Bill Self weighs what led to better defense in second half

The first half and second half were night and day for Bill Self’s Kansas defense Monday against Baylor.

In the first half, the Bears exploded for 41 points on 44.1% shooting. But that dropped significantly in the second half as Baylor shot only 28.6% from the floor.

However, thanks to a 16 of 20 mark from the free throw line, the Bears claimed a 75-69 victory.

Despite the start difference, Self wasn’t positive his team did anything to make the change.

“I’m not sure we did a lot,” Self said. “The tendency for with offensive teams that shoot a lot of threes and things like that, when they get a lead sometimes they play a little slower. Sometimes that makes a defense look better than what it actually is. The second half, I don’t think Baylor played with the same speed offensively as they did the first half when the game was starting. That could be us, but it was also probably them playing a little bit more conservative to be honest with you.

With that being said, Self did say that the team was better on defense in the second half.

But what concerned him overall was the rebounding performance. The Bears grabbed 17 offensive rebounds during the game, leading to 16 second chance points.

“It was better,” Self said. “We just didn’t rebound the basketball. When you’re switching that much and you’re that small, you got to be able to fight on the glass.”