KU’s Self pleased with 11-1 start, credits Norm Roberts for work in first four games
Kansas men’s basketball coach Bill Self gives high marks to his players for their performance during the first 12 games of the 2022-23 season.
“I’ll take that record with the schedule we played every year,” Self said after KU’s 68-54 victory over Harvard on Thursday night at Allen Fieldhouse.
That win over the Ivy League school pushed the Jayhawks’ record to 11-1 entering their four-day Christmas break, which ends with practice on Tuesday night.
The Jayhawks, who open their marathon Big 12 slate of games against Oklahoma State on New Year’s Eve at Allen Fieldhouse, still have one noncon game remaining — but not until Jan. 28 at Kentucky in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge.
“The guys have done well to this point,” Self said. “We are not in a bad place. We really shouldn’t base things on our record, but (rather) how we are playing. Overall, we’ve been consistent for the most part.”
The Jayhawks have been remarkably consistent in nonconference play the past nine seasons.
“Weren’t we about the same last year?” Self said. “There was Dayton (loss), but we were about the same. The year we had Doke (Udoka Azubuike) and Dot (Devon Dotson) when we were the No. 1 team in the country we were about the same.”
Indeed, the national champion Jayhawks went 11-1 in nonconference play to open the 2021-22 season (later losing to Kentucky in late January).
In 2019-20, KU opened 10-2, then in January defeated Tennessee. As Self said, that team was on target to be No. 1 overall seed in the NCAAs, however, the postseason was called off because of COVID.
KU opened the 2020-21 COVID-riddled season 6-1. The Jayhawks were 11-1 in 2018-19, 10-2 in 2017-18, 11-1 in 2016-17, 11-1 in 2015-16 and 11-2 in 2014-15. In 2013-14, KU went 9-4 in the nonconference campaign.
“I think after we lost to Tennessee, it’s the best we could do,” Self said of the 2022-23 Jayhawks going 5-0 after a 64-50 loss to UT on Nov. 25 in the finals of the Battle 4 Atlantis.
So far KU has defeated Duke, Indiana, Wisconsin, North Carolina State, Missouri, Seton Hall, Omaha, North Dakota State, Southern Utah, Harvard and Texas Southern.
“The Duke win to date is as good a win as we’ve had all year,” Self said of a 69-64 KU win on Nov. 15 in Indianapolis.
That was one of the four games Self and assistant Kurtis Townsend missed during their four-game self-imposed suspensions to open the regular season. KU went 4-0 in those games which were coached by Norm Roberts.
“The players did a great job sticking together,” 11th-year KU assistant Roberts said of their work in erasing a six-point second-half deficit versus Duke, pounding Omaha and North Dakota State by 25 and 23 points respectively and managing a narrow six-point victory over Southern Utah.
“The chemistry was good — players and coaches working as a family. It resulted in some good nights including a good night against Duke.”
The Jayhawks blocked 13 shots to Duke’s two but were outrebounded 46-35.
“We told our guys we’ve got to make them feel us,” Roberts said. Duke was 3-of-21 from three and shot 35.8% overall compared to KU’s 46.3% mark. “We stayed tough and made it happen.”
Self — he could coach during practice but not on game day for those first four games — returned for an 80-74 win over North Carolina State in a first-round game at the Battle 4 Atlantis.
“Norm did a great job. Of course I knew he would. The staff did a great job. We’ve got arguably the best and most experienced staff of anybody in the country” Self said of Roberts, Townsend, assistant Jeremy Case and staff members Joe Dooley, Brennan Bechard, Fred Quartlebaum, Brady Morningstar, Bill Cowgill and Ramsey Nijem.
Of Roberts’ work when Self was out, Case said: “I thought ‘Coach Rob’ was great. And I thought our players were really mature about it. A lot of times some guys could have that substitute teacher mentality. A substitute comes in and you act the (jerk). Our guys handled it really well.”
In his second season as a KU assistant, Case, 38, has learned a lot from the 57-year-old Roberts, who also was a head coach for six years at St. John’s and four at Queens College.
“His energy and passion for the game, … he works his (butt) off,” Case said of Roberts. “I feel fortunate to be able to watch and develop around a person who works as hard as he does with the passion he has. I think our coaches work as hard or harder than any other staff. Everybody does their job. We have a Hall of Fame coach who works his butt off. We don’t work harder than any other staff but we work hard.”
Things have been back to normal with Self at the helm the past eight games.
He doesn’t want the work of Roberts to go unnoticed, however.
“Obviously he should be a head coach. Norm Roberts should be a head coach. There’s no doubt about that,” Self said. “He’s also at a pretty good place (KU), too. If Norm is going to do it (be a candidate to be a head coach) again, hopefully those four games and especially the Duke game would show everybody he certainly has some poise under pressure.”
Roberts said modestly: “I think everybody here understands that it’s about the players.”
This story was originally published December 26, 2022 at 5:00 AM with the headline "KU’s Self pleased with 11-1 start, credits Norm Roberts for work in first four games."
