Bill Self put his foot in his mouth Saturday after Kansas was eliminated from the second round of the NCAA tournament with a blowout loss to Gonzaga. During his postgame press conference, Self was asked if he was already looking forward to next season and the head coach responded by admitting he was looking ahead even before the tournament started.
“For the last month I’ve been thinking about next season, to be honest,” Self said. Not exactly a ringing endorsement of the team he was still coaching just a few moments earlier.
College basketball fans dragged Self for what sounded like an admission of giving up on a season that ended with a top-25 AP ranking and 4-seed in the tournament, disappointing only by Kansas’ own high standards. Sure, the Jayhawks had four losses in their previous five games before the tourney started, including the last two by a combined 50 points, but March is for miracles and a deep Kansas run would have hardly counted as such.
What Self said isn’t actually the problem, though, and shouldn’t be interpreted as him quitting on the season. In fact, him acknowledging he can do better to improve the roster is actually a statement of accountability — an admission of his own failure to put together a team he could believe in this year. Where he went wrong is that he said it out loud. Self should have kept this to himself.
“For the last month, I’ve been thinking about next season”
– Bill Self 😳#MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/YfGseyZkjK
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 23, 2024
“We could have done a much better job as a staff putting more guys out there that we could play,” Self said. “And so that’s something that I’ve thought about for a long time.”
Every coach is concerned with how they can improve their teams from year to year, and that doesn’t start and end in the offseason. Holes on a roster are never more evident than during the grind of a regular season. Self admitting as much shouldn’t be taken as him giving up, rather it’s a peek into the mind of someone obsessed with winning. There’s no way to prove Self wasn’t giving 100 percent while manning the sidelines for this year’s team, but if anyone deserves the benefit of doubt, it’s a two-time champion and third active career wins leader.
Because a team isn’t good enough doesn’t mean it needs to be said, though. Self admitting his team was short on “firepower” and lacked the depth to overcome injuries didn’t accomplish anything but throw his current players under the bus. Maybe he did it to absolve himself of a sub-par coaching job, or maybe he lacked the awareness to know how it would come across. But it was completely unnecessary and below any coach, particularly one already held in high regards.