Bill Self may need to start kicking some lockers and throwing some trash cans before Kansas University basketball games during the remainder of the season.
Something, anything to boost the intensity level of his Jayhawks, who take a 6-2 record into the winter break.
“This team has not been a hungry team,” Self said Tuesday on his Hawk Talk radio show, indicating a lack of fire was a problem in the Jayhawks’ 75-61 loss to Nevada Sunday night in Reno.
“There wasn’t any emotion. We weren’t ready to play. That’s a hard, cold fact. We came out like it was going to be easy. We got punched in the mouth right from the get-go. They staggered us, and we didn’t recover.”
Self did say it was a positive that the Jayhawks, who sliced a 25-point deficit to seven, “never quit.”
But that positive was nullified by the biggest negative — that KU came out stone cold emotionally.
“We’ve been nervous as a team one time this year. That was before we played Michigan State (KU’s 81-74 victory Nov. 25). That team was hungry,” Self said.
On many other occasions the Jayhawks have been fat and happy, not starving for success, he said.
“We play like a team that seems satisfied — maybe on past won/loss records,” Self said of his squad, which is coming off consecutive Final Four appearances.
“Our staff has noticed it. We try to correct it every day. It’s something we see a majority of the practices. The effort is not bad. It’s the sense of urgency, attention to detail and carrying out assignments, sacrificing for the good of the team — not just for the game, how about for a possession?”
Self said he deserved the blame for the intangibles that have been missing at times.
“I accept full responsibility for it,” he said, “because we’re not doing it consistently. We have some good possessions and some bad possessions.
“The thing about it is you can control how you rebound. You can control how you guard. You can control mental mistakes. You can control being unselfish, giving yourself up. You can control that every day without making shots.”
KU definitely will need to outwork other teams if the Jayhawks’ poor shooting continues. KU has hit 45.3 percent of its shots overall and just 26.3 percent of its threes.
“We haven’t been setting screens. We’re not feeding the post. We’re not posting strong,” Self said. “We need to tighten everything up. Talk about screening. Talk about ball handling. We’re bouncing it too much.”
The Jayhawks are not completing bounce passes to the big men, that’s for sure.
“(Assistant) coach (Joe) Dooley charted the game,” said Self, who met with his assistants for several hours Monday night before the staff disbanded for the holidays Tuesday night. “There’s 23 times against Nevada we missed the post when he (Wayne Simien) was wide open.
“There’s 18 times against Nevada we could have fed the post if the post man posted better. Those are things that are correctable I believe, although we’ve got to improve some things in how we post, how we seal, more importantly how we pass.
“We will emphasize getting the ball inside. We have emphasized it, but we will emphasize it like we haven’t yet, because I think it’s very important.”
Self said he wants the Jayhawks to pick up the pace on offense. The Jayhawks are averaging 75.5 points a game to foes’ 64.2.
“We want to run. We are begging our guys to run,” Self said. “The thing is to run, you’ve got to rebound. You will not run near as fast if you spend 60 seconds on the defensive end as opposed to 25 or 30 which has happened way too much because we’re giving up second and third shots. The reins are off. We want to run. We’ve emphasized it. We need to emphasize it more.”
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