Kansas head coach Bill Self’s press conference previewing Iowa State:
Opening thoughts following the Arizona win
“Well, I don’t know if it was, you know, there’s still a great chance things won’t go your way even when you play hard, but our guys played great. They played hard and tough for the most part. I was obviously very proud of them. I think they felt good about themselves, beating a terrific team.
But that was Monday and today’s Thursday. There are still bigger things out there, even though that was big at the moment.”
On the value of playing top teams twice in the current Big 12 schedule
“I think it’s good for your team moving forward. I don’t know if it gives you the best odds to win the league because the schedule can skew things. We’ve benefited from that before. When you play Iowa State twice, Arizona twice, Houston twice, the chances of going 6-0 aren’t very good either.”
On Darryn’s health and social media narratives
“I’ve gotten on X and read some of the narratives out there about him, and it’s not remotely true.
Was his hamstring legit? Yes. Would you risk injuring it more in November? No.Was his cramping legit? Yes. Did he turn his ankle bad enough to miss nine days of practice? Yes. Then he got sick.
He was sick enough he couldn’t practice. He came to shootaround to see if he could go, got lightheaded, and the doctor said he couldn’t play. The narrative about load management is BS. He’s had a string of bad luck. He’s better now, not full speed yet, but hopefully he will be by Saturday.
It’s a lot for a 19-year-old dealing with narratives about everything.”
On Iowa State
“There was a period where they were playing as well as anybody in the country. Then they had a bad week, then played great again. They’re terrific.
Their bench has gotten better. Their freshmen are good. They’ve got three potential All-American type guys starting. We played so well against them the first time and they didn’t. I’d like to think we had something to do with that, but we’ll see a different team Saturday.”
On playing at Hilton Coliseum
“They’ve won the last three there. It’s three and three over the last six. They’re ranked five now? So it’ll be five versus nine. It’ll be turned up in there.
Do we pump in crowd noise? No. I’ve never been a big believer in that.”
Are they a Final Four contender?
“Absolutely. Could they make it? Absolutely. Could they not? Absolutely. There are so many good teams. But when they’re playing well, they play as well as anybody.”
On the Big 12 race
“I see Houston and Arizona as the front-runners with one loss. We’re in it without question, but we’ve got to do some damage to put ourselves right in the middle of it.”