was wonderful. It was really like that from the jump. I was a little shy and standoffish when I first got here, but I saw the whole team was really close with each other, and nobody got treated differently.
So it was kind of easy for me to fit in with the team. They're all young, or if they're not, they act young.
(Laughter).
Q. Who are you thinking of when you say that?
CASON WALLACE: Everybody. Everybody.
Q. Are you a naturally shy person?
CASON WALLACE: I wouldn't say shy. I used the wrong word. I'm more observant.
Q. (No microphone.)
CASON WALLACE: It wasn't that I was afraid to talk to people. It was just I didn't have much to talk about. I just got here, and everybody's all talking about last year and people they miss and all this. So I'm like okay. I don't really know him. I can't just butt into the conversation.
But time went on, and we started making our own memories. It was easier to navigate that.
Q. How similar was that to your freshman year at Kentucky?
CASON WALLACE: Almost totally different. At Kentucky I had my cousin with me, so I could talk to him about anything whenever. And just following him around kind of showed me -- I met a lot of people out there.
Coming here was different. I was by myself.
Q. You mentioned the memories. What are some of the memories from this season that stand out to you?
CASON WALLACE: Everything. Trey, when I first got here, he was the first person that I went out with. We went bowling. That was fun. Gosh, I couldn't even mention just one. If I had to go with one, that was one of my first memories here.
Q. When you mention Trey and you talk about bowling with him, was he good?
CASON WALLACE: He was arguably the best bowler on the team, I heard. Like I said, I was new. That's what I heard. I don't really know.
Q. Are you good?
CASON WALLACE: I'm all right. I ain't the best on the team, one of those candidates, but I'm pretty good.
Q. Does the idea of Summer League entice you?
CASON WALLACE: I don't know much about Summer League. I played last year, but as far as coming up here, I don't know. We have to have that conversation.
Q. With the experience you gained this year, just how young everybody is and knowing how competitive this group is, how encouraging is that for you knowing you guys are going into the off-season and what you guys could accomplish?
CASON WALLACE: It's great because I know that everybody on the team is going to be working extremely hard, maybe harder than they did last year because we know what we're capable of doing.
I'm just going to make sure I'm as sharp as I can be when I come back.
Q. Shai mentioned that he doesn't think of you as a rookie, but are you happy to be done with all the rookie duties like singing "Happy Birthday" and stuff like that?
CASON WALLACE: For sure. Yeah, it wasn't too bad. (Indiscernible) I'm not going to miss that. Yeah, that was really one of my main things.
Q. Who's a better singer, you or Keyontae?
CASON WALLACE: Keyontae for sure. Keyontae is (indiscernible).
Q. Well?
CASON WALLACE: Both. He had his moments where he was doing good, and then he simply talked (indiscernible).
Q. What are some hobbies that you're looking forward to getting to in the off-season that you didn't really get to in the season?
CASON WALLACE: It's like I got to everything this year, but doing more, I would say, finishing at the rim.
Q. Hobbies.
CASON WALLACE: Oh, hobby. Oh, my bad. That's a good question. I haven't got there yet. I'm still in basketball mode. I won't get out of that mode for a few days probably.
Q. What did you think of Shai's leadership this season?
CASON WALLACE: It was great. Speaking back on one of the guys I could go to when I was first here, he was one of the guys I could talk to offensively, defensively. He was kind of -- he kind of represented like nobody's above the program. Whatever I had to do, he did, and vice versa.
Q. Coming into a situation like that, is it intimidating to go up to somebody like that, when you're more observant, like you said?
CASON WALLACE: Not at all. If I had a question, I'd ask anybody close to me honestly. I felt that way because I felt like everybody, they've been here. They might have had the same question that I had when they were first here, and they all gave good answers. Nobody led me in the wrong direction. I still feel that way. I could ask anybody anything, and they'll come through for me.
Q. Being here for most of the year, however long it's been since you've been here and being -- living in Dallas, were there things about Oklahoma that you were a little surprised about that you didn't realize?
CASON WALLACE: Yeah, owe the world an apology, I'll say that. When I first did my press conference, I was like, there's not much to do out here. There's a good amount of things to do here.
(Laughter).
It's not as bad as I thought it was.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports