Bill Self believes Baylor is always a big game on Kansas’ schedule

Baylor and Kansas are the premier programs, not just in the Big 12, but in the entire country. A fact that would have sounded strange four or five years ago, but is inarguable after the pair of conference partners took home the last two national championships. Kansas and Bill Self have been around. Heck, before the rise of Baylor, Texas Tech and some of the other recent Big 12 contenders, the league was Self’s to win for darn near a decade.

Now, even the Jayhawks take a few games on the chin in conference play every season. They just lost three straight and are currently looking down the barrel at their biggest slide of the Self era if they can’t rebound to beat a surging Kentucky team in Rupp Arena on Saturday night. The most recent loss came Tuesday night against Baylor, also away from home. As mentioned, it was KU’s third straight defeat, but that Bears’ crowd was amped up and their team delivered likely its most complete performance of the year against the Jayhawks.

Just another sign of the burgeoning rivalry between the two schools. According to Coach Self, these matchups are only heating up.

“I would say so. I mean, we won the last two national championships, and the year before that we were both No. 1 seeds when the season got called off. So, I think you can make a case that Baylor is big on everyone’s schedule, but certainly on ours as well,” said Self after the game.

He then went on to compliment the Baylor atmosphere, which has grown into one of the more raucous fanbases in the country in their home building. Bill Self says you can credit that to Scott Drew having such stars on the floor the last several seasons.

“To be real candid with you, the best home courts have the best players playing on it, and Baylor’s had really good players. So, it’s not anything other than that. We didn’t win at home the last time we played but we’ve got a pretty good record at home ourselves because we’ve had really good players playing there. And the atmosphere obviously helps, too, but they’ve got really good guys.”

According to the Kansas head coach, a great atmosphere requires great players to back it up. Baylor and Kansas certainly have them.