Bill Self: After Davidson, KU is all-business on road

Kansas guard Travis Releford scrambles for a loose ball in the first half against Davidson on Monday, Dec. 19, 2011 at Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo.

The day after a men’s basketball defeat tends to be a bit somber at Kansas University — a school that has suffered just nine losses over the last three seasons.

And so Tuesday’s charter flight to Los Angeles for Thursday’s 10 p.m. game against USC at Galen Center was not exactly all fun and games. The memory of Monday’s 80-74 loss to Davidson remained fresh on the Jayhawks’ minds as they headed west.

“I think this has been a very peaceful first two hours of the flight,” KU coach Bill Self said on his Tuesday night Hawk Talk radio show. He spoke during a refueling stop in Arizona.

“There’s not a lot of communicating going on, besides everybody trying to get caught up (on rest). We’ll have a nice dinner tonight, somewhere on the marina. Tomorrow we’ll get busy. We’ve got to get better starting tomorrow.”

Self said the Jayhawks, who traveled to L.A. a day early with the players out of class on semester break, will not have much free time on this pre-Christmas trip.

“I don’t think so. I was more in a festive mood prior to last night,” Self said on a Tuesday teleconference. “We might spend more time in film sessions or whatever while we are out there. I don’t think we’ll have much time for anything else.”

His Jayhawks take a 7-3 record into the USC game. The Trojans enter 5-7, but filled with momentum after blasting TCU, 83-59, on Monday.

“I’d like to see a lot of things,” Self said of improvement for Thursday. “To see us actually attempt to guard, to get in (defensive) stance, to win 70 percent of the 50/50 balls, to not give up layups, to have enough discipline to guard the entire clock and not break down. For us to not play tired, to have more energy and passion, to run our stuff and try to execute what we do instead of being out there on our own.”

He didn’t enjoy watching film of the Davidson game.

“I think we played a lot worse than what I initially thought,” he said. “That was meant to be somewhat of a joke. Our attention to detail is horrific. To think we could not do anything defensively to create anything and let them totally control tempo the second half ...”

He said he would not consider KU favorites to win the Big 12. “Not at all. I watched a team play last night that anybody in the league could have us. I do think we’ll have a good team, and I think we’ll have a good conference run. To think we’d be a favorite now ... we have a long ways to go to consider ourselves one of the best teams. I do think we have potential to get there.”

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jsatt3 1 year, 5 months ago

Someone's pisssssssed!!

PismoBeachKansasUSA 1 year, 5 months ago

Maybe he was also pisssssssed at whoever arranges KU's transportation. When your charter flight from Kansas to LA has to stop in Arizona for fuel, you may have chosen the wrong charter company.

I'm not an aviation expert, but shouldn't you fuel up before you leave Kansas?

omari1911 1 year, 5 months ago

Exactly my thought. What kind of bootleg operation ran that charter? They would've been better off booking tickets on Expedia.

JHawk74 1 year, 5 months ago

They are not chartering a cross country plane. It is feasible to think they would have to land and get more fuel. It is probably a 25 passenger plane and doesn't have fuel capacity to travel over 2000 miles.

syceda 1 year, 5 months ago

Better to get exposed now and fix it, keep the faith.

actorman 1 year, 5 months ago

That's one of my favorite things about Self, that he doesn't pull any punches and tells us what he really thinks.

phi4life940 1 year, 5 months ago

Basically, the opposite of Turner Gill. haha

jhawk7782 1 year, 5 months ago

True is, this just isn't a very good team. Double digits in the loss column is very possible and somewhere between 3-5 in the Big 12. Davidson should have been a tune-up...not a loss, especially not a loss that showed every weakness this team has. Play some ZONE, one that everyone can easily understand their assignments. It was not a 'trap' game as some have claimed. USC is a 2nd tier PAC 12 team..not Ohio State or this years 'Fine' Syracuse team. We should win out the rest of the non-conference games. Make it to the Big Dance And look forward to some much better teams in the near future.

Lulufulu85 1 year, 5 months ago

yeah, the whole team is in the dog house for this one.

Lulufulu85 1 year, 5 months ago

yeah, the whole team is in the dog house for this one.

jaybate 1 year, 5 months ago

Self knows he has a tired team. He knows leg fatigue drives down shooting percentage. They are getting there early to rest. They are watching films instead of practicing to rest.

This is a dangerous game for a young team.

Coming off a loss.

On the road.

Tyshawn just played 33 minutes on a blown tire.

A savvy opposing coach.

The only good news is shooting.

KU is do for a good night.

USC for a bad night.

Let's hope the streakers--EJ and CT--are on.

baldwinjhawk 1 year, 5 months ago

I'm with you on that! I wouldn't have played TT, but he's a senior and won't being playing much more on American soil. So that's probably the reason.

AsadZ 1 year, 5 months ago

bate, I am trying to understand as to why did this team play so tired after a 9 day break? Legs should have been fresh?

Kubie 1 year, 5 months ago

Finals week + Practice can be more fatiguing than games. Particularly on the mental side which could partially at least explain the lack of attention to detail HCBS mentions. However I would think that would hit both teams in a similar fashion.

oldalum 1 year, 5 months ago

Their practices would have been a bit irregular with players participating or not depending on whether they had a final that day. They were still involved with school even though classes were out for 9 days. Maybe that's why it didn't look like they were really playing together at any time during the whole game, and why their legs weren't in game shape.

jaybate 1 year, 5 months ago

Self is a practice fanatic this time of year. KU always loses a non con game in late December or first week of January to dead legs from practice. Remember the UTenn game.

jhawk7782 1 year, 5 months ago

I'd like to see HCBS go to a zone although that's not his style. Throw in man-to-man just to keep USC on their feet. We need to stop the blown defensive assignments. 2-3 or 1-3-1 - even a box & 1 Whichever fits the team better. And Biek makes a valid point..Why risk Taylor if he's not 100%?

ralster 1 year, 5 months ago

jhwk7782, Sorry to disagree. But on conceptual grounds--and I mean the basics of basketball: You propose zone defense for a bunch of newbies that hardly practice zone defenses...AND, what are the 2 ways to breakdown a zone defense? 1) penetration, and 2) 3pt shooting. So you want to let Davidson (in retrospect) get even more wide open looks from 3? So you wanted us to get beat by 15-20, not just by single digits? Who goes zone against a 3shooting team?

KUDAD 1 year, 5 months ago

Underpromise.

Overdeliver.

Don't live down to expectations.

phogphan2000 1 year, 5 months ago

Kleave 1 year, 5 months ago

So, I'm leaving LA for Wichita in about 3.5 hours. Got offered a ticket to the game, which I of course had to turn down. I could've seen it in person, but I'll probably end up watching it at Larry Bud's or something... What terrible timing for the Holiday Season to come around...

funkitect 1 year, 5 months ago

ahh, kansas for the holidays. i did the same thing last year and got stuck there for an extra week because of the blizzard in nyc...

Blown 1 year, 5 months ago

"Wichita is a pretty good town, People are nice, and all around. Wichita ain't a bad place to be, But it's Wichita and it's killing me."

--Truckstop Honeymoon

drgnslayr 1 year, 5 months ago

Hilarious... I happened to be with friends in Augusta, KS, during Mike and Kate's performance in the town theater. We all hooked up afterwards. Amazing folk who suffered a direct hit from Katrina.

Truckstop Honeymoon- Wichita by Brian Phillips

...and I've heard they live in Lawrence now.

Small world...

Blown 1 year, 5 months ago

They do live in Lawrence--They are great great folks. New Orleans loss was Lawrence's gain on this one. The only band I know that brings their young to the show and let's em bang around on stuff back stage!

irish1hawk 1 year, 5 months ago

I wonder what our record is for the last two games before break during Coach Self's time at Kansas. It feels like several of these defeats have come right around Christmas break.

angusmcpherr 1 year, 5 months ago

Pretty good - 14-3 Losses to Nevada (1st season); Arizona (on the road in '08); and Davidson. Wins against Boston College, Georgia Tech, Temple, Michigan, Cal (twice), USC, among others.

Kubie 1 year, 5 months ago

KUbsee69 1 year, 5 months ago

Do you understand the origin of the word FAN? It roots from fanatic.

It's the coach's job to be critical. It's the FAN(atic)'s job to be ... well, FANATIC.

iamakufan 1 year, 5 months ago

Probably has to do with qualifications for saying those things.

tical523 1 year, 5 months ago

So you can only comment on subjects that you have actual experience in? Sports, politics, fashion, movies, music. . . .do you need to be qualified to critique or can you just state your opinion?

memhawk 1 year, 5 months ago

The only games that we seem to really play well in at the Sprint Center are Big 12 tournament games. We've obviously won far more than we've lost there. But, my memories are of slow starting, less than intensive play on that floor during the regular season. I'm sure somebody out there will set me straight if my perceptions are not based from reality.

BTW, Happy Chanukah to those lighting their candles for those "eight crazy nights" as Adam Sandler sings!

angusmcpherr 1 year, 5 months ago

Bill Self's record in KC while at KU: 20-4

8-3 regular season (Syracuse, UMass, Davidson) 10-1 Big 12 tourney (OSU) 2-0 NCAA tourney

AsadZ 1 year, 5 months ago

Didnt KU lose to baylor in Big 12 tourney, I believe 1st rnd, couple of yrs ago?

rockchalkchalkin23 1 year, 5 months ago

Yes, 2008/2009 squad. But angusmcpherr stats were referencing KC. This loss took place in OKC.

bjejayhawk69 1 year, 5 months ago

Defense is the reason for that loss. You can try to blame KU's poor shooting and Davidson hitting some difficult 3's (and some wide open ones as well) or blame turnovers but you win ugly games with consistent defense. There are many problems with KU's defense. First many of these guys are playing 30+ minutes cause the bench is so thin so fatigue plays a factor but when you give up 2 layups to a slow guard in the half court set within the first minute of the game that is unacceptable. Robinson at times simply doesn't even guard his man much less take part in any help defense. Some of that is fatigue the other part is I think he knows he can't into foul trouble and come off the floor. Also when KU plays teams with quicker big men that step out on the floor it pulls Withey away from the basket for help defense. Teahan is not Morningstar on defense and Taylor and Johnson think they are athletic enough that they can recover defensively when they aren't working hard enough initially. Guys off the bench don't realize how hard you have work defensively at this level.

All those issues combined leaves this team in its current state. The problem is it will be hard to remedy it because there is no one on the bench to push the starters to have to play bettter. Most of them aren't working hard enough either or athletically they are too chanllenged.

This will be Self's most challenging coaching year yet.

On the flip side he is getting some quality commitments. I think he has changed his recruiting and is not focusing on the top 10 kids who take way too much time and effort to recruit and drag their recruiting out to the last second plus have grade issues and will stay mabye 1 year and never contribute greatly to your program. Going and getting early commits from guys rated 20 to 80 pays off longer and better in the long run.

kayjku 1 year, 5 months ago

Especially atrocious perimeter defense...

Bellator 1 year, 5 months ago

Any day now we'll hear about the the infamous "players only" meeting being held.

KansasComet 1 year, 5 months ago

It's not that bad...it's not that good either. This team can beat any team in the country. This team can lose to any team in the country. Turnovers are killing this team.

ccarp 1 year, 5 months ago

I want what Coach Self is asking for Christmas:

"To see us actually attempt to guard, to get in (defensive) stance, to win 70 percent of the 50/50 balls, to not give up layups, to have enough discipline to guard the entire clock and not break down. For us to not play tired, to have more energy and passion, to run our stuff and try to execute what we do instead of being out there on our own.”

Particularly the 50/50s, I know floor burns aren't exactly fun, but get on the floor and grab that ball! Let's go Hawks, these are the intangibles that separate Kansas from other programs. Play with pride and intensity.

RCJGKU!

chuckberry32 1 year, 5 months ago

3han was really disappointing to me last game. when he isn't hitting his shot his liability on D might just outweigh his worth. My biggest issue with him right now is how long it seems to take him to get his shot off. when we spend six-eight passes working the ball around to find 3han open in the corner and he allows the defender to get back to position before he can get his shot off then our offense has just wasted 10-12 seconds of the shot clock and has to start from scratch. to his credit he has worked very hard to be able to create off of the dribble (which would allow him to take advantage of the defender running over) but that move just isn't there against the level of competition we will see.

I'd really like to see Rele continue to be a bigger part of offense. not so much in the chucking treys up category (we have enough people to do that) but he can be so valuable as a slasher and offensive board crasher.

speaking of trey chuckers. I'm glad that EJ continued to do so even though he was having an off night. he is a pure shooter and needs to be the type of player to forget about bad shots the instant they don't go in.

If we are going to have a good run in the big12 we will need Young/Wesley to step up. My money is on Young.

FSUJHAWK 1 year, 5 months ago

HCBS is a master antagonist, psychologist and manipulator...one of the best in the business.

RCJHGKU!!!

SDSurferFan 1 year, 5 months ago

USC is not good, although they have a very quick and accurate shooting pt guard. I went to the SDSU v USC game. USC hung around to the end with a bunch of threes. They should have easily won by 10-15. Cal Poly beat USC this year and held them to under 40. I see KU winning by 25. 0 should dominate.

My favorite part of the game is seeing Self rip into his team. Please somebody PPV this...I'd pay top dollar to hear what he says.

karken1992 1 year, 5 months ago

Wow. Gotta love Self. Get the feeling that, good or bad, we are finally going to see what this team is really made of. If there is any bite in this dog I would be very concerned if I were USC.

tom123kufan 1 year, 5 months ago

It's a young inexperienced squad folks. Other programs with this issue would be 5-5 right now. The coaching and talent will keep us in most games this year. There will be more losses, but there will be a lot more wins as well. This is the type of team that could be dangerous come tournament time though. A team with a chip on its shoulder with nothing to lose.

jgkojak 1 year, 5 months ago

My only criticism of Self is Tharpe. He probably needs to be in games playing through his mistakes and getting confidence instead of Teahan. You don't need to play him against OSU or Duke, but in these games he really needs the experience.

You can't play him in March unless you play him now.

Also... I'd say I'd rather expose us now than in the 1st round.

oxcaljayhawk 1 year, 5 months ago

Yep.

tical523 1 year, 5 months ago

Agree

AsadZ 1 year, 5 months ago

Agree 100%.