Self: KU ‘needed a wake-up call’

By Gary Bedore     Dec 9, 2003

Kansas University men’s basketball coach Bill Self was 20 minutes late for his weekly radio show Monday night and had to field fans’ calls on his cell phone as he scurried from Allen Fieldhouse to a local restaurant.

“Believe it or not, we had some things to work on,” quipped Self, whose squad practiced for more than three hours in response to Saturday’s 64-58 loss to Stanford in Anaheim, Calif.

The Jayhawks, who Monday fell from No. 1 to No. 5 in the Associated Press poll and from No. 1 to 7 in the ESPN/USA Today rankings, have been working overtime to correct deficiencies exposed in Saturday’s six-assist, 19-turnover performance.

“I hate to stay this, but I think this team needed this (loss),” said Self, who made his team watch tape from 10 p.m. until 1 a.m. after Saturday’s game. “Although you hate to lose, and trust me, nobody hates it worse than the head coach, this team needed a wake-up call. We have not practiced well. We have not been consistent with our effort. There’s some things going on where we could have better chemistry.

“Nothing bad … nothing about differences in personalities,” he said. “I’m talking about guys playing to each others’ strengths. We’ve not done that.”

The first-year coach’s words may sink in now that the Jayhawks have been knocked off their No. 1 pedestal.

“Stop and think about it. These guys are national runners-up last year, ranked No. 1 in America, and by no way did we deserve that (ranking),” Self said. “Everybody’s saying how good they are … human nature is this team is not as hungry as it needs to be.

“If you are ranked that high, you better be hungry, because people playing you are a lot hungrier. Against Michigan State (in 81-74 win Nov. 25), we were hungry because we knew they’d punch us in the mouth if we didn’t hit them first.

“We played with a sense of urgency. We didn’t play with a sense of urgency the last two games. That’s my fault.”

Against Stanford, KU put up just 49 shots, hitting 18, and missed 17 of 20 three-point tries.

“We were out of synch,” Self said. “By no means is it a design of ours to play slow. It is certainly not a strategy. We’ve never once talked about slowing it down. For whatever reason we did it this game. That’s not why we lost.

“Our inability to pass the ball to the open man, knock down shots and pay attention to detail is the primary reason we got beat.”

Self said he counted 19 times on tape the Jayhawks failed to deliver the ball inside to open big men.

“The guys were not confident. The guys didn’t look to push it. The guys didn’t put themselves in position to make plays. A lot of things contributed to our tentativeness,” Self said. “We played very slow.”

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Bumps, bruises: Wayne Simien was limited at practice Monday because of a recurring soreness in his groin. He did the splits at Thanksgiving practice, which aggravated a slight groin pull he’d suffered earlier this season.

“It’s sore,” said Self, who said Simien would play Wednesday against Fort Hays State (7 p.m., Allen Fieldhouse).

“In defense of Wayne … he’d never be one to make excuses … he has not been really healthy as much as he was against Michigan State. He tweaked his groin again, not to the point where you’ve got to sit out, but he’s lost some explosiveness, explosion and aggressiveness. That also has not helped in us getting the ball to him in a timely fashion.”

The junior power forward has hoisted just 10 shots and scored 16 points the past two games.

Keith Langford, who banged his left thumb in a fall at practice last week and had it taped against Stanford, practiced without the tape Monday.

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