Even KU’s title teams of 2008, ’22 might have lost to K-State, TCU, Baylor, Self says
Reflecting on Kansas’ three-game losing streak while speaking on Tuesday night’s Hawk Talk radio show, Bill Self reminded a packed house at Johnny’s Tavern West that the Jayhawks’ defeats have come against some exceptional college basketball teams.
“I don’t usually make excuses and certainly will not now,” Self, KU’s 20th-year coach, said, speaking a day after the No. 9-ranked Jayhawks fell to 5-3 in the Big 12 Conference and 16-4 overall following a 75-69 loss at No. 17-ranked Baylor.
“The people that feel the sky is falling because we’ve lost three in row probably don’t really understand the talent level of the opponents we’ve played here of late. We could have our team in 2008 or 2022 lose three in a row to the teams we just played,” Self added, referring to his national title teams perhaps losing to the likes of Baylor, as well as TCU and Kansas State, teams currently ranked No. 17, No. 11 and No. 5 in the AP poll.
“It’s not good by any stretch, (but) it’s 99% of the stuff all the rest of the world goes through. We just haven’t gone through it here,” Self added of enduring a three-game losing streak, which ties for worst streak in his 20 seasons at KU.
KU has lost as many as three in a row three other times under Self (2020-21; 2012-13 and 2004-05). The Jayhawks last lost four in a row during the 1988-89 campaign.
Self has said many times, “this year the league is a monster. Watching the league play, it shows you the team that plays the best that night will win based on (the fact) everybody’s got players. Those three guards that Baylor had (LJ Cryer, 22 points vs. KU; Adam Flagler 17 points; Keyonte George (8 points) are the best three guards in America on one team. There’s nobody that will dispute that at least that I know of. When you have players of that caliber ... we did a really good job on two of them early. We let one get away from us the first half (Cryer, who scored 19 as Baylor led 41-34 at the break).
“We are not playing as well as we are capable of playing by any stretch,” Self continued, “but the whole deal is, you can play well and still come up empty at some of these places.”
Self indicated he was “not going to get discouraged at all,” heading into Saturday’s 7 p.m. (Central time) game at Kentucky followed by a return to Big 12 play against Kansas State on Tuesday at Allen Fieldhouse.
“I don’t like that we’ve lost three in a row. I understand this is a long grind. The schedule has really been very difficult for a long period of time. It’s going to continue to be difficult,” Self said.
He pointed to KenPom.com’s latest projections that have the 2022-23 Big 12 race ending with KU, Kansas State, Texas and Iowa State all tying for first place with 11-7 records. KenPom.com has Baylor and TCU right behind at 10-8.
“If you look at analytics, now it’s not going to happen that way. It never happens exactly the way analytics says it’s going to, but that’s what the betting person would think if they were going to take a guess, ‘OK what would the winning league record be (in Big 12)?’’’ Self said.
“Could it be 13-5? Yes, it could be. Could it be 12-6? Yes, it could be. Analytics say four teams tie at 11-7 and two are 10-8. It’s KenPom. That’s what the NCAA goes by with NET rankings and stuff,” Self noted.
“The whole deal is just the fact the league is that competitive. We also shouldn’t make excuses, but just understand you can not make excuses and still go somewhere and actually perform average to above average and not win,” Self said.
Self saw some positives in Monday’s six-point loss at Baylor. KU trailed by 13 early, rallied and took a lead in the second half in making it a close game.
“We were 16 of 16 from the free-throw line,” Self said of perfect free throwing. Baylor was 20 of 25.
“We turned it over too much (15 turnovers to Baylor’s nine). Jalen (Wilson, 23 points) and Gradey (Dick, 24 points) had really good games offensively. We didn’t have enough going around to help them as far as production goes,” Self added.
Self said he thought freshman guard Dick’s many drives to the goal were a positive on a night Dick was 2 of 5 on three-pointers and 8 of 13 overall.
“Guarding the basketball (Baylor was 9 of 30 from three) and defensive rebounding (Baylor had 17 offensive rebounds to KU’s eight) and taking care of the ball early in the game, those were the three things and all important things that probably led to us not getting out of there with a ‘W’ as much as anything else we did,” Self said. “We hung in there, the kids fought.
“We caught a team last night that was TCU-good the first 10 minutes (the Horned Frogs beat KU by 23 points; K-State beat KU by one in overtime). They were terrific. Cryer made everything he looked at (5 of 11 from three; 5 of 7 first half) even when we defended him well.”
This story was originally published January 24, 2023 at 8:35 PM with the headline "Even KU’s title teams of 2008, ’22 might have lost to K-State, TCU, Baylor, Self says."
