KU’s Bill Self discusses team’s rough patch — ‘nobody likes it’ — on weekly radio show
Losing two straight games on a five-day road trip to Utah — as well as five of eight and six of 12 — has been “frustrating” to most anyone involved with the Kansas Jayhawks men’s basketball program.
That extends of course to KU’s players and coaches, but also certainly to the Jayhawks’ fans, coach Bill Self acknowledged on Thursday’s hour-long Hawk Talk radio show.
“The guys (players) don’t like it and I don’t like it and nobody likes it,” Self said, “but we’ve got to do something to change it.”
The 22nd-year Kansas coach was speaking after Thursday’s afternoon practice, a gathering he described as “a good session.”
It was the team’s first full practice since Tuesday’s 91-57 loss to BYU dropped KU’s record to 17-9 (8-7 Big 12) heading into Saturday’s 3 p.m. home game against Oklahoma State (13-13, 5-10).
“We’ve got a five-game season and then we have the postseason and we’re ‘zero-and-zero (record) and Hunter (Dickinson) is averaging zero points a game and Juan (Harris) is averaging zero assists a game and nobody has shot a free throw yet,” Self said.
“That’s how I see it. That’s how we have to approach this, that these next five games (against OSU, at Colorado, home vs. Texas Tech and Arizona and then at Houston) are critical, but we can still get (a lot) out of it.”
Self noted that he and radio-show host Brian Hanni had a lot in common: They both appeared to be adopting a “Tony Robbins-like” positive approach to KU’s current rough stretch and the rest of the 2024-25 campaign.
“This is actually a great eye opener, or more or less a punch in the face, or more or less getting run over by a Mack truck,” Self said of his squad’s 34-point loss to BYU — after a 74-67 loss to Utah in Salt Lake City a couple days prior.
“This is an opportunity for us to address the things that need to be addressed in a situation where maybe we’ll be more prepared to be there when it counts the most (NCAA Tournament). So I actually see this as a challenge, as fun. This is what I do and I think that there is going to be a very good ending.”
Self said the reminded the team on Thursday that “of the 50 NCAA Tournaments that we’ve participated in, we’ve been to 1/3 of them as Final Fours. (That’s) pretty good.”
KU has been to 16 Final Fours.
“Does anybody remember a Final Four unless it’s a national championship? And the answer is no,” Self said. “Does anybody remember a Big 12 championship if it didn’t lead to something beyond that? The answer is no. Does anybody remember who won the Big East Conference last year? I don’t think it was Connecticut.”
UConn won the 2024 national title after tying for fourth in the league.
“There are a lot of things that happen that I’m not saying that we can actually go all the way and do that,” Self continued. “I’m not saying that yet, because we have to become better at intangibles to get to that point. But the positive is, there’s a lot of teams out there that are saying the same things we are.
“The whole thing is, we have shown that when we’re good (wins over Duke, Michigan State, Iowa State), we can be as elite as anybody that we’ve played. The frustrating thing is, is that we’ve shown that, and then we don’t do it, or even get close to doing it. But the positive thing is we know we can. So if we could just figure out how to get tougher, how to be better teammates, how to really thrive on making others better, get out of our way a little bit, and then we as a staff do a better job.”
Self said Thursday that in order to finish the season strong, “We’ve got intangibles we’ve got to figure out. And I think we will. I think we can, but I don’t think we would have figured them out unless we go through some crap, because nothing is ever that special unless you look back and have to go some through some crap to get there.
“We’re not where we want to be. I don’t like it. I’m frustrated, but I do think there’s potential for us to get there.”
Self does not like the fact some players have been “made out to be scapegoats.”
“That should never happen with true fans because the players that we make out to be the biggest scapegoats are the ones that love your university more than anybody else,” Self said.
He didn’t name names but may have meant seniors Dajuan Harris and KJ Adams, who have been here longer than anybody else on the squad and played on KU’s most recent NCAA title team.
“Frustration is real — get frustrated with me, whatever — but some of the guys that we get frustrated with, you forget that when we’ve been elite, they’ve been our best player on the team every one of those games,” Self said. “So now, (some say) we want to get away from what our potential is, to go to something else, just to try something different as a formula for success?
“I don’t quite see it that way. I think with our margin of error that we have, we need everybody to be really good, and players play into their athletic ability and to a free mind and confidently and that kind of stuff, to give us the best chance.
“I do believe this team can be in the game. And there’s a lot of teams out there that you can say, ‘well, intangible wise, we’re clicking.’ But are they really in the game? Have they shown that they can actually compete and beat the best that America has to offer? There’s few teams out there that have shown it. We are one of them. So now we’ve got to get the other stuff together to hopefully put us in a position to play our best moving forward.”
As far as the state of the program, Self said “there’s something else disappointing because we take it for granted. I take it for granted. That means I know fans take it for granted too. This will will be the fourth year in the last 21 that we did not win the league.The other teams in the league, they actually try hard too and so we’re not going to win it. We’re mathematically eliminated. We’re not winning. But if we’d have finished second this year, you know what we would remember? This team did not win the league. But what we’ll really remember is how it finished.”
He concluded by saying that, “The story (on 2024-25 team) is not yet written, without question, so we still have the opportunity to write the story the way that we hope to, but it’s going to take a lot of work.
“It’s going to take a lot of togetherness. It’s going to take a lot of fight It’s going to take a lot of things, but the potential is there to do it, and a lot of teams don’t have that potential to do this.”
