Bill Self expected to coach KU’s lone exhibition contest Thursday vs. Pitt State
Kansas assistant basketball coach Norm Roberts, who will serve as Bill Self’s replacement during Self’s four-game suspension to start the 2022-23 regular season, isn’t expected to make the calls in Thursday night’s exhibition contest against Pittsburg State.
KU officials said Wednesday Self will continue to coach the team at practice during his entire suspension and also coach the practice game, set for a 7 p.m. tipoff with a livestream on ESPN+.
Roberts, Self’s long-time aide and friend who was head coach at St. John’s for six seasons before returning for a second-stint at KU with Self 11 years ago, has been designated the head coach for Monday’s game against Omaha, next Thursday’s versus North Dakota State, a Nov. 15 contest against Duke in Indianapolis and KU’s Nov. 18 home game against Southern Utah.
It was revealed on Self’s Hawk Talk radio show Tuesday that Roberts (he also worked with Self at Oral Roberts, Tulsa and Illinois and on Self’s first staff at KU before heading to St. John’s) was in charge of putting together the scouting report on Pitt State, an NCAA Division II school out of the MIAA.
KU’s full-time assistants split up the scouting assignments during the season.
“I think they do a great job moving the ball (with) a lot of slipping screens,” Roberts said of the Pittsburg State Gorillas, a team picked to finish 10th (tied with Rogers State) in the 14-team MIAA preseason coaches poll.
“They have good perimeter play where they’ll shoot from deep. They love bigs who can shoot. They have a couple on the team this year. They are unselfish and are always in attack mode,” Roberts added, speaking Tuesday as a fill-in for Self on Self’s weekly Hawk Talk radio show.
The Gorillas’ list of probable starters includes three transfers: 6-6 forward Deshaun English (Butler County CC); 6-3 guard Albert McBride (Coffeyville CC); and 6-8 forward Calvin Poulina (Bethune Cookman), plus returnees Quentin Hardrict (6-0 guard) and RJ Forney (6-3 guard).
The Gorillas are led by first-year coach Jeff Boschee, a 42-year-old former KU guard who moves over to Pittsburg State from Missouri Southern State University where his teams went 151-86 the past eight seasons.
Boschee is all-time leading three-point shooter in KU history.
He made 338 threes (42 more than runner-up Devonté Graham) for the Jayhawks from 1998-99 to 2001-02. He’s fourth in three-point field goals made in Big 12 history.
“He could really shoot it,” Roberts said. “He played on the 16-0 team in 2002.”
Indeed the Jayhawks went 16-0 in the Big 12 during Boschee’s senior year. They reached the Final Four, where they lost to Maryland in the national semifinals, finishing 33-4.
“He had a great career here,” Roberts said, adding, “he’s done a terrific job coaching at the Division II level. Now he’s taking over at Pitt State. We know they are going to be able to shoot threes, no doubt about it.”
Boschee coached current KU senior forward Cam Martin at Missouri Southern.
Martin, who transferred to KU before the 2021-22 season and was redshirted, is out for Thursday’s game because of a separated shoulder suffered last week. The 6-foot-9 Martin may be sidelined until the start of the Big 12 season.
“Cam always has a great attitude,” Boschee said in a phone interview. “It’s very unfortunate what happened to him (falling on shoulder playing 1-on-1 against big man Ernest Udeh). It’s disappointing. He felt pretty comfortable with how he was playing, especially after going through and redshirting (last season after transfer from MSSU) and getting ready for this year and having this little setback.
“You’ve got to deal with the hand you are dealt, make the best of it and get back as soon as you can.”
Boschee believes KU’s Martin, the second-leading scorer in Missouri Southern history, can still contribute for KU this season.
“I think so. He has to make sure to rehab it the right way, stay in shape and do whatever he needs to do to get back in there,” Boschee said. “If he’s back the first part of the conference season, gets his legs back underneath him and does what coach Self and the coaches want him to do, hopefully he can get back in the rotation.
“He’s loved every second of it,” Boschee added of Martin’s time at KU. “The experiences he’s talked about are something not everybody gets to experience in college basketball. To be part of what he’s been around has been really good for him.”
Of his own stay in Pittsburg so far, Boschee said: “We love it here. My family and I moved to Pittsburg. My kids are in school here. We’re just really enjoying the community and feel really lucky to be here.”
Boschee and wife Jamie have two daughters, Mary Rose and Julia Rae.
