3 Quick Things 🤴 The Perfect Bill Self Quote
3 Quick Things 🤴 The Perfect Bill Self Quote
One Quote, One Stat, One Tweet from KU's senior night win vs. TTU
In this Hearings newsletter:
The perfect Bill Self quote🤴
KU’s 2nd half dominance this year ✌️
Tweet of the game: Senior Night always delivers 🫡
One Quote: The Perfect Bill Self Line
While Bill Self introduced Jalen Wilson for his senior night speech, he explained the depths Wilson reaches to avoid losing. To me, though, the quote was the perfect window into how Self views competition. This is part of what makes the coach great.
Self said he’ll ask his team, “How many of you hate to lose?” Of course, everyone would raise their hand. Then he’d drop a line challenging that belief.
“So if you hate to lose that bad…” Self would say. “It means you’re willing to do everything humanly possible to make sure you don’t.”
Nobody hates to lose more than Bill Self. Everything I’ve learned about him points to one ultimate theme: He is the ultimate competitor, pushing his players to the limit to achieve one goal: winning.
Sure, there are times this can backfire. Earlier in his career at KU, Self would clearly wear the competitive stress of the NCAA Tournament — and his players picked up on it. Self famously doesn’t risk taking early season losses in exchange for developing freshmen (1 seeds matter).
But Self keeps adjusting as all great competitors do. He’s studied how to keep a team relaxed in high-pressure games. He’s changed his style to keep up with modern times (unlike other current Hall-of-Famers). And he has changed how he recruits to land players who will stick around for multiple years.
Ultimately, he is willing to do everything humanly possible to make sure KU keeps winning.
One Stat: KU Dominates The Second Half of Games
Bob Huggins caught my attention with a classic Huggins quote after the KU-WVU game at Allen Fieldhouse on Saturday.
“[Kansas] always shoots the ball better in the second half,” Huggins said. “I don't know that I've ever watched a game where they didn't shoot it better in the second half.”
So I looked into it. I didn’t go as far as looking at shooting percentages. I stuck to scoring margins in Big 12 play this season because it’s what matters most. Three things stood out:
The difference between KU in the second half at home and away isn’t that substantial. KU’s +9 on the road in the first half is impressive.
KU’s problems during the losing streak were clearly in the first half of games. During the win streak, KU has led at the half in all but one game (Baylor).
The Jayhawks are +56 in the second half. I’ve wondered what the long-term impact of the title game comeback could be… For now, lets the confidence keep rollin into March.
One Tweet: Senior Night Always Delivers 🫡
I hadn’t seen this one before.
“And he has changed how he recruits to land players who will stick around for multiple years.”
Did he really change this though? I feel like his number of transfers and one and dones is the same.