Bill Self considers whether online threats, press release have impacted preparation

After Kansas‘ loss to Texas Tech this past weekend, Jayhawks guard Zeke Mayo shared screenshots of messages he’d received on social media, which included threatening and racist comments. Shortly after Mayo posted the screenshots, Kansas head coach Bill Self released a statement regarding the team’s recent troubles.

“The game today was a very good college basketball game,” Self began. “We played a very good team and we got beat. We had some individuals have exceptional individual games and we had some maybe mot play up to the standard they’ve set for themselves.

“… This is the most important time of the season, and this is the time where we need to be better, but we also need to be focused on basketball and not things being said outside of basketball that have absolutely zero merit.”

In the loss against Texas Tech, Mayo shot 1-7 from the floor and 0-5 from beyond the arc while committing five turnovers. Turnovers were an issue for Mayo again in Kansas’ 65-59 loss to Houston on Monday.

In the loss, Mayo committed six turnovers compared to just one assist. He finished the game with seven points and three rebounds. After the game, Self revealed whether or not he believes the off-court threats toward Mayo affected the team’s preparation.

“I don’t think so,” Self said. “Obviously, when you comment on it, it makes for the story to linger but I think that we’ll learn how to deal with some things better moving forward but I didn’t think our guys were distracted because of that.”

While Bill Self said the team’s performance wasn’t affected by the off-court issues, he also admitted he wishes he hadn’t released a statement addressing the messages toward Mayo.

“I shouldn’t have done it, because all it did was bring more attention to what was said,” Self told Seth Davis during a telephone interview Sunday night. 

“I feel like there’s been some unfair personal attacks and criticism, but not by people that matter. A lot of that comes from people who are not KU fans. They’re gambling and lost a bet or whatever. But so much of young people’s identity is what people are saying about them on social media. I wanted to get that point out that these kids care. They’re trying.”

With the loss, Kansas fell to 19-11 on the season and 10-9 in conference play. The Jayhawks are 3-3 against top-10 teams this season. They are ranked sixth in the Big 12 standings.

Despite the Jayhawks’ recent string of losses, they still landed as a No. 7 seed in ESPN analyst Joe Lunardi’s latest bracketology. With a regular season finale against No. 24 Arizona and the Big 12 Tournament still ahead, Kansas can significantly improve its postseason standing as well.