Kansas coach Bill Self wants the national anthem left alone. (AP)Kansas coach Bill Self has little to be upset with these days.
His thinnest roster in nine years on the job in Lawrence is overachieving, in the driver's seat early on in the Big 12 race and fresh off of an 18-point thumping of third-ranked Baylor on Monday night.
But everything at Allen Fieldhouse isn't perfect at the moment, in Self's opinion.
One key flaw in the game-day atmosphere involves the national anthem.
For years, the vast student section has replaced "… home of the brave" at the end of the anthem with a boisterous "… home of the Chiefs," which is what fans at Arrowhead Stadium about 50 miles down the highway traditionally do before Kansas City Chiefs home games.
"That's one tradition that, in my opinion, certainly we could do without," Self told the Lawrence Journal-World. "I think it'd be more respectful toward the anthem and what that stands for to go ahead and use the actual words to it than putting in their own. I think they should stick to Francis Scott Key's words. I think that would be appropriate."
It's hard to disagree with Self, honestly. It's one thing to alter the anthem with that line at Chiefs games, but it simply has no fit in Lawrence, despite a large percentage of the KU student body coming from the K.C. area.
Now we'll just see how powerful Self's message is when the Jayhawks return home to face Texas A&M on Monday night.
Follow Ryan Greene on Twitter: @ryanmgreene
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