Next man up? Bill Self discusses future Kansas Jayhawks jersey retirement ceremonies
Several former University of Kansas basketball players will be honored with jersey retirement ceremonies in Allen Fieldhouse during coming seasons, KU coach Bill Self reported Wednesday night on his weekly Hawk Talk radio show.
“Thomas will positively go up,” Self said of power forward Thomas Robinson, the 2012 Big 12 player of the year, who wore jersey No. 0 at KU from 2010 to 2012.
In fact, there were tentative plans for Robinson’s jersey to be hung in the south rafters of the fieldhouse last season and again this season. The Washington, D.C. native, however, has had scheduling conflicts and been unable to set a suitable date yet. He played professional basketball in China in 2018-19 and in both China and now Russia in 2019-20.
“Frank will positively go up,” Self stated of 2017 national player of the year Frank Mason, who also wore No. 0. “Devonté will positively go up,” he added of Devonté Graham, the 2018 Big 12 player of the year, who wore No. 4.
Anybody else?
“There’s maybe another couple … when you take in consideration everything they’ve done in their (pro as well as college) career, does it warrant that type of consideration too? We’ve not talked about that. We’ve got enough on our plate now before we do that,” Self said.
Marcus Morris, who had his jersey No. 22 hung in the rafters at halftime of Monday’s victory over Iowa State, has said publicly and to Self he wishes his brother Markieff, who joined Marcus at KU from 2009 to 2011, could have shared the honor.
“Marcus said, ‘You should just put the Morris twins up with one name.’ You can’t do that, but that probably would have been OK with me because they did everything together,” Self said of the twins. They both are 9-year NBA veterans. “That’s not how it works, but I’m proud of both of them,” Self added.
Self has said there is no official criteria for hanging a former KU player’s jersey in the rafters.
“If you are Big 12 player of the year you are going up. There’s a lot of guys up there — a lot — who were not Big 12 player of the year or Big Eight player of the year that are up there,” Self said.
“If you are All-American second-team, that probably won’t get you there by itself. It could depending on your career. When you are the best player in the league I think it certainly warrants that,” Self added. “Other guys don’t that don’t have the individual accolades whose career was obviously unbelievable and impacted the university and team in ways sometimes only coaches know (may be considered). We’ve got a pretty good group of guys up there. There’s many more you could make a case for possibly deserving to be there as well.”
Big game at Baylor on Saturday
No. 3-ranked Kansas (23-3, 12-1) will take an 11-game winning streak into Saturday’s 11 a.m. game at No. 1 Baylor (24-1, 13-0). The Bears on Tuesday won at Oklahoma for their 23rd straight victory.
That’s the most consecutive wins of any team in the 24-year history of the Big 12. KU won 22 straight games in 1996-97.
“They’ve been great,” Self said of the Bears, who defeated KU, 67-55, on Jan. 11 in Allen Fieldhouse.
“Twenty three in a row not only in a competitive era, but they chose to play a very competitive schedule. Look at their wins, beating Butler, beating Arizona. They had some really good wins before they got into league. That to me is what makes it even more impressive,” Self added.
Self said that Baylor, which also beat Villanova and lost to Washington, “is the best team on Feb. 19 that’s been in our league that we’ve competed against since I’ve been at Kansas.”
He said the 2003-04 Oklahoma State team, last year’s Texas Tech team and Oklahoma’s 2016 Final Four team were mighty tough as well, but “I really think Baylor is better.”
“That’s saying a lot because there have been so many good teams in our league,” Self added. “We haven’t had anybody that has done what Baylor has done this year form a consistency standpoint that we’ve played against. Kudos to them.
“Our job is to go down there and make them play poorly as they did to us here. It should be a fun atmosphere and a game a lot of people are looking forward to, including us.”
Garrett’s defense dandy
KU’s Marcus Garrett has totaled 12 steals in the last three games. He has 50 thefts on the season to Devon Dotson’s team-leading 53. Garrett has 26 steals to Dotson’s 24 in Big 12 action.
Garrett’s ability to effectively guard point guards, shooting guards, small forwards and power forwards has some touting the junior for national defensive player of the year.
“I think he is deserving of the nice things people are saying about him,” Self said. “I’d think other players out there also are deserving of (people) saying similar things about them. The reality is he’s in the game to be named the national defensive player of the year. It’d be nice if he could lock somebody up Saturday (at BU). That would probably help his chances a little bit. Marcus would tell you this. The biggest difference in our team last year and this year isn’t Marcus playing better defensively or Devon. It’s that Udoka’s playing,” he added of Udoka Azubuike, who played in just nine games because of injury his junior season.
“Marcus deserves all the accolades. There’s a big guy behind him that covers up a lot of mistakes too,” Self added of 7-foot Azubuike, who has 68 blocks, 42 in Big 12 games.
