KU coach Bill Self returns to bench in Bahamas: ‘Now I know why fans are crazy’
Bill Self found it difficult to sit back and watch Kansas’ first four men’s basketball games on TV while serving his season-opening, program-imposed suspension.
“I saw it from a fan’s perspective. Now I know why fans are crazy, because they have absolutely no control on what’s going on,” Self, KU’s 20th-year coach, said Tuesday from the Bahamas, where he’s getting ready to coach his first game of the 2022-23 regular season.
Kansas will face North Carolina State at 11 a.m. on Wednesday in the first round of the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament. The game will be shown live on ESPN.
“At least as a coach you think you’ve got a little bit (of control) even though you don’t have much. I like it better when I have a little control,” Self added.
While acknowledging KU assistant Norm Roberts “did great” as a game-day fill in during Self’s four-game suspension, Self said he personally “didn’t like it much. The Duke and Southern Utah games, I didn’t feel as comfortable watching from the living room as I did the first two. The guys did fine.”
KU, with Roberts in charge, rocked Omaha 89-64 and North Dakota State 82-59 before claiming narrow wins over Duke 69-64 and Southern Utah 82-76.
“I actually didn’t take one note (watching games),” Self said. “I took all my notes when I watched the replay. I was too busy (reacting with), ‘Get him out,’ or ‘What are we doing?’ during the actual games.”
Self loves the fact the Roberts-led Jayhawks were able to go 4-0, posting the same record as NC State heading into the eight-team tournament.
“We say it all the time: ‘Faces change, expectations do not.’ We had a different coach. He did great. Expectations are still the same. It was still kind of business as usual,” Self stated.
NC State shoots the three
KU now prepares to face a (4-0) Wolfpack team that has averaged 88.3 points per game in wins over Elon, FIU, Austin Peay and Campbell. NC State leads the ACC in three-pointers made per game (10.3) and assists per game (17.5).
“They are going to shoot a ton of (threes). They average (28) a game,” Self said of N.C. State which has made 41 of 111 (36.9%) treys in four games. “Their two guards (Terquavion Smith, Casey Morsell) will probably be as explosive as any we go against this year. Texas is the only team with the explosiveness in the backcourt like North Carolina State.”
Self added that former Mississippi guard Jarkel Joiner “has been great from the portal.” Smith averages 19.0 ppg, while Joiner (17.0) and Morsell (14.8) average double-figures as well.
The winner of the KU-NC State game will play the winner of the Dayton-Wisconsin first-round game at 10 a.m. on Thursday. The KU-NC State loser will play the Dayton-Wisconsin loser at 3 p.m. on Thursday.
USC and BYU will play in one lower bracket quarterfinal and Tennessee and Butler will play in the other.
“It is a very strong competitive field. It’ll be a good three days. We’ll learn a lot about our team,” Self said.
Injury update
Self said forward Zach Clemence, who suffered an injury to his nose against North Dakota State and missed the last two games, “practiced today, first day full-go since he got hit.”
Also, guard MJ Rice, who had kidney stones on Saturday night, practiced Tuesday. Self said both are “available” but “I don’t know how much they’ll be able to play in this tournament.”
Games played in Atlantis resort
The Battle 4 Atlantis games are played in the huge Atlantis resort, where the teams are staying.
“They can have some fun today (Tuesday),” Self said of his players. “After today they won’t until after the game Friday and a little time Saturday (before returning home). That’s the way it is in all of these tournaments. There’s nothing wrong with going down to the beach and walking around. They’ll do that. But to cut loose and enjoy it to what people would probably equate to having fun, that’ll probably be today or after we finish playing.”
“It’s a business trip more than anything else,” guard Dajuan Harris said.
This story was originally published November 22, 2022 at 2:01 PM.
