Bill Self on Kansas' current ranking: 'I could care less'

The third AP Poll of the college basketball season came out on Monday and, for the first time this year, Kansas is not at No. 1. Even so, Bill Self does not care at all about the Jayhawks’ four spot drop.

Self kept it short about his opinion on Kansas’ new ranking at No. 5 during his press conference on Monday. At the end of November in collegiate hoops, he just isn’t bothered by what others think considering how early it is in the campaign.

“I could care less,” Self stated. “I don’t know what rankings matter in November in college basketball. Now, football is different. In football, you lose two in September? You’re done. This is not like that at all.”

It also speaks to why Kansas feels comfortable involving themselves with tough competition at the start of the year. If early losses mattered, they wouldn’t put themselves in position to drop games early on. Since they don’t, though, losses in events like the Champions Classic or the Maui Invitational are far more easily stomached.

“If it was like that? Then, obviously, you wouldn’t schedule the way that we have,” Self explained. “We’ve gone 2-1 in our big games so far. I don’t think that’s poor at all. I think we feel good about doing that.”

Kansas battled back from a 14-point deficit to earn their first ranked win of the season over Kentucky in Chicago. Then, during their time in Honolulu, they split their Top-10 matchups with Marquette and Tennessee. The Golden Eagles held the Jayhawks off from start to finish but they bounced back the next day by closing things out in the second half against the Volunteers.

There’s a lot of teams that would do a lot of things to be 5-1 and at No. 5 in the nation with Kansas’ schedule. That’s why, with a winning record against quality competition so far, Self isn’t putting any stock into what voters currently think about the Jayhawks.

Hunter Dickinson on flopping tweet: ‘I’ll let Samuel (L. Jackson) have his moment’

During the Maui Invitational, Samuel L. Jackson tweeted about Hunter Dickinson’s flopping as Kansas took on Tennessee.

It quickly went viral and Dickinson later responded to it on his ‘Roundball Podcast’ with Barstool Sports. As for what he thought about Jackson’s tweet, Dickinson said he noticed the replies.

“I know. It’s kind of tough,” Dickinson said. “I’ll let Samuel have his moment. But if you see all the replies, it’s all like Kentucky, Michigan State, Illinois, Marquette. It’s a lot of fan bases coming together to rejoice. It is what it is.”

Samuel L. Jackson called out Hunter Dickinson for flopping while watching Kansas vs. Tennessee😅https://t.co/bnCIMj4zdd pic.twitter.com/Ukh5G6TZaz

— On3 (@On3sports) November 22, 2023

Dickinson didn’t respond on social media but he said he thought about it.

“The tweet I was going to tweet out is, like, ‘All publicity’s good publicity,’” Dickinson said. “You’ve got to take the good with the bad, I guess.”