Jalen Wilson reveals Kansas' mindset without Bill Self
Bill Self was hospitalized last week and did not coach Kansas during the Big 12 Tournament. Star Jalen Wilson revealed the team’s mindset without its head coach during the run, en route to a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Kansas, nearly, didn’t miss a beat. The Jayhawks fell to Texas in the Big 12 Championship but have a crack at a second straight national title.
And their coach will be back on the sidelines.
“It’s been a little different,” Wilson said, via ESPN. “You know, not used to, you know, not having coach around. But you know, one thing that we hang our hat on is our culture, and that no matter what’s going on, we’re always going to play the same game and, you know, stay together as a team through all the adversity, no matter if it’s, you know, through the beginning of the season to now, just stick on our culture and understand what it takes to win.”
In Self’s place, assistant coach Norm Roberts took over the helm for the short-term and guided the Jayhawks to a berth in the conference championship game against Texas.
And ahead of the game, Roberts provided a promising update on the long-tenured Kansas head coach. Doing an interview for the pregame radio show, he even shared that Self had spoken with the coaching staff that Saturday morning.
“Doing great, getting better and better,” Roberts said. “The main thing he said is be aggressive, play Kansas basketball and have fun.”
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Houston higher No. 1 seed than Kansas
NCAA committee chair Chris Reynolds clarified why Houston made a jump over Kansas among the No. 1 seeds. Alabama earned the No. 1 overall seed throughout the bracket.
“When you look at Houston, a combined 15-1 in Quad 1 and 2, compared to Kansas, 21-7 in Quad 1 and 2? Houston? They were competitive in all their games they lost, except for today. And we understand. today, they were without their best player,” Reynolds said. “So, for that reason, we kept Houston at No. 2.”
No one could match up with Kansas’ 17-7 record in Quad 1 games. Even so, it seems Reynolds and the committee put more value on Houston only losing three games this season. That point was also reinforced by the fact that one came against No. 1 overall seed Alabama, one came by just one point to Temple, and the final one to Memphis in the AAC Championship Game came without the help of star guard Marcus Sasser.