Kansas basketball coach Bill Self, players react to beating Brown
Check out everything Kansas basketball coach Bill Self and his players had to say Sunday following a win at home against Brown this season.
LAWRENCE — Kansas basketball’s non-conference slate featured some high-profile wins.
In a matter of days, in November, the Jayhawks beat UNC at home and Michigan State in a neutral-site game in Atlanta. Later that month, KU went to Las Vegas for a neutral-site game against Duke and won that, too. Beating NC State in December at home meant Kansas can boast of a trio of wins against high-major teams from the state of North Carolina.
But postgame Dec. 22, after a home win against Brown that concluded non-conference play, Jayhawks forward KJ Adams and coach Bill Self both outlined the good and the bad about where the team stands before the start of Big 12 Conference play. Adams highlighted what Self told the team after beating Brown, that if not for a certain stretch of days Self’s grade for their overall non-conference performance would have been an A+. That stretch, back-to-back defeats at Creighton and Missouri in December, necessitated a lower grade.
“We had five really crap days, and we got what we deserved, but overall, I don’t know, probably B- overall,” Self explained. “It’s a hard schedule and a B-, but we had five crap days. If you could drop two tests, if you took the right class where you could drop your worst two tests, then we would’ve probably had a pretty good semester. But not all professors allow that.”
Zeke Mayo has proven to be a bright spot for No. 7 Kansas (9-2), as the transfer guard has thrived alongside the Jayhawks’ veteran trio of Adams, center Hunter Dickinson and guard Dajuan Harris Jr. So, too, has a forward in Flory Bidunga, as he’s shown he can be trusted with a role in his first year in college. There’s more room for growth for KU, though, in multiple areas that go beyond individual players, as the team attempts to settle on an identity that can propel it to a Big 12 title.
Self noted after beating Brown he thought his team was better than it was a week prior, but he acknowledged that identity probably isn’t there yet. Although he mentioned the players like each other, and share the ball among other positives, when it comes to toughness, defensive rebounding and making the tough plays that win close games, Kansas has to get better. Adams brought up finding an identity on the defensive end, too.
The Jayhawks’ Big 12 opener is Dec. 31 at home against West Virginia (9-2), which means yet another lengthy period of time between games — like the one between the Dec. 14 win against NC State and Dec. 22 win against Brown. Adams acknowledged he isn’t a fan of such long breaks. But before tip-off against WVU, KU has the chance to enjoy a run of practices Adams also felt served them well between the matchups against NC State and Brown.
“It’s been great for us to have all of these consecutive practices, back-to-back,” Adams said following the win against Brown. “We kind of don’t know what to do with ourselves with five, six days in between the games. But it was fun just kind of anchoring down on plays and getting more chemistry than we already had.”
Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.
