Bill Self cites many concerns the day after KU’s exhibition victory over Washburn

Kansas basketball coach Bill Self sees room for improvement — so much room for growth — after Tuesday’s 18-point victory over Washburn, one in which the Jayhawks were outrebounded by the NCAA Division II school, 45-44.

“If you watch us right now, I love our guys and I love our team, but I don’t love how we play right now, which I think is pretty common for about 100 percent of all coaches out there this early in the season,” Self said on Wednesday night’s Hawk Talk radio show.

“To me, if I was just going to be really open and honest, one of the things that concerns me most is also some of the most comforting things. Our bigs aren’t rebounding. Landen (Lucas) isn’t playing aggressive. Those sorts of things. But the good thing about that is, we know he can, because we’ve seen him do it. So that’s the good thing.”

Senior forward Lucas grabbed one rebound while scoring 10 points in 17 minutes on Tuesday.

“That’s what I tell ‘Lando.’ ‘You have shown us exactly how tough you can be. We don’t have to double the post because you’re good one-on-one. You’ve done so many positive things, we know you can do it. But for whatever reason, you’re just off a little bit right now.’

“And I think you can say the same thing with Carlton (Bragg, two boards, six points, 14 minutes). You know he can do it, but he’s just off a little bit right now. To me, that’s comforting knowing that you’ve got personnel who can do it. It’s just not being done.

“The worst thing would be as a coach is to know that’s a weakness and know you don’t have any personnel to take care of it. But that’s not our case at all. We’ve got the personnel.”

Self continued his critique of an opener in which KU hit 18 of 34 free throws but did convert 54.2 percent of its floor shots.

“The other one to me is Josh (Jackson, 14 points, four boards, five turnovers, 20 minutes), to be real candid, and being able to plug himself into where he’s able to be aggressive but still yet a ball-mover,” Self said. “To be a junkyard dog, but still yet know he’s got to play a certain way within a system. That’s obviously going to happen, because we’ve seen too many flashes of that.

“But I think one reason why we’re probably not playing as well right now is because our chemistry is off just a little bit. I told the guys today it seems like to me it’s basically the same pieces (from last year). You’ve got Josh or Lagerald (Vick, nine points, 30 minutes) or Svi (Mykhailiuk, 16 points, four threes) in for Wayne (Selden) and you’ve got Carlton in for Perry (Ellis). But the reality is, Perry wasn’t the most unbelievable rebounder and Wayne wasn’t really a great rebounder, so we replaced them with two guys who are potentially better rebounders than Perry and Wayne,” Self said.

“We’re just not doing it, if that makes any sense. We’re just off a little bit. The ball sticks a little bit. There’s times when you catch it, you shoot it, you pass it, you drive it. You don’t hold it. And we’ve got guys that are holding it, trying to think or make the right play as opposed to letting the ball dictate what the play is.”

Jackson didn’t score in the first half of his first college game. He did explode for 14 the final half.

“With Josh, I don’t look at it as what he needs to improve on. I look at it more about what we need to improve upon as a group to make the game easier for him, and what he can do to make the game easier for others,” Self said. “People may say, ‘Well, he needs to shoot it better,’ or, ‘We need to rebound it better’ or, ‘We’ve got to pass it better.’ I don’t really see it that way as much as maybe what some other people do. All it is with Josh is just getting comfortable.”

Azubuike’s size impressive

Freshman forward Udoka Azubuike, a 7-footer from Delta, Nigeria, scored five points, grabbed one rebound and fouled out in an eight-minute debut.

“To me, Udoka doesn’t look that tall because he’s so wide,” Self said of the 280-pound player. “Like Jeff Withey looked tall because he was so thin. He was still tall, but he looked taller because he was thin. Today, ‘Doke’ went up and dunked it and hung on the rim, and I said, ‘Doke, will you do that again?’ ‘Do what coach?’ ‘Jump up there and just grab the rim. Just jump up there and grab the rim with both hands.’ And he jumped up and grabbed the rim with both hands and barely pulled it down, and his feet are still on the ground.

“You forget how big he is. That’s a big dude. So he’s got to learn how to move his feet so he doesn’t run into people, but just think about it. Think about going up and you’ve got a hold of the rim, now the rim comes down two inches, but your feet are on the ground. That just shows you how big and long he is, and he doesn’t look as tall because he’s wide. But that’s a big dude,” Self said.

This story was originally published November 2, 2016 at 9:29 PM with the headline "Bill Self cites many concerns the day after KU’s exhibition victory over Washburn."