John YoungKansas University basketball coach Bill Self’s birthday falls on Dec. 27, which means that for the past three decades or so, he has celebrated the occasion in one of his favorite facilities — a gym.
This is Self’s 30th year in college coaching after playing four years at Oklahoma State and four at Edmond (Oklahoma) Memorial High.
“We all said a little ‘Happy Birthday’ to him. He said, ‘Thanks.’ It wasn’t much, just another day to try to get better in the gym,” KU senior forward Perry Ellis said of the Jayhawks acknowledging their leader’s 53rd birthday prior to a Sunday morning practice.
After the workout — which Ellis called “maybe a little sluggish; overall I think we did pretty well coming back from (three) days off” — Self and the Jayhawks spent three hours working with 530 youths at the team’s annual holiday clinic in Allen Fieldhouse, Horejsi Center and the squad’s practice facility.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen this many kids at a clinic. We’ve got a ton of kids,” said Self, who was serenaded with the tune “Happy Birthday” performed by the clinic-goers under the direction of holiday clinic organizer Brennan Bechard.
Self had an ultra-busy birthday, needing to spend some time working on scouting report for UC Irvine (10-4), which will visit the fieldhouse at 8 p.m. Tuesday. Self and the Jayhawks broke for the holidays last Wednesday, returning to town for a Saturday evening practice.
“Obviously, they’re bigger than what we’re used to playing against,” Self said of the Anteaters, who start 7-foot-6, 300-pound junior Mamadou Ndiaye and 6-10, 215-pound senior Mike Best. Jonathan Galloway, a 6-10, 235-pound freshman, and Ioannis Dimakopoulos, a 7-2, 262-pound junior, contribute off the bench.
“The big kid (Ndiaye) is a good player. He’s putting up good numbers (12.4 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 40 blocked shots). They are capable of giving us all kinds of problems because it’s going to be hard to score inside over all that length,” Self said. “(He’s) 7-6 tall, but probably an 8-foot wingspan. We’ll never see that again. Then you come in with their short guy at 7-2, which is unbelievable how long they are.”
The Jayhawks will take a 10-1 record into the contest, while feeling re-energized after the holiday break.
Most players headed to their hometowns. Ukraine native Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk remained in Lawrence. Mali native Cheick Diallo headed to New York. Dwight Coleby returned to his homeland of Bahamas. Coleby, who is rehabbing from ACL surgery, was to return Tuesday. Everybody else was back on Saturday.
“I think it was refreshing to go home and see family and get back at it,” said Ellis, who scored 20 points in KU’s last game — Tuesday’s 70-57 victory at San Diego State.
“It should give us a little confidence. Our guys were ready to play. We were ready from the jump,” Self said. “That was a pretty good atmosphere (from sellout crowd). It could have been a great atmosphere if we allowed it to be.
“Our guys did a good job for the most part, kept the crowd out of the game. I thought we did well, but our guys also know as good an atmosphere as that was, that won’t rank (as great) as at OU or OSU or K-State or West Virginia or whoever else we’re playing. It may be comparable to some atmospheres in our league, but it won’t be better than those.”
Ellis scored 14 points the first half in making sure KU got off to a quick start in KU’s first true road test.
“The thing was … you’ve got to win the road game,” Ellis said. “You don’t want to think individual things. You want to think big-picture. Coach was excited for all of us to get that win before we all got to go home. He was really pleased how we played.”
Self said he’s looking for improvement in all areas, particularly offensive rebounding in the days ahead.
“All our bigs. No more than our bigs are playing, they should be fresh enough to probably give a better effort on the offensive glass,” said Self, who also indicated junior guard Wayne Selden Jr. needed to do better than his six offensive boards in 11 games.
“I feel that we’re getting better and better,” Ellis said. “This is a great time to get better. Get this next win, go forward into the conference and take it game by game (starting 3 p.m. Saturday vs. Baylor in Allen). It’s going to be tough every game. I feel everybody realizes that.”
