KU Jayhawks, Tulsa hold ‘very competitive’ scrimmage: ‘It was good for us,’ Self says
Kansas men’s basketball coach Bill Self believes his Jayhawks gained a lot from participating in a closed scrimmage against Tulsa’s Golden Hurricane on Saturday at the Donald W. Reynolds Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
“It wasn’t perfect by any means, but it probably did us a quite a bit of good,” Self, KU’s 19th-year coach, said in a voice message to The Star. “It was very competitive. Tulsa played a lot of zone. It was good for us,” Self added.
The two teams played two 20-minute halves then an extra 10-minute session to make sure all the players had significant playing time. The two teams then practiced specific situations to conclude the scrimmage.
Self did not provide a score or comment on specific individual players in accordance with NCAA rules that prohibit specifics from being released to the media and public.
“The scrimmage went well,” Self said. “We probably didn’t play long enough to look at a ton of different combinations and different situations. Tulsa gave us everything we needed and everything we needed to see to put us into a position to play better. Of course they were smaller and so quick and fast hands that gave us some issues there a while. I thought we played fairly well, fairly efficient. We turned it over too much but competed fairly well and had some good possessions offensively,.” he added in the voice message.
Self noted in a story at KUathletics.com: “I think we got a lot out of the scrimmage today. Tulsa is good and played hard. I think it was good for our guys to go against different players, especially against a team that is so quick and has fast hands. They gave us a look we haven’t seen. They also played a lot of zone and it was good for us to go against their zone since we have not practiced against a zone so far. All in all, I felt it was a successful trip.”
There was one somewhat scary incident during the brief road trip.
On Friday, KU’s second of two buses carrying support staff members (no players) was clipped by a driver on a road in Coffeyville, Kansas, in an accident in which nobody was injured.
“There were two buses transporting us. The second bus got clipped,” Self told The Star, noting “a driver who may have fallen asleep clipped the back part of our bus. I’m sure it was scary, but there was nobody hurt, minimal damage and it only slowed us down enough to file a police report. We were very fortunate there,” he added.
KU will meet Emporia State at 7 p.m. Wednesday in an exhibition game at Allen Fieldhouse. It will be streamed on ESPN+. Tickets remain on sale for the game. KU will meet Michigan State in the season opener at 6 p.m. Central time Nov. 9 in New York.
This story was originally published October 30, 2021 at 4:28 PM with the headline "KU Jayhawks, Tulsa hold ‘very competitive’ scrimmage: ‘It was good for us,’ Self says."
