Bill Self claims Kansas needs to 'get away from each other' after BYU loss

No. 23 Kansas suffered a brutal 91-57 loss to BYU on Tuesday night, tied for the worst defeat for the Jayhawks in the Bill Self era.

After the game, Self seemed exasperated. His team has now lost five of its last eight games and is reeling a bit, at just 8-7 in Big 12 play.

“I’m talked out,” Self said after the game. “I’m talked out.”

The head coach is clearly close to his wit’s end with his group at the moment. He said his Kansas team obviously needs a reset following the rout by BYU.

“Well the thing about it, we need to regroup,” Self said. “Get away from each other for a day and go home. And hopefully be able to… a lot of times with teams there needs to be something happen to pull everybody together that is us against the outside. And we’re going to have an opportunity to do that for sure.”

Kansas has dipped in the various bracketology projections in recent weeks after opening the season as the preseason No. 1 team in the country. Things simply haven’t materialized the way Self would have hoped.

“Lot of teams go through it, we just haven’t been through it much at all in a long time,” he said. “But certainly we’re going to go through it this time.”

So how exactly did things get away from Kansas so badly on Tuesday night?

Well, it was a combination of things and the perfect storm. A hot shooting night for the Cougars coupled with half-hearted defensive effort from the Jayhawks.

“Tonight we were one foot in, one foot out in how we guarded and a lot of other things right from the jump,” Self said. “I mean right from (jump). It was crystal clear how we wanted to guard them and right from the jump we doubted it and ended up hurting ourself right there early.”

That said, Self did provide a path forward for Kansas. After the refresh and time apart, the team needs to jump all the way back in with two feet.

“All we have is each other, and we’re going to have to be strong for each other and be good teammates and good leaders and understand that if we need to look in the mirror, all of us, what can we do to change the momentum?” Self said. “And then whatever we commit to doing, do it.”