Self: Ideas were on next season amid KU slide

• Josh Weinfuss, ESPN Staff WriterMar 23, 2024, 07:47 PM ET

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  Josh Weinfuss is a personnel writer who covers the Arizona Cardinals and the NFL at ESPN. Josh has actually covered the Cardinals considering that 2012, signing up with ESPN in 2013. He belongs to the Pro Football Writers of America and a graduate of Indiana University. You can follow him via Twitter @joshweinfuss.

SALT LAKE CITY– By the time the horn sounded on No. 4 Kansas’ 89-68 blowout loss to No. 5 Gonzaga in the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament Saturday, Jayhawks coach Bill Self said he had long been preparing for next season.That’s what happens when you have just eight healthy scholarship players left on your roster, as Self mentioned after the game at Delta Center. “I think for the last month, I have actually been thinking of next season, to be sincere,”stated Self, whose team lost 4 of five games going into the competition and once again was without star Kevin McCullar Jr.”Not in the minutes during the game, but obviously, we played– we had 8 guys on scholarship, and we play– I suggest, that were healthy there late. Injuries are part of the game. That’s not an excuse.”But we could have done a better job as a staff of putting more guys out there that we could play, therefore that’s something that I’ve thought about for a very long time. The thing about it is, in basketball, early on you can play through some things. But the course of a season, there’s a grind that opts for it and bodies get run down, injuries occur. It’s all part of it. When you do not have as much firepower or that perhaps you have actually had in past years, it certainly showed this year.”Editor’s Picks 2 Associated And it was evident Saturday.After Kansas led 44-43 at halftime in what Self referred to as a”horse contest,” the Jayhawks ran out of,

well, whatever in the 2nd half. Out of energy, they were outscored 46-24 in the last 20 minutes.”My guys were gassed,”Self stated. “Everyone knew that at the end of the very first half.

I suggest, my guys were gassed.”I had not had many times where you take a guy out and he’s sitting

through a three-minute timeout and I state,’Go back in,’and he states,’I require a little bit more time. ‘So, I knew that we were tired, and I was just hoping we had adequate energy to get to the goal. I’m not going to blame it on energy, but I believe we played very fatigued the 2nd half.”Self didn’t want to put the blame for Kansas ‘tiredness exclusively on the 10:45

a.m. tipoff time here, but he stated that, combined with having to play a complete 40 minutes of a busy, high-intensity nail-biter versus Samford on Thursday night, carried out in his group.”I’m not an expert on that, “Self stated.

“Obviously, would we have chosen more rest? Definitely. But I make sure anybody would that gets back to the hotel at 1 a.m. and you have your dinner and after that you’ve got to turn it quick. “I would have loved to been able to practice yesterday.

But that wouldn’t have made any difference. When I state practice yesterday, you understand, guys were gassed. It’s not the time’s fault that we had to play 40 minutes on Thursday in a hectic game. That’s just the method– that’s simply the team that we drew. We had to combat tough to get the win.”In its storied NCAA competition history, Kansas’21-point loss was the second largest in school

history and the second biggest by an AP preseason No. 1 group, according to ESPN Stats & Info. The Jayhawks became the 2nd straight preseason AP No. 1 not to make it to the 2nd weekend (North Carolina being the other), something that’s now occurred four times in the past 7 years.It marked the first time in Kansas’ history in the Big 12 that it lost by at least 20 points after leading at halftime. Its 21-point problem was tied for the largest by a top-4 seed that led after halftime given that seeding began in 1979. And its 22-point differential in the second half was the 2nd worst in an NCAA competition game in program history.Neither senior guard Dajuan Harris Jr. nor senior center Hunter Dickinson blamed the brief turnaround on the Jayhawks’second-half drop-off.

“You can’t make excuses,”Harris Jr. stated.”You wish to play in March Insanity. This is the very best competition you’ll ever play in, and you can’t make reasons when you wish to win basketball games late in March. “After shooting 50% in the very first half, consisting of making 7-of-11 3-pointers, Kansas shot 27.8%in the second and made just 2-of-11 threes. Gonzaga, which advanced to its ninth straight Sweet

16, connecting Duke for the second-longest streak, made the most of Kansas ‘issues, going on a 15-0 run in the 2nd half, part of a 23-4 surge over a period of 7:17 to put the game out of reach.”In the second half, we didn’t make anything, and they played lights-out great, “Self stated.”Certainly put it on us bad the second half.

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