Bill Self on Big 12 race: 'We don't have any margin for error'

March has almost arrived, and the top five spots in the Big 12 Conference are separated by two games.

Kansas is two games back from Houston in the top spot — and if things go the Jayhawks’ way, all signs will be pointing toward a season finale road trip to battle the Cougars with the winner emerging as the Big 12’s 2024 regular season champion. However, head coach Bill Self sees four obvious obstacles ahead of his team before they get there: Texas, BYU, Baylor and Kansas State.

“In our situation, holding serve at home is really important,” Self said on Thursday. “We don’t have any margin for error, but I’m not looking at it the way that maybe some people are looking at it. I’m looking at, hey, let’s try to win one game at a time and we can’t control what other people do and whatever happens, happens. But as long as we take care of our business, we get a chance to have a really good year in our league.

“Now, whether or not that means having the chance to play for anything of the highest stakes against Houston remains to be seen. We better go 4-0 if we’re going to do that but the best way to win them all is to win the first one. If you don’t win the first one that certainly eliminates all those desires. So yeah, we’re just worried about Texas.”

Luckily for the Jayhawks, they are one of three teams in the Big 12 Conference that remain undefeated at home. While Self wants to focus on what’s in front of them — but based on their track record inside Allen Fieldhouse, Kansas is supposed to take care of business against Texas, BYU and Kansas State.

That leaves road trips at No. 11 Baylor on March 2 and the season finale road trip at No. 2 Houston on March 9.

Kansas has notably struggled on the road, heading into the final stretch of true road games with a record of 3-5 on the season. Aside from a 29-point loss to Texas Tech on Feb. 12, the Jayhawks lost the other four games by a margin of five points. Notably, Kansas won its most recent road matchup this past Saturday against No. 25 Oklahoma 67-57 to improve to 20-6 on the season.

Still, Self is solely focused on their homestand against the Longhorns on Saturday. The opening tip is scheduled for Saturday at 6 p.m. ET live on ESPN.