Kansas not panicked ahead of Kentucky matchup, says Bill Self

Kansas is currently on just its fourth three-game slide ever during Bill Self’s tenure in Lawrence. Even with another tall task coming ahead for the Jayhawks this weekend, though, Self isn’t ready to say his team deserves the negative reaction they’ve been faced with.

Self tried to calm everything down during his postgame press conference on Monday. He said their current skid is more about how healthy the Big 12 is rather than anything that’s truly wrong with Kansas. He does admit, though, that this team has less room for error than ones from previous seasons. That’s what makes a stretch like this much more likely now that they’re facing top competition each and every game.

“There is time to be reactive in a negative way if your team is not doing well. (But) this is not one of our times,” said Self. “We have gotten beat, granted. But we’ve got beaten by a team that got projected to win the league tonight that’s really good. And they went through the same crap we’re going through right now. We got beat by a team that’s fifth in the country at their place by one. And we got beat at home by a team that could’ve beat anybody in the country on Saturday. So our league is that good.”

“It’s going to be a grind. Our team isn’t talented enough where we can be disappointed when teams of equal talent play better than us and get frustrated with it. We don’t have as much margin for error as we have in years past. And that’s okay,” Self said. “But when you don’t have quite as much margin for error? And the other teams in the league plat a lot better? It makes it tough. There’s just not games where we look to and say, ‘We can get well.’ There’s none of those games.”

After the defending champs started off 16-1, they’ve now dropped three straight at Kansas State, against TCU, and at Baylor. While the loss to the Horned Frogs was the only one that truly got out of hand, these are still uncharted waters for Self and Kansas.

Still, Self isn’t too concerned about now having to go on the road and face Kentucky this weekend. He says he’s trying to focus on the overall progression of his team and realize that every other team in the nation, even in the Big 12, has similar problems.

“I’ll be honest with you. I’ve got to take a different approach and understand it’s not a marathon, it’s not an immediate reaction, Self said. “You could react immediately in this league and you’ll have nine other teams go through the exact same thing at some point in time.”

That new viewpoint will need to take hold quickly, though, considering Kansas’ upcoming schedule and the fact that they’re on the verge of some bad history under Self.