Kansas men's basketball announces four-game suspensions for Bill Self, Kurtis Townsend
LAWRENCE, Kan. — Kansas men’s basketball will be without head coach Bill Self and assistant coach Kurtis Townsend for the first four games of the regular season, as Kansas Athletics announced a self-imposed suspension of the two coaches Wednesday that stems from an NCAA infractions case dating to 2017.
Self and Townsend will miss the team’s Nov. 7 opener at home against Omaha, the Nov. 10 game at home against North Dakota State, the Nov. 15 game in Indianapolis against Duke, and the Nov. 18 game at home against Southern Utah.
They’ll return in time for the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas in which the Jayhawks will play three games from Nov. 23-25. Assistant coach Norm Roberts will serve as interim head coach while Self and Townsend serve their suspensions.
“Throughout this process, we have had ongoing conversations with all the involved parties,” Chancellor Douglas A. Girod said in a news release. “We believe the actions we are announcing today move us closer to resolving this matter. We look forward to commenting further when this process is fully resolved. Until then, I want to reiterate our unwavering support of Coach Self and our Men’s Basketball program.”
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The suspensions aren’t the only sanctions that Kansas has imposed and relayed to the NCAA’s Independent Resolution Panel. There was also Self and Townsend being absent from off-campus recruiting from April through July earlier this year and the reduction of four official visits this academic year and next year’s as well. There are other recruiting related sanctions, too.
Kansas will see the reduction of three total scholarship over the next three years. There will also be “the implementation of a six-week ban on recruiting communications, a six-week ban on unofficial visits and a 13-day reduction in the number of permissible recruiting days during the 2022-23 calendar year.” And there were no official visitors for Late Night in the Phog this year.
“We are hopeful these difficult self-imposed sanctions will assist in bringing the case to a conclusion,” athletic director Travis Goff said in the release. “Until then, we will continue to focus on supporting our outstanding Men’s Basketball student-athletes and coaches. Assistant Coach Norm Roberts will serve as interim head coach during the first four games. Per confidentiality guidelines related to infraction cases, we are unable to comment in depth until there is full resolution of this matter.”
Self added: “Coach Townsend and I accept and support KU’s decision to self-impose these sanctions. We are in good hands with Coach Roberts, and I am confident that he will do a great job on the bench leading our team. I am proud of the way our guys have handled this situation and I look forward to returning to the bench for our game against NC State.”
Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas' Bill Self, Kurtis Townsend to serve four-game suspensions
