A few more notes and nuggets from Bill Self’s appearance on Monday’s podcast with Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports.
**• Self was asked briefly to preview the upcoming season in the Big 12 Conference.** After noting that the teams at the top of the standings in 2015-16 — most notably Kansas, Iowa State, West Virginia and Oklahoma — lost a lot of talent off of their teams from a season ago, Self pointed out that the league still figured to be an interesting race, top to bottom.
Rothstein then asked Self for a sleeper and a contender and, even though he didn’t actually get around to naming a contender — who could blame him; even Self has to know/admit that if the Jayhawks stay healthy and play well, they’ll run away with this thing in 2016-17 — Self had a few interesting things to say about two Big 12 foes.
On Oklahoma State: “Sleeper may not be the right term, but (Oklahoma State) has the potential to be a surprise because they return two all-league type guards that didn’t play last year in Jawun Evans and Phil Forte. They’re a team that could make everybody nervous.”
On Texas: “I think Texas is gonna be ridiculously young, but I think they’re ridiculously talented. They signed a couple McDonald’s (All-Americans) that could play into being all-league type performers either this year or early in their careers. So I wouldn’t sleep on the Longhorns at all.”
**• Because he’s so sharp, informed and always so interesting in front of the media, Self was asked about Big 12 expansion** and his thoughts covered everything from the concept of it being a football-only endeavor to the fact that he really doesn’t know anything about it.
“I don’t have any idea, I have no insight at all to what the presidents, the commissioner and really even our own AD is thinking. We talk about it, but more in general terms.”
“I think there’s a chance we expand. I don’t see it in the immediate (future), but I could see it going any three ways,” Self added. “Adding two, adding four, adding all sports. And I could also see not doing anything. Or I could see a hybrid of that — adding football only. That would be my gut hunch right now, but that’s without any inside knowledge.”
**• We all know about Frank Mason, Devonte’ Graham and Landen Lucas.** And we think we have a pretty good idea about what Josh Jackson can bring to this team.
So, with that in mind, Rothstein asked Self to ID a returning player that made the biggest leap during the offseason, and, without hesitating, Self pointed to sophomores Lagerald Vick and Carlton Bragg.
“Lagerald Vick and Carlton Bragg both had great springs, summers and falls,” Self said, before adding, “Lagerald hardly played at all last year and I think he’s got a chance to be a terrific college player.”
**• Speaking of Jackson, Self was asked the inevitable question about comparing Jackson to Andrew Wiggins** and gave some good insight — most which we’ve heard before — on how the two are alike and how they’re different.
“I think there’s a lot of similarities from a body standpoint,” Self said. “And Josh is a terrific athlete. But Andrew was on a different planet from an athletic ability standpoint.”
“Josh is better with the ball. He can make plays for himself and he can also make plays for others.”
“Josh has been terrific shooting the ball. Defensively, he could be an elite collegiate defender first game out. He’s got some things you just can’t teach from anticipation and toughness and he’s got some alpha dog in him that every team needs.”
“I really believe that Josh is a guy that’s probably more of a jack-of-all-trades right now. He can do a lot of everything and hopefully that’ll translate to being kind of a stat-sheet-stuffer. He can get 12 points and dominate a game.”
