How Bill Self reacted to Kansas basketball’s slump-busting victory vs. Oklahoma State
Kansas, a team that had hit double-digit 3-point shots in just one Big 12 Conference game all season, swished a season-best 14 treys on 30 attempts in the Jayhawks’ 96-64 rout of Oklahoma State on Saturday afternoon at Allen Fieldhouse.
Senior guards Zeke Mayo and David “Diggy” Coit were 5-of-10 and 5-of-9 respectively from beyond the arc, scoring 15 points apiece, as the Jayhawks finished with the third most 3-point baskets in a conference game in school history.
KU was three off its conference-best mark of 17 3s made against Texas in 2017.
The successful long-range marksmanship — Rylan Griffen and Dajuan Harris iced two 3s apiece — led a media member to ask coach Bill Self if his Jayhawks (18-9, 9-7) could be counted on for 10 or more 3s a game down the stretch of the regular season into the postseason.
“Is it realistic? I don’t know that it’s realistic, but it is realistic that if we play confidently and we can get out in transition a little bit more and things like that, there’s no reason why we couldn’t be a team to try to come close to making double-figure 3s a game,” said Self. His squad’s previous high in 3-point makes this season was 11 in the season-opener vs. Howard. KU converted 10 from beyond the arc against N.C. State and league foe UCF.
“It doesn’t mean I don’t want to,” added Self after the Jayhawks’ best 3-point outing since the team made 15 against Kansas State on Feb 22, 2022. “In order to make 14 3s, you probably need to shoot 30, 35, and if the situation calls for that, then great.”
KU’s 30 attempts on Saturday were six off a school record 36 attempts in a conference game (against Iowa State in 2018).
“There were a lot of broken floor situations today,” Self said. “I thought OSU actually played us smart. They forced us to do some things that we haven’t been doing well, and today we did them well.”
KU did more than fire away on Saturday in busting a two-game losing streak.
Hunter Dickinson scored 16 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. One of his two steals (KU had 14) resulted in a breakaway slam dunk — one of the highlights in a 52-point first half. KJ Adams (six points, six rebounds) and Flory Bidunga (16 rebounds, four off the freshman record of 20 set by Eric Chenowith in 1997) each had crowd-pleasing slams.
Harris plucked six steals, all in the first half, and Griffen dished six assists to go with his nine points.
“Hopefully it’s contagious,” Self said of stellar play from his eight rotation players, “but let’s just call it like it is. When the ball goes in the hole, everybody’s happy and everything looks good. I do think there were a lot of things that happened today that created opportunities that we haven’t been getting as we’ve been playing flat-footed, and today we weren’t.”
Self stuck to what he hopes is a successful team motto the final five games of the regular season.
“We’re 1-0,” Self said of the team’s record in what he’s deemed a new five-game season. “That’s what we are, and that’s what we’re talking about, and everybody’s stat sheet and what they’re averaging this year is exactly what’s happened today.
“We’re not even going to talk about the other stuff right now,” he added of dropping two consecutive games in Utah (to BYU and Utah) leading into Saturday’s contest. KU entered having dropped 5 of 8 and 6 of 12.
“We’re 1-0. And now, can they do that (forget about the past)? I don’t know why they couldn’t, because it actually gives them new life, too,” Self noted.
Bidunga, who blocked three OSU shots, embraced the fact the Jayhawks are 1-0 in their own minds heading into Monday’s 10 p.m. Central clash at Colorado.
“We were talking about it, being 0-0 coming in. This was basically our first game so we really needed it bad for sure,” Bidunga said.
Coit, who set a career-high in 3-point makes as a Jayhawk (he hit four against Missouri and UCF) said: “We felt like these last five games (OSU, Colorado, Texas Tech, Arizona, Houston) are the biggest games of our season. So we just know that we’ve got to get every one of these. That’s how we feel.
“And I just think we had to prove it to ourselves. I think we lost confidence a little bit as far as what we do. We know what we can do. So now, how can we just stay consistent and keep doing it, keep performing?”
Coit pinpointed the difference between Saturday’s game and two losses in Utah in five days
“The biggest difference is the first five came ready to play,” Coit said of Dickinson, Adams, Harris, Griffen and Mayo. “Our leaders were leaders. Everybody had the same goal. We were on the same page across the board. That was the biggest difference for sure.”
This story was originally published February 22, 2025 at 7:49 PM.
