Bill Self claims Colorado has the personnel to beat UConn

Bill Self knows that his Kansas Jayhawks need to quickly turn things around, having lost three of their last five games. It seems, on Tuesday, they’ll have a good opportunity to do that against the Colorado Buffaloes, but Self isn’t overlooking anyone.

Colorado has struggled this season, going 0-12 in Big 12 play. However, Self has a ton of respect for the Buffaloes, arguing that their roster is talented enough to beat a team like the UConn Huskies.

“They have everybody on the ropes all the time… I think their personnel is good,” Bill Self said. “But Tad [Boyle] and their program, they lost a lot of guys from last year. Last year’s team, obviously, was very good. Went to the tournament, but they lost a lot of guys off that team.”

Colorado is coming off a game against Houston where they managed to scare the Cougars. That was one of several close calls in conference play, with Arizona State, West Virginia, UCF, and Cincinnati all playing close games against Colorado.

“Their personnel, guys, is good enough to beat UConn. Okay? But it hasn’t been what it needed to be to close out close games in our league. So, you look at the Houston game, what was it, a two-point game with three minutes left, four minutes left, or whatever? That’s a one or two-possession game that turned out to be more than that,” Self said. “But if you look at a lot of their games in league play, there’s been several games like that where they were right there to win it but just didn’t get it done for whatever reason.”

The argument from Self that Colorado could beat UConn was no mistake. The Huskies are the two-time defending national champions. So, even with the Huskies taking a step back this season, he was emphasizing just how much Colorado is capable of doing.

So, Kansas will need to be at its best. Now, sitting at 7-5 in Big 12 play, which is fifth in the current conference standings, the Jayhawks have had plenty of issues of their own this season. Self knows that with only about a month left in the season, his team needs to get playing much better quickly.

Tip-off for the game between Kansas and Colorado is scheduled for 9:00 p.m. EST on Tuesday night. It will be played at Allen Fieldhouse, making it a home game for Kansas that the Jayhawks will hope to rally around their fans for.