Although they come against two teams that aren’t ranked and closer to the bottom than the top of the Big 12 standings, Kansas coach Bill Self said Thursday that the Jayhawks’ upcoming home games with West Virginia and Texas Tech were as big as they get.
“Although you could make a case that we’ve had a lot of big games, they’re the two biggest games we’ve played at home to date because of the ramifications of what could possibly be if we’re able to take care of business and what would happen if we don’t,” Self said Thursday afternoon.
The Kansas coach who has his team tied atop the Big 12 standings with Texas at 11-4 in league play also reiterated that he did not expect to be in this position when the season began.
“I don’t think I envisioned that, at the end of the year, we would control our own destiny on what actually happens beginning (in the) postseason,” Self said Thursday.
“Capturing (the) league (title) and being a real high seed in the (NCAA) Tournament is all in front of us if we do what we set out to do,” he added. “(Meaning), you don’t need help from somebody else to do it if you take care of your own business.”
In order to guarantee their standing at the top of the league two Sundays from now, the Jayhawks are taking the approach that they must win all three games left on their schedule. That could change if Texas, which has a much harder schedule on paper, drops a game or two, but Self said the Jayhawks would rather not bank on that.
“There’s been a lot of years where we needed some help to fall our way to get where we want to go,” he said. “And that still may very well be the case. But the reality of it is we’ve put ourselves in a good position where it doesn’t have to be the case if we perform at our best from this point forward. But there’s no guarantees on that.”
KU plays host to West Virginia at 3 p.m. Saturday and will welcome Texas Tech to Allen Fieldhouse at 8 p.m. next Tuesday before ending the regular season in Austin, Texas, against the Longhorns.
“They’re huge games,” Self said of the WVU and Tech matchups that loom. “Both hard games and two teams we haven’t played in a long time.”
Kansas basketball coach Bill Self on Thursday confirmed that Kyle Cuffe Jr. would take a medical redshirt for the 2022-23 season, ending any speculation about his potential return to the lineup this season.
Cuffe, a redshirt freshman who sat out last season after enrolling at KU a year early out of high school, has played a total of 6:13 in just two games this season. He tore ligaments in his knee in a mid-November practice and has not appeared in a game since.
The initial prognosis was for him to miss 10-12 weeks, but now on the back end of that timeline, Self said it became clear that Cuffe’s best path forward was to redshirt again. Doing so will leave the 6-foot-2, 185-pound guard from Harlem, New York, with four years of eligibility remaining.
“You can’t make a decision until he gets a chance to get healthy,” Self said Monday. “The whole key was could he get healthy and the answer was he’s not 100% healthy yet. So, it’s an easy decision. He’s not healthy enough that he could be his best out there for us.”
Asked what he thought Cuffe could have contributed this year had he been healthy, Self praised his young guard and said significant playing time would not have been automatic.
“He would’ve had to beat somebody out that’s playing ahead of him in order to do that,” Self said. “Kyle’s a talented young man and a terrific athlete and he’s got a chance to be a really nice player. But, if you were doing a depth chart, I wouldn’t put him above the guys that are playing right now.”
As for other injury news on Thursday, Self noted that big men Zach Clemence and Zuby Ejiofor were both available to play but that neither one was 100% healthy.
Ejiofor injured his foot during KU’s win at Kentucky in late January and has played sparingly since that game. And Clemence hurt his knee in KU’s loss at Iowa State on Feb. 4 and has yet to return to action. Both players have suited up and been ready to go if needed in the past few games.
Self said Thursday that Ejiofor was closer to 100% than Clemence.
Super-senior forward Cam Martin, who has not played since the Jayhawks’ win at Texas Tech on Jan. 3 remains out and unlikely to return this season.
Self said Thursday that Martin, the transfer from D-II Missouri Southern State who redshirted last season, likely would apply for a medical redshirt — officially a hardship waiver — if he can’t return.
According to NCAA rules, players are eligible for a waiver if the injury occurred during the first half of the season and if the athlete appeared in less than 30% of his team’s games that particular season.
Martin has appeared in four games this season — playing a total of 10:28 in those games — and his shoulder separation came in late October before the season tipped off. Even though he was able to return for a four-game stretch between Dec. 10 and Jan. 3, his injured shoulder has continued to be an issue throughout the season.
“He had to take a couple of days off last week because his shoulder was so sore,” Self said Thursday. “They told him it would take three or four months to get back to where it should be and we’re not at that point yet.”
Self said Thursday that reserve guard Joe Yesufu had been “laid up the last two days” with an illness of some kind.
Self said Yesufu was not expected to practice on Thursday and that he hoped he would return for Friday’s practice ahead of this weekend’s matchup with West Virginia at Allen Fieldhouse.
Self said he was not overly concerned by either Yesufu’s illness or the lingering injuries that the rest of KU’s roster is battling.
“This time or year, I don’t know that anybody’s 100% healthy,” he said. “So, we’re all right.”