Suspended Kansas basketball coach Bill Self saw defensive improvement while watching from home

By Matt Tait     Nov 9, 2022

Nick Krug
Kansas head coach Bill Self watches over practice on Wednesday, March 13, 2019 at Sprint Center.

Suspended Kansas basketball coach Bill Self watched every second of Monday’s season-opening win from his home in Lawrence, and, not surprisingly, it was the Jayhawks’ defense that stood out most to him.

“I told the guys today, ‘We don’t guard, but we are a heck of a lot better defending than we were a week ago,'” Self said during his regular appearance on his Hawk Talk radio show Tuesday night.

Self, who will sit out KU’s first four games of the 2022-23 season to serve a university-imposed suspension, was able to rejoin the team at midnight on Tuesday morning and worked with them in practice later that day. The restrictions put on him with the suspension cover the 24-hour periods of KU’s first four game days.

“We’ve got to tighten up our ball screen defense or it will not be very pretty early,” Self added during his assessment of his team’s defense. “I know we will. Last year we struggled with it until around Christmas. When we get better at that our defense will get a lot better, too.”

There were plenty of things that Self liked about what he watched Monday night. And most of them had to do with individual performances and guys fitting into their roles.

“You could make a case Gradey Dick was the best player on our team last night for a snippet,” Self said on the radio show. “You could make a case for Jalen Wilson, KJ Adams, Bobby Pettiford, Juan (Harris), and yet the guy who dominated the game more than anybody when we needed it the most was Kevin (McCullar Jr.). We go up from seven to 17 just like that (and) Kevin made every play during that stretch. Even though it’s never going to be like that, you saw flashes of each one, what they can potentially do and be. That’s exciting to me.”

Self said he thought acting head coach, Norm Roberts, and the rest of the KU coaching staff ran things well in his absence. He also was pleased with the way the Kansas players carried themselves like it was any other game to pick up the 89-64 victory and move to 1-0 on the season.

“I thought Norm and the staff did great,” Self said. “I thought the guys played hard. Their body language was good, all those things. I thought out of timeouts Norm got us easy shots a few times. That was good. We’ve always taken pride in that.”

Although he’s not a fan of having to miss any time with his team, Self reiterated his stance from when the suspension was announced, calling the suspensions of him and assistant coach Kurtis Townsend, “the right thing to do.”

Having a veteran like Roberts and a roster full of players who are locked in to what needs to be done helped make his viewing experience from home much easier to swallow.

“Hopefully what happens on game day is a reflection of what happens in practice the other five days of the week,” Self said.

Next up, KU will play host to North Dakota State at 7 p.m. Thursday at Allen Fieldhouse.

The Bison are 0-1 on the season after falling at Arkansas, 76-58, on Monday. NDSU was picked to finish fourth in the Summit League in a preseason vote of the conference’s coaches.

PREV POST

Jayhawks land first football commitment in the Class of 2024

NEXT POST

103893Suspended Kansas basketball coach Bill Self saw defensive improvement while watching from home

Author Photo

Written By Matt Tait

A native of Colorado, Matt moved to Lawrence in 1988 and has been in town ever since. He graduated from Lawrence High in 1996 and the University of Kansas in 2000 with a degree in Journalism. After covering KU sports for the University Daily Kansan and Rivals.com, Matt joined the World Company (and later Ogden Publications) in 2001 and has held several positions with the paper and KUsports.com in the past 20+ years. He became the Journal-World Sports Editor in 2018. Throughout his career, Matt has won several local and national awards from both the Associated Press Sports Editors and the Kansas Press Association. In 2021, he was named the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. Matt lives in Lawrence with his wife, Allison, and two daughters, Kate and Molly. When he's not covering KU sports, he likes to spend his time playing basketball and golf, listening to and writing music and traveling the world with friends and family.