Did KU basketball get caught looking past Eastern Illinois? What Bill Self said
Former Kansas basketball guard Marlon London, who is now an assistant coach at Eastern Illinois, stopped to chat with a reporter as he headed through the southeast tunnel of Allen Fieldhouse toward the visitor’s locker room on Tuesday night.
This was after the final horn had sounded in KU’s closer-than-expected 71-63 victory over the Panthers. EIU was attempting to win its first game against a ranked team after 23 defeats.
“I thought we had a shot. At least a shot,” London said after the Panthers, who trailed by just one point with 5:04 to play and three points with 2:38 left, ultimately fell to the No. 5-ranked Jayhawks by eight points. The points spread was 35.
“This was a great experience for us, Like I told the guys, ‘Just look at this (atmosphere),’’’ London, who played for Roy Williams two seasons at KU (1998-99, 1999-00) before transferring to DePaul, exclaimed. He pointed at the southeast corner of the fieldhouse, full with fans who responded down the stretch, helping KU (6-1) pull out the win against EIU (3-5).
It proved to be a nail-biter of a game that precedes Friday’s 8 p.m. home contest against defending national champion UConn, off to a 7-0 start as the No. 4-ranked team in the country.
Did KU get caught looking ahead?
“I think if I’d say yes, that would be a (bleep) excuse,” KU coach Bill Self said. His Jayhawks hit just 3 of 14 3s to Eastern Illinois’ 9 of 22. The Jayhawks were outrebounded 36-33.
“I think the natural thing to do is that,” Self added of perhaps looking ahead to a top-5 marquee matchup at the end of the week. “I don’t think it’s Friday as much as it was looking back. We have been a tired team since we’ve been back (from the Maui Invitational on Friday).”
Self continued.
“Trap game is not fair,” Self said. “That is not giving Eastern Illinois enough credit for playing well. But it wasn’t the ideal game to play in the moment that we played. We needed to play a game this week. We knew this week it would be a harder game than what people thought. At least I felt it would be.”
Self did think the Jayhawks, who were led by Hunter Dickinson (25 points, 13 rebounds) and Kevin McCullar (18 points, five assists) did gain something positive from playing a game three nights before the UConn showdown.
“We needed situations. We needed different things,” Self said. “Playing last Wednesday and not until Friday — nine days is too long. What it gave us was a win. It gave us a chance to stress and sweat, which is going to happen a ton this year. It was probably good in that regard.’
Senior guard Nick Timberlake did hit two shots, including a 3, good for five points in 11 minutes. Self was asked if the lid coming off for the shooting guard could help him as the season progresses.
Timberlake played just three minutes the final half.
“It could,” Self said, quickly adding, “I’ll be honest. I get frustrated. When you are playing limited minutes and don’t have enough energy to guard an out-of-bounds under play when you know exactly what’s coming, I have a hard time with that. I forget about the makes.
“It’s ‘Are you kidding me?’ Because what happens is when you do things like that you are not as confident to play. We’ll get better at that. Nick will get better at that. Right now with so many guys — I’m not being negative, this is factual — they are young, and it’s one step forward, two steps back.”
For that, the Jayhawks showed “progress in certain areas,” Self said, but then suffered lapses, like “at the end of the game.”
“We don’t shade the basket and almost gave up a layup and ‘and-one,’” Self said, “but get a lucky block because we don’t shade the basket on an up and under. It’s hard for me to get past that. We’ll get better. They are young kids trying to figure it out.”
Asked if looking past EIU was the problem Tuesday, McCullar said, “No. We take it one at a time. Of course Friday will be a big one. We’ll learn from this. Go to the drawing board and have two days prep and be ready Friday.”
This story was originally published November 28, 2023 at 11:12 PM.
