KU Jayhawks’ Bill Self talks about seeding for NCAAs prior to Big 12 Tournament
Kansas men’s basketball coach Bill Self agrees with ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi, who currently has the No. 11-ranked Jayhawks the last of the four No. 3 seeds for the upcoming NCAA Tournament.
“I actually see us as a 3-seed with a chance to fall or move up, but to move up we’d probably have to do really well in Kansas City,” Self said on Monday’s Hawk Talk radio show.
The Jayhawks (19-8), who finished second behind Baylor during the Big 12 regular season race, will play the winner of Wednesday night’s Oklahoma-Iowa State game in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at T-Mobile Center. Winner of the quarterfinal would meet either Texas Tech or Texas in Friday’s 8:30 p.m. semis.
“I see us as that. I know Joe Lunardi saw us as that today. I’d say we are the lowest 3 or a high 4,” Self added. “That would be somewhere in that 11, 12 to probably 14 range right now. If somebody behind us plays well, they’ll jump us. If somebody (ahead of) us doesn’t play as well we could jump them. The most important thing we can do is play well. If we play well things will take care of itself.”
The way the Big 12 bracket works, the Jayhawks would not face league champ Baylor (21-1) until conceivably the title game on Saturday. The Jayhawks and Bears split their regular-season series in 2020-21.
“You could say, ‘Well you (with current bracket) can stay away from Baylor.’ I’ll tell you this, I’d welcome the opportunity to play Baylor again. That’s the one game you can play that if you knock them off that elevates you to a whole different seed line for sure,” Self said.
“I don’t see a positive or a negative, I just see hard,” he added of KU’s road to a league Big 12 tourney title. “In this particular tournament, if you don’t play well you are going to go home so we have to be pretty darn good starting Thursday.”
To show the difficulty of the league … Lunardi has Baylor as the second of the four No. 1 seeds in the upcoming NCAAs. West Virginia is Lunardi’s second of four No. 3 seeds, while Texas is third No. 3 seed and KU the fourth No. 3 seed. He has Oklahoma State the first of his four No. 4 seeds.
“Last year, the league was so good because we had two No. 1 seeds,” Self said of KU and Baylor, teams not allowed to put their seeds on the line because of the 2020 tourney being canceled because of COVID-19. “We had other teams that would have been 3s, 4s.
“This year there is Baylor then there’s six teams. For all of us, I think 2 (line) may be wishful thinking for anybody. I’m not saying it couldn’t happen. It could if one of us got hot to win the (Big 12) tournament you could elevate to a 2,” Self noted.
“We have seven teams ranked in the top 25 (Baylor, West Virginia, KU, OSU, Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma). The Big 10 has five or six. The whole thing is that’s two great leagues,” he added. Ranked teams in the Big 10: Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, Ohio State and Purdue.
Self said he liked the Jayhawks’ position entering the postseason. KU, at one point 6-5 in conference play, finished at 12-6.
“We’re excited to be a 2-seed (in Big 12 tourney) even though it doesn’t mean anything,” Self said. “I don’t dislike our chances at all. I actually like our chances. I’m not one to put too much emphasis on this week. Most coaches around the country who know they are in the (NCAA) tournament probably feel the same way. The bottom line is I’d like us to play well and keep our momentum going. We know if we can play with teams in our league we can play with anybody, anytime. We need to be playing our best the week after.”
Reaction to all-league picks
Self did not complain about the fact no Jayhawks were voted first team all-league by the conference coaches. Marcus Garrett and David McCormack earned second team honors.
“I thought it was actually pretty fair to be honest,” Self said. The first team consisted of Big 12 player of the year Cade Cunningham of OSU, Jared Butler and Davion Mitchell of Baylor, Austin Reaves of OU and Derek Culver of West Virginia.
“Ochai (Agbaji, honorable mention) could have been on one of the teams and I think Jalen (Wilson) should have been honorable mention,” Self added. Coaches could not vote for players on their own teams.
Of player of the year, he said: “I thought it would be Cade over Jared in a close race.”
He said coach of the year had to be another close race. Baylor’s Scott Drew was winner.
“Scott deserves tons of credit for a great year from start to finish,” Self said. “My personal opinion is he did have competition. What Mike Boynton did at Oklahoma State, especially late in the season when Cade got hurt and (Isaac) Likekele got hurt and he had them playing their best ball I thought was very impressive, too.”
Avoiding COVID to be crucial
KU thus far has had no stoppages of play this season because of COVID-19.
“College athletics is so unique,” Self said. “You can go from top of the mountain and slide down pretty quickly with things you have no control over. Somebody serves you food at a restaurant or serves you to-go food. … If you sit next to a classmate one time, even though there’s social distancing going on, something so innocent could become a problem.
“This year is a little different. Expect the unexpected. I’m real excited about us playing in the postseason but I’m also very cautious and nervous too. We’ve dodged a lot of bullets this year. Our guys have been great. It doesn’t mean we are bulletproof. Anything can happen with anybody.”
