Bill Self explains why he went to speak to Kansas students camping out for Houston game

On Sunday, Kansas students flooded Allen Fieldhouse, desperate to receive a spot in the arena for Kansas’ showdown against Houston the following evening. While driving to work, Kansas head coach Bill Self spotted the ocean of students.

Self stopped in the historic arena and spoke to the students who were attending the ticket lottery. After the Jayhawks defeated Houston 69-56 in front of a packed Allen Fieldhouse on Monday, Self opened up on his decision to speak with Kansas students.

“I got to work yesterday morning around 7:30. Didn’t sleep great Saturday night. And I’m pulling into the towers, and I’m not exaggerating, it took me 15 minutes to get from the towers to the parking garage, and I don’t know what’s going on,” Self said. “There’s cars and people everywhere. I thought maybe there was a church service or something going on, and whatever. And they were all kids, though.

“… So, I put my window down, and I asked a dude, ‘Hey, man, what’s going on? Why all the people?’ And his response was, ‘It’s Houston.’ I said ‘Wow.'” So, I park, and then I go into the arena. And I walk out there, and I don’t know how many people are there, but it was 2,500 at that time. So I go down, and I asked the dude who’s running it, ‘You care if I talk to these guys?’ And he said, ‘No, that’d be great.’

“… I went out there and just said, appreciate them and everything. But that’s the first time I did that. That was also the first time I’d ever known that there’s a lottery that takes place on a Sunday morning at 7:30 a.m. too.”

In his speech to the students, Self reminded them to soak in their years at college and not rush through the process. He also thanked them for supporting his team and encouraged them to be loud Monday night.

The students heeded Self’s latter bit of advice. Allen Fieldhouse was a madhouse on Monday as the Jayhawks ran away with a comfortable win against No. 5 Houston.

In the win, Kansas guard Tre White tallied a team-high 23 points, while shooting 6-9 from the field. Jayhawks star freshman Darryn Peterson was also stellar, notching 14 points and four rebounds.

Collectively, Kansas shot an impressive 7-17 (41%) from 3-point range. With the triumph, Kansas improved to 21-7 overall and 11-4 in conference play.