TEMPE, Ariz. — Kansas coach Bill Self was ejected in the first half of Tuesday night’s game at Arizona State when he received two technical fouls after arguing an offensive foul call against Darryn Peterson.
Peterson was battling with ASU guard Bryce Ford to get to the right wing from the right-side baseline with 6:07 left in the first half of the game and the Jayhawks trailing 23-16. The officials whistled Peterson for the foul, at which point Self came out to halfcourt to express his displeasure and got T’d up twice in rapid succession.
“Well, I argued Darryn’s foul, and I think he gets held all the time, but I argued that, which, the first one, that’s fine — I mean, I was out of the box,” Self said postgame. “Second one, I was still out of the box. So I guess that’s the reason why he gave it to me, (referee Doug) Sirmons gave it to me, because I was still out of the box and didn’t retreat in the timely manner in which he wanted me to. But that was it. (It) certainly was not intentional whatsoever.”
It was the second ejection for Self in the span of three seasons after he was sent off in a road game against Texas Tech on Feb. 12, 2024.
Self had previously said on Monday that he felt Peterson was subject to “a lot of holding going on off the ball that probably limits his opportunities to get good touches that the officiating is letting go right now.”
“I certainly hope that that can change,” he added, “because I don’t believe that I’ve seen very many players in my time that are good offensive players that the freedom of movement doesn’t exist in the way it does with most players.”
On Tuesday, assistant coach Jacque Vaughn took over as the acting head coach for the remainder of the ASU game. Senior forward Tre White said the KU players were attempting to “play harder, play for Coach” in Self’s absence.
“We had to play against 10, play against the refs too,” he said. “Just trying to play through that and do it for Coach.”
Vaughn had previously led KU for an entire game at Colorado on Jan. 20 when Self was unavailable due to health issues. Vaughn got a technical foul of his own with 43.4 seconds left in the first half, and Self said after the game that he didn’t know what caused it.
“Jacque’s a relatively mild-mannered guy,” Self said, “but I’m not saying he didn’t deserve it, but I think it was a situation in which we all could have handled some situations better, but it was a pretty temperamental crew tonight.”
ASU’s Moe Odum made three of four free throws following Self’s pair of technical fouls, although the Sun Devils turned it over on the ensuing possession. He also made two of two after Vaughn’s technical foul.
KU went to the half trailing 40-20 and ultimately lost 70-60 despite a late comeback.
AP Photo/Rick Scuteri
