Bill Self explains how fatigue factored into Kansas' loss at Kansas State

No. 4 Kansas came up short in a game against rival Kansas State on Monday night, simply running out of gas in a game that went to overtime and finished 75-70.

Coach Bill Self harped on the fact that his team simply seemed to wear out during the game, even with attempted substitutions to keep guys fresh. That’s the peril of a two-day turnaround.

“Guys, whether it’s K-State playing at Oklahoma State or us playing Houston or whatever, the intensity and everything’s not quite the same,” Self said. “Or the prep, I mean you practice for 20 minutes on Sunday because of fatigue and all that stuff.”

Unable to practice a whole lot due to the short turnaround, Self actually thought his players did a pretty good job of understanding the gameplan and trying to execute it. The execution wasn’t always there, but not for lack of effort.

Self sensed his guys going at it as hard as they could.

“I actually thought both teams probably did a pretty good job hanging in there for 45 minutes, because I know we were tired and I don’t think we were quite as turned up as what we were on Saturday, obviously,” Self said.

Kansas simply couldn’t keep its foot on the gas all the way through. The team built an 11-point lead early in the second half, only to watch it slip away with an 11-0 run by Kansas State.

Self lamented that the margin for error was so thin in the game and his players just couldn’t quite come through.

“Well, I think that they guarded us pretty good,” Self said. “And I also think that if you really studied how we played, we didn’t do a good job.

“I’m not saying that by any stretch, but the few opportunities that we had; Juan (Dejuan Harris Jr.) under throws Hunter [Dickinson] on an uncontested layup; Parker [Braun] throws a high-low pass that he’s wide open on out of bounds; Kevin [McCullar Jr.] missed a layup at the end of the first half. You know, [if] you score four points on those, you wouldn’t be asking that same question. So yeah, we didn’t do a good job at all, but we were still up two at halftime. So it’s not like that was the ball game there in the first half.”