This season reminds Bill Self of his first at Kansas in one respect: High expectations, a constant companion for coaches of national-powerhouse programs that reload, whereas most programs must rebuild in years they lose a lot of talent, haven’t gone anywhere from the day Self left Illinois for Kansas.
“I remember going and speaking around the state and numerous fans around the state would tell me, ‘This is going to be our year. This is going to be our year.’ I’m like going, ‘What about these last years?’ We had (Nick) Collison, (Kirk) Hinrich and (Drew) Gooden and now we automatically are supposed to be better after going to back-to-back Final Fours,” Self said Tuesday at Media Day. “That’s where I made the joke about Kansas Math.”
Frank Mason, Josh Jackson and starting center Landen Lucas are gone, but they didn’t take high expectations for KU with them.
“It’s kind of that way with this team,” Self said. “A lot of people expect this team to be really, really good, which we have a chance, we’re not close now, but you lose the national player of the year and you lose a guy who’s arguably as good as anybody in the draft last year. That’s a lot to replace, but somehow people are so optimistic always that we should always be better.”
Kansas was picked third in the coaches’ preseason poll, which had the four annual Champions Classic schools in the top four spots (Duke at No. 1, Michigan State No. 2, Kentucky No. 4).
Self’s fine with the expectations. He didn’t make it to the Hall of Fame by running from high standards.
