Kansas coach Bill Self marvels at UConn’s back-to-back titles: ‘Good riddance’

The five starters for UConn’s 2024 NCAA title team have been invited to participate in drills, measurements and interviews at the upcoming NBA Draft Combine, set for Sunday through May 19 in Chicago.

“I guess their starting five is all attempting (to be taken in the June 26-27 Draft). I wish them good riddance for the rest of college basketball,” Kansas coach Bill Self said with a smile Monday on Andy Katz’s NCAA March Madness podcast.

The certain departure of graduate seniors Tristen Newton and Cam Spencer and likely exits of sophomores Alex Karaban and Donovan Clingan, as well as freshman Stephon Castle, who are all testing the draft waters figure to please coaches not only in the Big East Conference but all over the country.

“I was disappointed. Even their bench should have left and gone pro,” Self joked.

The five UConn starters plus senior reserve Hassan Diarra, sophomore Samson Johnson and freshmen Jaylin Stewart and Solomon Ball destroyed the tourney field in winning the program’s second-straight NCAA title in as many seasons.

UConn in the 2024 NCAAs won all six games by double digits for the second straight postseason. The closest game for the Huskies (37-3) was a 14-point win over Alabama in the Final Four semis. UConn beat Purdue by 15 points in the title game and also downed Illinois by 25 points, San Diego State by 15, Northwestern by 17 and Stetson by 39.

The Huskies followed the example set by the 2023 national champs. UConn in rolling to six straight tourney wins beat San Diego State by 17 points in the finals after downing Miami by 13 in the Final Four semis. Before that UConn stopped Gonzaga by 28 points, Arkansas by 23, St. Mary’s by 15 and Iona by 24.

It’s been utter domination for Dan Hurley’s UConn team, which in 2024-25 will be trying for a three-peat with some new players.

“That was a dominant team. I don’t know if Connecticut was the only team that could have won the national championship. I don’t think that,” Self said. “But I don’t know that I’ve seen a team that time of year play better back-to-back seasons than what Connecticut did.

“There was separation between them and everybody else that didn’t exist during the regular season. ... They galvanized and put it together all at the right time. It goes to show you how good that team was. They were good in the regular season and hadn’t peaked yet.”

Self’s Jayhawks were one of just three teams to beat UConn during the regular season.

KU won 69-65 on Dec. 1 at Allen Fieldhouse to hand UConn its first loss of the campaign (after seven victories). UConn lost to Seton Hall 75-60 on Dec. 20 in Newark, New Jersey, and Creighton 85-66 on Feb. 20 before 18,071 fans at CHI Health Center in Omaha, where KU will travel to play the Bluejays next season.

UConn won its final 13 games of the 2023-24 season.

“I think (Hurley) has done a good job for longer than two years. You don’t win two in a row now unless you were building to that. He’s been great. His staff has been great,” Self said.

“I actually thought that the two teams he’s had … I don’t remember anyone ever dominating college basketball like his two teams have. I look at this year’s team … last year I was a little out of it because I was sick (during 2023 postseason), so I didn’t study the tournament quite as hard because I was out of it. This year studying it, really watching and studying, I didn’t know of a weakness. (They had) speed, perimeter shooting, length, standing height, rebounding, late-game execution, taking care of the basketball.

“They get their own at the end of the clock. Were they unselfish? Were their thoughts unselfish? Did they defend in a way that gave you a chance to win every game even when you didn’t make shots? I thought they had a great team. They were darn good.”

Self wasn’t finished complimenting the Huskies on Katz’s podcast.

“They were well drilled,” Self said. “It’s hard to make guys feel like they are so disciplined and at the time give them unbelievable freedom. They guarded. I thought it was a complete team. I thought the best team I’ve seen in college basketball until (them) was obviously the 2018 Villanova team.”

That Nova squad, which went 36-4, defeated KU 95-79 in the Final Four semifinals. The Wildcats stopped Michigan in the title game 79-62.

“You go back and look at those guys — (Jalen) Brunson, (Donte) DiVincenzo, (Eric) Paschall, what he did initially in the league (in 2019-20 with Golden State; now overseas) and all those other dudes, that was a real team. You had to address all five spots at all times. Connecticut was different. They didn’t stretch it like Villanova did.” Self said.

Self mentioned another dominant team in recent memory.

“Kentucky obviously with that team that Wisconsin beat in the Final Four (in 2015). That was a real basketball team,” Self said of a 38-1 UK Wildcat squad.

It should be noted KU improved to 7-1 the day it defeated UConn. A healthy Kevin McCullar, who didn’t play in the postseason, had 21 points in that game.

“We didn’t have much depth,” Self said of the 2023-24 Jayhawks, a team that finished 23-11 after going 10-10 to conclude the campaign. “But we were good enough to beat Connecticut, Houston, Baylor, Texas and some good people. But when Kevin got hurt basically we went from five legitimate starters to four. ..

“I don’t know what percentage of teams in America, even the ones that make the tournament, there’s some teams ascending and some descending. Very rarely have we been a descending team. I felt like everything had to go right too much for us to make a run. We just ran out of gas.”

Self continued.

“Gonzaga was so much better that day (in KU’s 89-68 Round of 32 season-ending loss after a first-round win over Samford),” Self said. “It was an OK year. By most standards I’d say a well above average year, but for us it was something that we needed to have a good offseason to get back on track because we felt we got a little off track.”

The Jayhawks, by the way, do not have UConn on the regular season schedule in 2024-25. If the teams meet, it’d be in the NCAAs where the Huskies will be trying to continue their magical, uncanny two-year domination of the postseason.