KU’s Bill Self on Big 12 streak: ‘Never is a long time, but it’ll never happen again’
Kansas basketball coach Bill Self on Wednesday said he heard from a lot of well-wishers wanting to discuss the end of “the streak” — that is, KU’s NCAA-record run of 14 straight Big 12 Conference regular-season championships.
“We heard from our fair share of coaches and players, and that’s nice,” Self said on his weekly Hawk Talk radio show.
KU’s 81-68 loss to Oklahoma on Tuesday in Norman, Okla., dropped the Jayhawks (22-8, 11-6) two games behind co-league leaders Kansas State and Texas Tech with one game to play, making impossible a 15th straight conference crown.
“The reality,” Self surmised after reflecting on the streak during the day, “is it’ll never happen again in a Power Five-type conference. Gonzaga (West Coast Conference) will always have a chance to run the table because they are so dominant in their respective league, but this will never happen again. Never is a long time, but it’ll never happen again.”
Self acknowledged that the streak was “pretty amazing. All those players deserve the credit. It’s amazing the number of people who have contributed. Wayne (Simien), Mike (Lee), Keith (Langford), Aaron (Miles, players who started streak) could be 35 or 36 (years old) now. They were the first group. You’ve got Marcus Garrett, who last year was 18. That is a pretty long stretch of a pretty diverse group.”
Self said the end of the streak was disappointing but not the end of the world.
“I think this is good in a weird way … I mean hopefully it’ll be some motivation for this team moving forward because they are going to hear about this (from others),” Self said.
“I had to run into the doctor’s office today. A real sweet lady came up to me and said, ‘Coach, it’s OK. We’ll be better next year.’ I’m like, ‘This year is not over.’ It’s not, but that’s the mindset. We lost eight games, so that’s the mindset.
“I don’t want to say we screwed it up,” he continued. “That’s too strong. We jacked around, were a little inconsistent, then we have a chance to make amends by going and playing our best ball of the year now. We’ve had teams that won league not do great in the postseason.
“Then of course, we had some teams that probably were not expected to do great in the postseason and surprised everybody. Two of our three Final Four teams shouldn’t have made it. Three or four of our teams had a great shot and came up empty. This team is not going to be a favorite to do that.
“On any night we’ve shown when we play well we can play with anybody and beat anybody. When you’ve got a great player you can always ride that guy. Of course he’s got to be really good. I think Dedric (Lawson) is capable of doing that for us.”
The 2018-19 Jayhawks still have one regular-season game remaining, against Baylor (1 p.m., Saturday, Allen Fieldhouse) before heading to the Big 12 tournament and NCAA tourney.
“This will be the first team that hasn’t got a ring in a long time unless we go win the Big 12 tournament or get to the Final Four,” Self said. “That’s the only way you get a ring here. You don’t get a ring placing third or second. You’ve got to win something to get a ring,” Self said.
“That’s not the way it is at lot of places. We didn’t get that first opportunity (regular season title) done. We’ve got to go try to win the Big 12 tournament or make a run for the Final Four. That’s the only way this team would have an opportunity to earn one from this point forward.”
Self said on Hawk Talk the Jayhawks would be motivated to return to the top of the league in 2019-20.
“Hopefully we can start another one (streak),” Self said. “The disappointment of not winning the league this year also creates an opportunity to start another streak next year. We’ll have to do that.”
Next year’s roster obviously is not settled at this time.
“Who knows? Doke (Azubuike), Dedric and Quentin (Grimes) and whoever else (could leave for pros),” Self said. “Who knows how that will play out? We’ve gotten used to that. You always want kids to make the decisions that are best for them and their family. They also should make wise, educated decisions as well. We’ll wait and see how that all plays out.
“If everybody who could come back came back … we’ve got the same team next year plus Doke, Silvio (De Sousa) and a couple additional recruits (Christian Braun, Issac McBride). We’re going to sign a couple more, too. I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. We’ve got a chance to set the table where it could be quite a bit of fun.”
This story was originally published March 6, 2019 at 8:12 PM.
