Self not dwelling on NCAA as season opens: ‘I plan on being very mature about this’

Kansas basketball coach Bill Self insists the notice of allegations delivered by the NCAA to KU on Monday — and ensuing months of uncertainty involving the program — will have no negative effect on his Jayhawks during the 2019-20 season.

“I don’t think it’ll be a distraction for our players,” Self said after Thursday’s 1-hour, 59-minute practice in the facility adjacent to Allen Fieldhouse. It was KU’s first official practice in a season that now runs from September to March or April.

“None, none of our players that we have in our program are involved,” Self said. “No matter what anybody says, none are involved. It could become that (distraction) if I’m not very mature about it. I plan on being very mature about this. I’m planning on coaching this team harder and better than any team I’ve had here at Kansas.

“I don’t see this being a distraction at all from a players’ standpoint, and I see it as being a gift to me from a personal standpoint that it’ll motivate me in a pretty competitive way.

Self did not seem preoccupied or distressed at all after Thursday’s practice. In fact, he briefly halted an interview for a few moments to interact with senior forward Mitch Lightfoot, who was exiting the facility with a shiner under his left eye.

“How bad is it?” Self asked Lightfoot, who took an inadvertent elbow at practice that opened a cut.

“(It’s) good,” Lightfoot said.

“How many (stitches) you get?” Self added.

“Six” was the answer.

“Gosh he’ll be even tougher. Mitch is gonna look tougher now than before,” Self said to Lightfoot and the media, while smiling.

Asked by a reporter how Self is feeling these days, he said, “I’m fantastic. It’s been OK. Nothing that’s happened isn’t anything we didn’t expect some form of that. I’m not saying we expected the exact details, but everything’s been fine. It’s been kind of business as usual to be honest.

“Today was a really good day to get on the court. Guys worked their tails off. We had a really good first day. I’m very encouraged leaving out of here today.”

Self added that he didn’t address the NCAA issue with his players at practice Thursday.

“I told them before that this was probably going to happen,” Self said, noting he spoke with the players as a group prior to Monday’s announcement of receipt of the notice of five Level-1 violations.

“They weren’t prepared as far as knowing what was in (the notice), but they were prepared that based on media reports (from The KC Star last Friday) there’s a great chance we’d see a notice of allegations on Monday,” Self said. “It went down exactly as I told them.

“I don’t think giving them a pep talk on that right now would probably be the best thing to do,” Self continued. “I do think this … they (players) know that we’ve got this. They do. They are not involved, so if they are not involved there’s no reason why they should think about this.”

KU senior center Udoka Azubuike, who by the way said he’s in the best shape of his life entering his final season at KU, said, “We didn’t really talk about it (NCAA issue) much. We know coach has it under control.”

Sophomore Ochai Agbaji said he has not, and will not, dwell on KU’s dealings with the NCAA.

“He (Self) said he’d handle all that,” Agbaji said. “We come in and we have that tone, that mindset of one goal. Nothing outside that can distract us. Seeing that in the news brings us more motivation to work harder,” Agbaji added.

Junior combo guard Marcus Garrett, who according to Self will back up Devon Dotson at the point this season, said “we don’t even think about it. Like me, I don’t even think about it. We’ll keep our days going, having fun.”

Asked if it could be a distraction for a team with Big 12 title and national title aspirations, Garrett said: “Oh no. Of course not.”

It’s been speculated KU’s upcoming battle with the NCAA could affect recruiting negatively.

“To be honest, I’ve been concerned about recruiting challenges the last 27 years I’ve been a head coach,” Self said. “Every place has its challenges. This gives us some unique challenges. We can somehow look at them as opportunities too. I’m sure that’s always going to be an issue. In the past when we’ve gone against Kentucky, Carolina, Duke and Michigan State or UCLA or whoever to get the players we’re recruiting, they’re all challenges. Certainly we’ve got our hands full with this. We’ll end up I think having a very good (recruiting year).”

Self had no opinion on whether the upcoming timeline would actually benefit KU. KU has 90 days to answer the NCAA’s notice of allegations with more time to pass before an official hearing in which KU can rebut the charges. It’s believed there will be no resolution to this case until the summer of 2020 or fall of 2020.

“No time is the best time,” Self said, adding, “I am real excited about this team. Hopefully their abilities and their motivation is to try to do some special things this year.”

He was asked about receiving words of support from KU’s administration.

“I’m appreciative the way the school has handled this situation and appreciative of the way I think it’ll be handled moving forward,” Self said.

Asked what he’d tell KU’s fans entering the 2019-20 campaign, he stated: “I think we’re going to have a terrific basketball team. I think this team (as well as) every player that’s played here has represented this university in a very first-class way. They deserve to be supported. Our players believe that’ll happen. We’ve got the best fans in the country. People are always going to be concerned about the future in all areas or avenues depending on what’s happening with anybody personally in their life. They can be concerned about the future. I think that’s going to be the case here. I don’t think it should take away one bit from what’s getting ready to happen this year. That’s going to be putting a team on the floor that’s going to be awfully fun to watch and support.”

Notes: Self said Lightfoot and Isaiah Moss (hamstring tweak suffered Thursday) have incurred the only injuries on the team at this time. … Self said freshman Issac McBride, who recently elected to transfer, was not ticketed to be the backup point guard, noting McBride was more of a scorer that distributor. He said he thought Garrett “deserved” a shot at playing the point as well as the 2. … Late Night in the Phog will take place at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 4 at Allen Fieldhouse.

This story was originally published September 26, 2019 at 8:35 PM with the headline "Self not dwelling on NCAA as season opens: ‘I plan on being very mature about this’."