Bill Self assesses tape of No. 9 KU’s loss to No. 2 Baylor: ‘We are not that far off’
Kansas men’s basketball coach Bill Self says he left Baylor’s Ferrell Center late Monday night, “not mad, but disappointed,” following his No. 9-ranked Jayhawks’ 77-69 loss to the No. 2-ranked Bears.
His mood changed just a little bit after spending some time in his office on Tuesday.
“I didn’t watch the tape last night. After I watched it today I would say the anger emotion crept in a little bit,” Self said Tuesday night on his Hawk Talk radio show, “because I thought we did some things that were so close that could have been such a difference — things that were not far off from being pretty good.
“We’ve got to correct some things, tighten some things up. We are not that far off,” he added of his Jayhawks, off to a 4-3 start (compared to Baylor’s 6-0 mark) in Big 12 play heading into Saturday’s 11 a.m. game at Oklahoma.
“We need everybody playing well. We are not a good enough team to have three out of five starters or two out of five starters play well because our bench isn’t going to be a scoring-type bench. We need our starters to play well.”
Starting wings Ochai Agbaji and Christian Braun scored 17 and 16 points respectively Monday on combined 9-of-13 three-point shooting.
However, starting small forward Jalen Wilson had four points and five boards; starting big man David McCormack six points and two boards and starting point guard Marcus Garrett nine points, eight assists and five turnovers. Self noted he was pleased with the outings of reserves Mitch Lightfoot, Tristan Enaruna and Dajuan Harris who combined for 14 points.
“All in all (when) going down there I thought we could win. We usually play well there in Waco (14-3 at Ferrell Center heading into the game) considering how many good teams they’ve had,” Self said.. “Last night they got off to a great start. I don’t want to say they never looked back. (But) when you lead from start to finish that means you controlled the game.”
The Bears led by as many as 16 points the first half and 13 at halftime, but just five during crunch time.
Self was asked specifically about the play of senior point guard Garrett in a question submitted by a Hawk Talk listener.
“I think Marcus had eight assists. That’s one of his better passing games but a couple untimely turnovers,” Self said. “If you handle the ball as much as him you’ll have two or three turnovers. You’ve got to live with that. A couple were untimely but I think a lot of that is fatigue too.”
Garrett played 36 minutes, missing the final two minutes because of a cramp in his left leg.
“If you watched the game last night,” Self said, “Butler was by far the best player in the game. I think he made one basket on Marcus. He got 30,” Self said of Jared Butler, who scored 30 points on 10-of-14 shooting. He was 7-of-9 from three.
“We switched so much (on defense). Now do we not switch when this is who we are, this is how we practiced? We obviously have some struggles with perimeter quickness as far as sliding. It’s a little misleading to think Marcus isn’t doing as much (as last year). He’s probably doing more. I think he’s become a little more careless because of fatigue. The best thing we can do for him is not play him as much. That’s also hard to do.”
Garrett averages 9.2 points a game on 41.9% shooting. He’s made 8 of 25 threes for 32%. He has contributed 4.3 rebounds a game with 51 assists to 22 turnovers. He leads the squad in minutes played (32.4)
Last year Garrett, a 6-5 native of Dallas, averaged 9.2 points a game on 44.2% shooting. He hit 17 of 52 threes for 32.7% with 144 assists to 54 turnovers. He grabbed 45.6 rebounds per outing and played a similar 32.2 minutes per outing.
And like last year when he won national defensive player of the year honors he’s guarding the opponents’ best perimeter player.
“Even though we played zone and played triangle and two against Oklahoma State, he didn’t. He guarded Cade (Cunningham, 18 points in OSU’s 75-70 win over KU on Jan. 12) every possession and chased him around. He (Cunningham) didn’t score in that stretch (just four points second half) in large part because Marcus was guarding him,” Self said. “He (Garrett) had the ball in his hands late and made a couple poor decisions late that we’ve got to correct. We’re not making excuses for him nor would he want us to make excuses for him but I think it has something to do with it.”
Remember, last year Devon Dotson was point guard. Garrett played more on the wing.
“He’s handling the ball more this year,” Self said. “He’s always been kind of Robin and somebody else was Batman. This year he’s Batman and really doesn’t have a Robin when you are talking about ballhandling at the same time he’s out there. You are asking a guy to handle the ball and have it more in his hands than he should. You still have the exact type of player and defensive player.”
Thompson update
Self said injured KU freshman combo guard Bryce Thompson had a medical checkup on Tuesday, five days after undergoing surgery on his right index finger.
“Everything was favorable,” Self said, noting it’s “too early to tell,” when the combo guard will return to action. “He’ll maintain a great attitude. His attitude will allow him to come back and finish the season strong. He’s been terrific. You don’t want anything bad to happen to anybody, ever. But if there’s one guy — David (McCormack) would (also) be like this — if one guy could handle a setback even if it’s devastating to him, it’d be Bryce because he’ll find a way to see the glass half full.”
This story was originally published January 19, 2021 at 9:08 PM with the headline "Bill Self assesses tape of No. 9 KU’s loss to No. 2 Baylor: ‘We are not that far off’."
