Bill Self on coaching in the Big 12: 'Our league is a bitch'

Kansas Jayhawks head coach Bill Self watched his team drop a road test in Big 12 play against the West Virginia Mountaineers on Saturday. It amounted to Kansas’ second loss in three games to open up Big 12 play.

This slow start comes after Kansas finished 11-9 in Big 12 play a season ago and 10-8 two seasons ago. For Self, that was the worst two-season run in conference play he’s had at Kansas and the worst the Jayhawks have had as a team since the last two seasons of the Ted Owens era, which ended in 1983.

There are plenty of reasons why Kansas has struggled in conference play. One of the key ones, which Bill Self bluntly reminded reporters following the West Virginia loss, was because the Big 12 is a deep and very talented conference.

“First off, our league is a bitch,” Bill Self said. “That is one thing.”

Kansas dropped two road Big 12 games to open this season, to UCF and now West Virginia. That’s after going 10-3 in non-conference play. Road games, in general, have been an issue this season for the Jayhawks. Kansas is just 1-3 in those games.

Self added that the margin for error has changed in modern times at Kansas. That’s not unique to the Jayhawks in the modern era. However, it’s a change that does have its toll.

“Secondly, the way that I see this isn’t that we can’t have a terrific team, isn’t that we can’t get it flipped. The one thing that we have to know is, much like last year’s team and the year before too, not so much the year before that, we were a one seed,” Self said. “Is that margin for error isn’t like it used to be. We’re not bringing pros in on off the bench. Let’s just call it like it is. That’s not an excuse, because the guys out there are good enough, but the margin for error isn’t. If Markieff [Morris] and Marcus [Morris] want to take a couple possessions off and give up a couple of threes. You know what? You got to play a lot harder than that, but our Jimmies were better than your Joes.”

Self would also be asked directly if it’s NIL and the Transfer Portal that have changed the depth and margin for error at Kansas. He was fairly clear that those have changed things. However, he also knows that it’s not a problem that Kansas alone is trying to adjust to.

“That’s just college basketball. Yeah, that’s college basketball. Everybody’s going to go through it. Some teams that haven’t gone through it are having some good fortune, and why they haven’t gone through it. But make no mistake what I’m saying, not an excuse, we’ve got good enough guys, but the margin for error isn’t one that we can let teams believe that they can beat you. And we give other teams that confidence. The next thing you know, playing at home when they get cooking, if we’re not mentally tough enough and physically tough enough and know how to grind, then all of a sudden you look up, and now you’re playing from behind,” Self said.

“And playing from behind a lot of things have to go right. When you don’t shoot the ball exceptionally well, sometimes it puts a little bit too much pressure on you to make plays when that’s not really who we are.”

The Big 12 schedule won’t get any easier from here. On Tuesday, Kansas will return home to play Iowa State, with the Cyclones already proving that they’re one of the best teams in the country.