2024-03-18 18:06:49
LAWRENCE — Kansas basketball coach Bill Self seemed at ease Sunday, reacting to the draw his Jayhawks received for the 2024 NCAA tournament.
Self, whose KU squad is a No. 4 seed in the Midwest region, pointed to how getting healthy will go a long ways toward helping things moving forward. He thinks his squad is capable of playing great basketball. And, as is of the utmost importance this time of year, expressing confidence in being able to make a run in March Madness.
But as Self shared that perspective, he acknowledged that Kansas (22-10) didn’t put itself in the best position possible. First up is No. 13-seed Samford (29-5) in Salt Lake City, Utah. And should the Jayhawks beat the Bulldogs on Thursday, in a game that’s set to tip off at 8:55 p.m. (CT) on TBS, either No. 5-seed Gonzaga or No. 12-seed McNeese awaits.
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“Everybody’s going to say they have a hard draw,” Self said. “I think we’ve got a hard draw. When you think of Samford, what have we labored with the most this year? It’s teams that shoot a ton of 3s, and then we have a hard time making up the difference. And they shoot 39% as a group. They’ve scored — they’ve hung over 100 … five times this year. I don’t know if we’ve scored 90 five times this year. Of course, I know the competition in some of those games is different. But they can score.”
Self noted he didn’t have any feel on the location Kansas would end up at, but he did think the Jayhawks would be a No. 4 seed. There was no chance in his mind the latter wouldn’t come true. Even if Wisconsin had topped Illinois in the Big Ten Conference tournament championship game, and moved into a No. 4 seed, he doesn’t think that would have affected KU.
Kansas may have struggled down the stretch in Big 12 Conference play, especially when injuries started to threaten what was already a weak depth situation for the Jayhawks. Self and company didn’t make it to the quarterfinals of the Big 12 tournament, instead losing in the second round. But they also put together one of the more impressive non-conference résumés out there, including a win at home once morest the East region’s No. 1 seed — UConn.
So, the attention turns to a Samford team that is the Southern Conference’s regular season and tournament champion. There might not have been much of a reaction from Kansas at hearing its own name called, the way Self described it. But Self did volunteer that the Bulldogs got the Jayhawks’ attention right away when he started reading off some of their statistics.
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“Of course I know of (Samford coach Bucky McMillan), but I don’t know coach,” Self said. “But I do know that he’s obviously had some pretty good success there.”
Self continued: “He’s done a great job, and they let it fly. So, I know one thing. He gives his kids confidence.”
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 [email protected] or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.
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