KU players push back on social media criticism of Bill Self after NCAA loss
After a season-ending loss to St. John’s in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, Kansas coach Bill Self said he hasn’t decided if he will return for a 24th season, citing his health.
The last few years have been difficult.
“The last two years hasn’t been — well, this year included — it’s been inconsistent and not as good,” Self said. “So obviously it’s disappointing. I really feel that we had a team this year that could have been a higher seed if we would have played better in other games. And if you’re a higher seed, you don’t play St. John’s in the second game, arguably the hottest team in the tournament.”
Following Sunday’s last-second loss, KU has failed to make a second weekend of the NCAA Tournament in four straight seasons.
That’s led to some criticism of Self, who won his second national title in 2022. The Jayhawks also won the title in 2008 and entered the 2020 postseason as the likely No. 1 overall seed before the tournament was canceled.
The Star asked several KU players what they thought about some of the national and social media criticism of Self — and the idea that KU could consider replacing him. They all pushed back strongly.
Perhaps none more so than KU redshirt-sophomore guard Jamari McDowell,
“Well, you can’t take nothing from him,” McDowell told The Star. “He’s been doing this s— longer than I’ve been alive. The people that sit around and have time to sit on the internet and talk about stuff they have no idea about probably should get a job.
“If you have time to do that, I don’t have time to do that. If you have time to do that, good for you bro. Keep pushing your content. Everybody got to do something. I don’t really pay attention to it, but I see it (on social media).”
In fact, right after KU’s loss to the Red Storm, McDowell said he saw Instagram comments saying Self should hang it up.
“I didn’t even have my notifications on,” McDowell said. “I opened Instagram. Yeah, it’s dumb. I don’t know why I opened it. Then I go, ‘Oh, that’s all right, bro.’”
Sophomore big man Flory Bidunga shared a similar sentiment after the season-ending loss.
“Those are outside noises,” Bidunga told The Star. “I feel like they don’t know what is really going on in the inside. It’s only us who knows what’s going on inside. I feel like we don’t need to listen to any of that because we do know what’s going on.”
KU finished this season 24-11 (12-6 Big 12).
