Bill Self takes blame for Kansas mistakes late in loss vs. Houston

The Kansas Jayhawks saw a six-point lead with just seconds remaining in overtime against the Houston Cougars evaporate before they went on to lose in a second overtime. It was a difficult way to go down, which head coach Bill Self took the blame for after the game.

Self specifically referenced two different inbounding situations, one of which was in regulation and one of which was in overtime, when he explained why the loss fell on his shoulders.

“We didn’t execute,” Bill Self said. “Put it on me. We got a way to get it in that we practice every day and obviously, maybe not having KJ [Adams] who’s our best athlete that can get open, but we didn’t make a great effort to get open and didn’t call the timeout when we had one. When the count got to four, I should have done that.”

The first inbound play that Bill Self is referring to came with 16.6 seconds remaining. At that point, the Jayhawks led by two points and were taking the ball in from under their own basket and got called for a five-second violation before getting a timeout called. That turnover set Houston up to send it to overtime.

On the second inbound, in overtime, Houston had made a shot to cut it to a three-point lead with just 7.5 seconds left. A stolen inbound pass led to another quick three and double overtime.

“And then the second one, we didn’t make a great effort and then when they threw it in, I didn’t tell them to foul immediately if something went bad. I thought that was sending the wrong message,” Self said. “So, obviously, something did go bad and then they made the shot. So, yeah, we had numerous opportunities. We played really well. Kids fought their ass off and obviously just didn’t make plays when it counted the most and they made every one.”

Houston would go on to win the game 92-86. The Cougars only turned the ball over five times in the entire game compared to 12 from Kansas. Two of the most costly of those turnovers ended up coming while trying to inbound the ball.

For Bill Self and Kansas, the loss snapped a two-game winning streak. The Jayhawks fell to 14-5 on the season and 5-3 in Big 12 play, moving to a tie for fifth in the conference standings. Now, they’ll look to bounce back on Tuesday night at home against UCF. Earlier this season, Kansas beat UCF 99-48 in Orlando.