KU’s Bill Self comments on ‘horrid’ performance of Jayhawks after Big 12 opening loss

Kansas basketball coach Bill Self envisioned a rather subdued New Year’s Eve observance Tuesday night in response to his Jayhawks’ 62-61 Big 12 Conference opening loss to West Virginia at Allen Fieldhouse.

There would be no partying after a game in which the Jayhawks managed just 20 points the first half. That anemic effort tied for the second-lowest point total in the first half of a game in the fieldhouse in the 22-year Self era.

KU scored 18 points in the first half in a home loss to TCU on Jan. 28, 2021. The Jayhawks scored 18 in the first half of a win over UTEP on March 4, 2021.

“I doubt there will be people at 11:59 doing any countdown tonight,” Self said after his well-rested No. 7-ranked Jayhawks (9-3) fell to an unranked WVU team (10-2) that arrived at its team hotel in Lawrence at 2 a.m. Tuesday because of travel problems Monday and played without two of its leading scorers who were out with injuries.

“We’ll bounce back but we are down,” Self added of his KU team, which had its streak of 33 straight conference-opening victories snapped by the Mountaineers, who won for the first time in the fieldhouse in 12 appearances.

“We’ll get better but the reality of it is we’re not the team a lot of us thought we would be on Jan. 1. We’ve got a good team, but we can obviously be had. And today we were (had) by a team that was better than us,” Self stated.

The most disappointing aspect of Tuesday’s loss undoubtedly had to be the fact the Mountaineers raced to early leads of 9-0, 13-3 and 25-10 against a KU team that was to enter seemingly refreshed after a short three-day Christmas vacation.

WVU led 33-20 at halftime and built the lead to 18 points early in the second half.

“Obviously today that was as miserable an offensive team I’ve seen play in this building in 22 years. That was horrid,” Self said. “The second half was a little better. We were never aggressive in the first half whatsoever.

“There was no pace. We were standing around,” Self added. “We don’t have a one-on-one team. We don’t have guys who can get their shoulders past people unless they get help. There’s just no ball-and-body movement. We are stationary. I thought our energy to start the game was pretty low.”

An alarming fact was the production from KU transfer guards Rylan Griffen and AJ Storr.

Griffen scored three points on 1-of-3 shooting in just 12 minutes. Storr scored zero points (0-for-2) with no rebounds and no assists in 15 minutes.

“Nothing. I didn’t see much,” Self said, asked what he saw out of the duo. “They both had chances, timid, non-aggressive. I didn’t really see much.

“Our ball-screen coverage to start the game, wow, it was so bad we allowed No. 0 (Eduardo Andre, 15 points, six rebounds) to roll in there and get six points off ball-screen coverage and Small (Javon, 13 points, 11 rebounds, six assists) was able to find him. A lot of those situations where AJ could have done better, that’s my fault. I don’t have them quite ready yet.

“They’ve had good practices,” he added of Storr and Griffen. “Sports is strange. You can feel good and have good intentions. When somebody punches you in the mouth and staggers you — or there’s a screw-up all of a sudden — you are not quite as aggressive and not quite as confident, therefore you are not near as effective. That’s what happened with AJ starting the game.”

Self discussed some pivotal plays that took place down the stretch as KU chipped away at the 18-point deficit.

Zeke Mayo (27 points, 13-of-13 from line) with KU down 57-53 leaped high trying to avoid a backcourt violation of Flory Bidunga (eight points, 11 rebounds) who made an errant pass. Mayo appeared to save the basketball, which would have given KU the ball down four points with 2:21 to play. Instead the referee called the backcourt violation and WVU immediately scored on the other end.

“He (Mayo) didn’t step on the line. The official told me he missed it. He said he missed it,” Self said.

Mayo indicated he saved the basketball and there should have been no violation.

“I’m pretty sure I know I saved it,” Mayo said. “I saw the replay. Obviously my foot wasn’t across half court, but we didn’t get the call. Next play, got to move on. I can’t blame that on anybody. They called what they called. Got to move forward.”

Also, after a Diggy Coit steal, KJ Adams (two points, one board, 28 minutes) missed an inside shot in which there may have been contact. No foul was called with KU down 59-58 with 34 seconds left. WVU ended up scoring two points on the other end with 0:25 left.

“I thought that was a great wall-up defensively. I thought it was good defense by West Virginia,” Self said.

And finally, the game was tied at 61 when freshman Bidunga fouled Small on a deep jumper with 1.8 seconds left. Had Bidunga not fouled Small, there’s the chance his jumper would have missed and the game would have gone to OT. Instead he made one of two free throws and KU did not convert on its final possession — a baseball pass from Hunter Dickinson to Adams with Adams missing a jumper at the buzzer.

Again there may have been contact on the Adams shot.

Of the Bidunga foul, Self said: “We put Flory in for defensive purposes, which was good. We should have put KJ on No. 0 (Andre) because 0 was going to be the ball screener. If you switch five, KJ is on him, not Flory. That’s not Flory’s fault, that’s my fault.”

Self did think Adams was fouled on his final shot, saying: “The whole deal is there is one second left. You are probably not going to get that call. Certainly I am not going to dwell on not getting that call. I can probably dwell on us not playing as well as we could have played or with the intensity we could have played with earlier.”

KU will next meet UCF at 3 p.m. Sunday in Orlando.