By KEN DAVIS
Kansas coach Bill Self called Monday “a slow day” for the Jayhawks . After returning from the Midwest Region championship game Sunday in Chicago and holding a victory celebration in Allen Fieldhouse, the coaches and players took care of logistics, such as hotel rooms, tickets and some interviews on Monday.
It was back to preparation for Saturday’s national semifinal against Villanova on Tuesday. And Wednesday the team will travel to New Orleans to take part in two full days of practices, more interviews, and other activities.
Self took time Tuesday to hold a press conference for local media, in conjunction with a national Zoom call. He answered questions on a variety of topics, including his players and the matchup with Jay Wright’s Villanova team.
The other Saturday semifinal, between rivals North Carolina and Duke, is attracting most of the media hype and has turned this into the most expensive Final Four ever for ticket sales and all the perks. It will be a blueblood event and Self admitted Kansas has some catching up to do in terms of national championship banners.
Villanova,and KU have won three NCAA titles each. North Carolina has six championship banners and Duke five.
“So I do think for our program — it is without question one of the top programs in the country I mean nobody can debate that at all.” Self said. But for it to be thought of it as the equal of anybody else’s, we’ve got to cut down nets on Monday night.
“We need to do more of that because we can stack up against anybody in any particular area but when you talk about total number of national championships we are behind obviously some of the other bluebloods that we compete with … for the program and the historic nature of it, I think it certainly would add something very significant to it.”
The last time Kansas reached the Final Four was 2018 when Villanova crushed the Jayhawks in the semifinal. The Wildcats jumped on KU early and cruised to a 95-79 victory.
“We got punched in the mouth down there by Villanova without question. I do think there are a couple of things that I know personally that I made notes on and stuff I’ll try to handle differently down there than the way we handled it in San Antonio,” Self said.
Asked to discuss those notes, Self smiled and said: “They are my notes. Not your notes.”
Self told a great story about the time then-Kansas coach Larry Brown hired him as a graduate assistant (12:08 on video, link below).
He sald the team is healthy and he has no concerns about playing time for David McCormack or Mitch Lightfoot, who have combined to give KU a lethal and efficient inside tandem during the NCAA tournament.
Self said he has no plans to change the starting lineup. He likes the spark Remy Martin has given KU off the bench. That spark was so outstanding that Martin was named Most Outstanding Player in the Midwest Region.
You can view the video of Self’s press conference, courtesy of KUsports.com, by clicking here.
Lightfoot also answered questions at the press conference and said he is feeling great and close to 100 percent for the first time since spraining his left knee in the Big 12 tournament final against Texas Tech.
“I’m good. I’m good. The knee’s good,” Lightfoot said. “I think against Miami (when Lightfoot had nine points and three boards) is the first time I didn’t think about it. I forgot about it in the game. It’s kind of nice getting over that, getting back to playing my best ball.”
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