Bill Self shares what he learned about Kansas in Champion's Classic

Kansas found themselves in a bit of a surprising deficit on Tuesday during the Champion’s Classic with Kentucky taking a double-digit lead, including as much as a 14-point advantage, over the Jayhawks. Even so, besides the fact that they came back to win it, Bill Self took one comfort out of what he saw from his top-ranked roster in Chicago.

Self spoke about something that he may have learned about his team in his postgame press conference following the 89-84 win over the Wildcats. To him, what stuck out was Kansas’ approach late in the game, which shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise considering the experience at their disposal.

“I don’t know that you learn this much this fast. But I thought we showed some poise late,” said Self.

“We screwed up the game to go from winning 72-70 to down 78-72. And then I think we outscored them 17-6 to end it,” Self recalled. “We made all the right plays late offensively.”

Again, this was a game where Kentucky opened it up in the final ten or so minutes of the first half and the first ten or so minutes of the second. Still, come crunch time, Kansas did what they needed to do to get back into it and, eventually, take it by five.

That’s because, after facing their largest deficit, three seniors stepped up in a major way for the Jayhawks. From that moment on, Hunter Dickinson, Dajuan Harris Jr., and Kevin McCullar took over with 29 of Kansas’ final 45 points as well as eight assists.

As Self pointed out, they let the Wildcats make one final push but, in the end, their experience won out inside the United Center.

Kansas wasn’t just going to lay down, especially in an important early-season matchup between the sport’s two all-time winning programs. However, it was how his team responded that made an impression on Self after the victory.

“I thought it was terrific,” said Self.

Bill Self: “Cal’s Got A Really Good Bunch”

After Kansas defeated Kentucky in the Champion’s Classic, Bill Self assessed the stylistic changes in this season’s Wildcats

“Well, we thought that they would spread us and drive us. And they spread us and drove us,” said Self in his postgame press conference. “We’ve gotta get better at guarding the ball, or it won’t always end up very good.”

“To me, they’re hard to guard with Tre (Mitchell) at the five. They’re harder to guard when he is playing the five. But when they get (Aaron) Bradshaw back, or their other guys, other bigs? That’s gonna be a hard team to deal with. Cal’s got a really good bunch.”

Last season, the Jayhawks went into Rupp Arena win 77-68 over Kentucky in the final SEC-Big 12 Challenge.

In Chicago on Tuesday, Kansas again got the best of Kentucky but UK’s new brand of basketball took No. 1 KU until the very end. The Wildcats even led by 14 at one point in the second half.