The most fascinating part about this KU Jayhawks season has already revealed itself
Kansas coach Bill Self said one thing before Wednesday’s 86-60 exhibition victory over Emporia State, then he said something different afterward.
And that change of tone all comes back to the single reality that is going to be most fascinating about this year’s KU men’s basketball team:
Self, whether he likes it or not, has signed up for the Remy Martin Experience.
Time to buckle in. Because there’s no telling where this ride will go.
KU’s 19th-year coach is going to fight some of this. Heck, he did a bit of that Wednesday when he started walk-on Chris Teahan over Martin for the team’s only preseason game.
Self, during his pregame radio chat with Brian Hanni, explained it had been a rough couple days for his team. KU had a bad practice Tuesday, so Self gathered his team for a 6:30 a.m. workout Wednesday. That was followed by another one at 2, with the game coming after that at 7.
“We’ve got to get some things right,” Self said. “We haven’t been performing very well in practice, so trying to get their attention a little bit.”
And listen, there’s no question whose attention he’s trying to grab the most.
That would be of the electric guard Martin, whom Self desperately needs as the missing piece for this talented roster.
“I want to see him kind of play the way that we want to play,” Self said. “This is not a fault of Remy’s.”
Self doesn’t want to be misunderstood. He says some of the struggles Martin’s faced shouldn’t be blamed on him.
It’s just ... things are different at KU. Martin is used to a system at Arizona State where everything was catered to him and the ball constantly made it back to his hands.
At KU? Ball and body movement are the priorities, and not a guy having to feel like he has to constantly make something happen on his own.
“It’s been an adjustment for Remy,” Self said. “There’s things that we value more than what he values, and there’s things he values more obviously than what we do.”
Self stops here before getting to the crux of it. He has a dynamic playmaker in Martin who gives KU a dimension off the dribble it didn’t have last year. He also has a fearless shot-taker who can make difficult attempts.
Then again, Self also has a team surrounding Martin that was pretty damn good a season ago, and a team dynamic built up over multiple seasons that he doesn’t want to damage by one guy playing hero-ball.
“I don’t want to take away his freedom by any stretch, but I don’t want his freedom to take away from the other four guys playing,” Self said of Martin. “So we have to kind of get that figured out, and we haven’t quite done that yet.”
This was the reason for Martin’s benching Wednesday, though Self’s postgame comments about Martin had a much lighter tone.
Part of that was Martin showing constant flashes of his ability Wednesday. He scored 15 points in his 18 minutes, using quick baseline drives while also shooting over the top when the defense was unset.
Perhaps no sequence better displayed the Remy Experience more than consecutive possessions late in the first half. On the first, he read a ball screen perfectly, zipping a one-handed pass to the opposite end of the court to get teammate Ochai Agbaji an open three. It was a play few in college basketball can make.
The next time down though — with KU’s offense stagnating for a few seconds — he ran back to the ball, tried to work against two defenders, then settled for an off-balance jumper that ended up well short.
Those two plays, back to back, are why Self rightfully is continuing to battle to get Martin away from some of his previous instincts.
If Martin becomes the guy in the first play for KU, and takes full advantage of the shooting and size on his roster ... well, it’s difficult to see there being more than a handful of better offensive teams in the country than the Jayhawks.
The second Remy, though, wouldn’t be taking full advantage of all that’s around him.
This isn’t Arizona State, and he’s not playing for a sub-.500 team anymore. So just because Martin can do it all by himself doesn’t mean that he should.
It’s worth noting that after the game, Self was much more positive when speaking about Martin. He praised him for his energy and mostly didn’t mind his shot selection, while wishing he’d given more effort on defense.
This will continue to be a balancing act for Self; don’t pull too tight to take away what makes Remy Remy, while still making it clear that this isn’t just his show either.
Something else to remember: Before Wednesday, Self had only had Martin in practices or closed scrimmages so far. That meant he’d had a limited glimpse of what Martin will provide the rest of this season.
So before ending his chat with Hanni on pregame radio, Self offered some insight into what he was looking for against Emporia State on Wednesday night.
“Some guys are better under the lights, and some guys maybe are better in practice,” Self said. “And hoping it’s the case that some guys kind of turn it up when the lights are on.”
Self didn’t say Martin’s name here, but he didn’t have to.
Spoken or unspoken, ready or not, Self’s season starts next week — with a situation he created and now must embrace.
This story was originally published November 4, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "The most fascinating part about this KU Jayhawks season has already revealed itself."
