Why Bill Self had no issue celebrating KU’s NCAA Tournament win over Cal Baptist
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- KU survives 68-60 win over Cal Baptist and advances to Round of 32
- Bill Self praises win, says KU must be "a heck of a lot better" before St. John’s
- Freshman Darryn Peterson scores 28; Paul Mbiya adds 8 in 16 minutes.
Kansas basketball coach Bill Self stepped into the Jayhawks’ locker room as his players were being interviewed by media members after his squad’s 68-60 Round of 64 NCAA Tournament victory over a never-say-die Cal Baptist squad Friday night at Viejas Arena on San Diego State’s campus.
“One down, one to go,” Self exclaimed. He clapped his hands together emphatically while standing closest to an unlikely contributor — freshman center Paul Mbiya — who scored eight points on 4-of-5 shooting, grabbed three rebounds and blocked a shot in 16 minutes after totaling just four points the entire Big 12 season.
Self, make no mistake about it, was pleased with the result on Friday, one that propels the No. 4 seed Jayhawks (24-10) into Sunday’s 4:15 p.m. Central Round of 32 battle against No. 5 seed St. John’s (29-6) back at Viejas.
He was not despondent after watching his team see a 26-point lead (with 16:17 left) dip to six points in the final minute. The margin never dipped below six, the Jayhawks turning it up on defense in crunch time to avoid suffering what would have been the biggest blown lead in a loss in NCAA Tournament history.
“Coach is very excited,” Mbiya, a 7-foot freshman from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, said. He shattered his high in minutes, having played 11 in game three against Texas A&M Corpus Christi and just 30 minutes total in nine Big 12 games.
“He told us it’s good to get the win, get our rest and be ready for Sunday,” Mbiya added.
Senior Tre White — he scored eight early points to help KU secure a 13-5 lead — said of Self’s demeanor postgame: “He’s super fired up. Coming in here, you could just tell he’s been around March a long time, because his energy is just different, even from practice, from our film sessions. He’s definitely been around here before, and his energy is contagious.
“We’ll take a win any time. We’ll take a win no matter how ugly it is.”
White finished with 12 points (3-of-10 shooting, 0-4 from 3 and 6-6 from line) and seven rebounds.
“We definitely can clean some things up,” White continued. “I’m saying I’m both. I’m happy with how we played for 25 minutes (KU led 38-18 at the break). Then there were some things that we can still tighten up, things that happened the last 20 minutes or last 15 minutes, stuff like that. Kudos to them, though, they’re a great team. They fought all the way to the last buzzer. And, you know, kudos to us as well. We fought as well.”
KU survived a 25-point onslaught from senior guard Dominique Daniels, who hit 7 of 23 shots and was 4-of-9 from 3.
Self, who has had teams win championships and also has had teams lose in the first round in his 23 years as KU’s coach, including last year’s squad which lost to Arkansas in the Round of 64, preferred to look at the bright side after the Jekyll-and-Hyde game.
“They say ‘survive and advance,’ and that’s what we did,” Self said. “I actually thought we were pretty darn good for about 25 minutes, and then went stale for about eight and then was really poor the last seven. We just played not to lose and weren’t very aggressive.”
His initial message to the team?
“I told them that be excited that we won. Don’t apologize for winning a game in the NCAA Tournament, but we’ve got to be a heck of a lot better,” he said.
Asked if Friday’s up and down performance could be good in a way entering Sunday’s Round of 32 game, Self said: “I’ve actually experienced games where you don’t win and you’re cleaning out your lockers the next day. So yes, it’s good. Any time you win a game in the tournament it is good.
Self said freshman one-and-done player Darryn Peterson was KU’s top player in the game with Mbiya the second most effective Jayhawk.
According to KU, Peterson’s 28 points on 11-of-24 shooting (4-of-11 from 3, 2-2 from the line in 37 minutes) were the most scored by any KU freshman in a tourney game in the Self era.
“Super fun,” said Peterson, whose last shot of the night came at the 4:18 mark. “The goal was just to win, and we did that. I’m happy for myself and the team.”
He said this week he spoke to former KU players about the NCAAs. “I talked to the Morris twins and Mario Little. I wouldn’t really say (they gave) advice, but they were just telling me just to go out there and play, have fun. And Mario texted me today and just said, ‘blessings.’ Blessed to be able to be here and blessed to be able to be part of this.”
As is Self, the 23rd year coach simply pleased his team indeed survived No. 13 seed Cal Baptist and advanced.
“They (St. John) have won like 19 out of 20 (actually 20 of 21),” Self said of the No. 5 seed Red Storm, coached by Hall of Famer Rick Pitino. “So, yeah, there’s not too many teams that play in a good league that win 19 out of 20 and are a 5 seed. But I think they’re great.”
“So we’ll have to be a lot better to try to get our shoulders past them to at least get some paint touches, because they’re really good defensively.”
This story was originally published March 21, 2026 at 1:11 AM.
