In the wake of his dad's death, Bill Self coaches Kansas to come-from-behind win at Kansas State
MANHATTAN — Christian Braun can recall the conversation.
It happened Friday night, ahead of Kansas basketball’s rivalry game Saturday on the road against Kansas State. Braun remembers Jayhawks head coach Bill Self talking about how much the rivalry meant not just meant to Self, but Self’s father, who died this week. Self was mentioning that he may care a lot about this rivalry, but his dad was one of the Wildcats’ biggest haters and the game meant that much more to him.
And while Braun is saying Kansas didn’t play with that necessary extra energy in the first half, he’s adding that thank goodness it did in the second. Thank goodness the junior guard had teammates like senior forward David McCormack, redshirt sophomore forward Jalen Wilson and senior guard Ochai Agbaji to play hard and help rescue the Jayhawks from a 16-point halftime deficit. Thank goodness the Jayhawks played with possibly the most effort in that half as they have all season.
Because that energized play, and especially a go-ahead layup from Agbaji with less than 10 seconds left, delivered a 78-75 victory for Kansas. It delivered a victory that means so much to a fan base, and the Jayhawks’ race toward a Big 12 Conference regular season title. It delivered a victory Braun knows means that much to Self, and Self’s dad.
“Give K-State credit, they were unbelievable in the first half,” Self said. “Like, we weren’t very good, but they were a lot better than we were bad. They were great. And (Nijel) Pack ... was a first-team All-American today. There’s no doubt about that. He was great, and he may have been the best guard in America today. He may have been, and we may have had the best wing in America today.
“But yeah, it’s been an interesting week. Really proud of my guys. I haven’t been with the team at all this week. I made it back to practice yesterday, but hadn’t been with them since, I guess, the West Virginia game. Then we were in Norman, there, for the night. And then I wasn’t with them after that. So, pretty emotional and pretty proud for a lot of reasons today.”
Self said he didn’t hear from his players about them wanting to win this for him, and that he wouldn’t let them do that anyway. But he could tell, still, that this meant something to them. He could tell, still, that they knew it meant something to him.
Self’s father was among those Self thanked during his enshrinement speech in 2017 for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. There was no one Self said that day that he wanted to thank more than his own mother and father. Self referred to his mother as the rock of the family, and his dad as a hero who taught him life lessons.
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Self’s dad used to tell him all the time, “Son, don’t worry about the mules, just load the wagon.” It meant he shouldn’t worry about things he couldn’t control, he should just do his job, and if he did his job well things will work out. And in the second half that’s what Kansas (16-2, 5-1 Big 12) did, as it toughed out a win against Kansas State (10-8, 2-5) by grinding out a victory instead of trying to make up 16 points in one play.
“I thought about staying at home, which had been fine,” Self said postgame Saturday, prompted to think about what it meant to him to win this game with toughness. “But my dad told me before the OU game — he was upset with me because I even missed practices before the game. ‘You won’t have your team ready, God almighty.’ And so, after he passed yesterday morning early, we decided that it would be best if I came up here because that’s what he would want me to do.
"And he’d want me to do my job. You get paid to do a job, do your job. And so, to win this one like that was something extra because the way we won it would have been exactly the way that he lived. Grind it out and make the most of every situation even when it doesn’t look good.”
Neither Agbaji, who led his team with 29 points, nor Wilson, who had a 16-point and 10-rebound double-double, ever doubted that Self would be there to coach them Saturday against Kansas State. Self was there to see Kansas dominate in rebounding 45-23 overall, 27-16 defensively and 18-7 offensively. Self was there to see the Jayhawks allow 50 points by the Wildcats in the first half, including 22 of Pack’s eventual 35, and then only 25 in the second.
As Braun tells it, this could be the game that truly forms Kansas into a team in the way one game each year seems to. For now, it extends the Jayhawks’ winning streak in this series to six games. For now, it means Kansas has its largest deficit it’s overcome in a victory in at least two and a half decades.
“He would be the first one to say, ‘God dang, you guys don’t guard anybody.’ And this, this and that,” said Self, referring to his father. “But he would have respected how hard the kids tried. So, that would have been special for him. So … everybody goes through things. But you find out things later on, sometimes, about how much … things that you do impact your own family. And especially him, and he hung onto every pass and every basket. And so, it was important.”
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: After his dad's death, Bill Self coaches Kansas to win at Kansas State
