“Everybody has bad games,” Self, Kansas University’s basketball coach, said, commenting on K-State’s 57-42 home loss, in which the Wildcats hit just 23.4 percent of their shots. “We’ve looked like crap more than once, too.”

Self on Friday was out to praise, not bury, Jim Wooldridge’s Wildcats, who went 9-2 in the preseason before also falling, 72-70, in their Big 12 Conference opener at Iowa State.

“I thought they looked good in Ames,” said Self, whose Jayhawks meet K-State at 12:45 p.m. today in Allen Fieldhouse. “Jim will have his guys fired up and ready to play regardless of the last performance. That’s the great thing about basketball. You don’t have to wait a week to play. After watching the Nebraska tape … Nebraska played well. K-State couldn’t buy a basket. It doesn’t take away the fact they are a good team that had a bad day.”

Wooldridge, who is 0-12 versus KU, has made his team off-limits to the media since the NU loss.

“Right now, I’m concerned about us. I’m concerned about putting this thing together so we can be more competitive and more successful,” Wooldridge said. “I know you guys (media) want to talk about KU and all that, but the only thing on my mind is Kansas State and trying to figure out, trying to find ways for this team to play better basketball.

“As we get over there Saturday, we’ll have a game plan in, and we’ll have all kinds of things that we’ve talked about in terms of competing against the opponent. But right now, it’s us.”

Wooldridge on Thursday was willing to discuss a few things about the opposition.

“It’s a very good basketball team,” Wooldridge said of the Jayhawks. “They are going up. They have won six in a row or something, an awfully good team.”

KU, which faces another rival in Missouri on Monday night in Columbia, Mo., enters on a seven-game winning streak, including Wednesday’s league-opening victory at Colorado.

“They have terrific athletes, very physical. They play very stringent, tough defense. They are the real deal in that regard,” Wooldridge said of KU, which leads the country in field-goal percentage defense (34.8).

“They’re obviously very talented. They’re playing better and better and better as everybody knew they would as the season has continued on. They are very good defensively. That’s right now, as I see it, the cornerstone of where they are right now.”

Both teams have go-to guys: KU has Brandon Rush; KSU boasts Cartier Martin, a 6-foot-7 junior who averages 19.6 points and 7.5 boards a game.

“Cartier definitely has a shot, if not a lock, to be first-team all-league,” Self said. “He’s doing a little bit of everything. We can’t place all our emphasis on Cartier. We’ve got to guard all their guys.”

Rush, a 6-6 freshman, enters today’s game with a 13.1 scoring, 5.3 rebound average.

“Obviously, the Rush kid is a terrific playmaker in a lot of different ways. But they can take turns in that regard,” Wooldridge said of KU.

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No overnight stay: The Wildcats were to bus today to Lawrence. They didn’t practice in Allen Fieldhouse on Friday and weren’t scheduled to have a Saturday morning shootaround.

“We’ll get there an hour and a half before the ballgame,” Wooldridge said. ” I don’t think there’s any need to go over there the night before, personally. That’s why were not doing it. It’s an hour drive, it’s an easy drive. We’ll have a curfew here. We check our guys before games, so we’ll be able to get a good night sleep in our own beds and get over there and play the game.”

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Friends in stands: Christian Moody’s high school basketball coach and golf coach will be making the trip today to Allen Fieldhouse. Former Asheville (N.C.) Roberson High hoops coach Rich Sizemore has seen Moody play in

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Changes?: Kansas State could make some lineup changes today.

“Not really,” Wooldridge said, asked if any jobs were set in stone after the Nebraska loss.