Bill Self has had plenty of reason to feel good about his program in the past week. Even if any celebration, including just a few mild fist pumps, might have caused the longtime Kansas coach a few winces of pain.
Self discussed the state of his program at this week’s Big 12 Conference men’s basketball media day, with the Jayhawks simultaneously going into the season as a national title favorite while perhaps feeling a sense of relief at dodging NCAA sanctions.
Last week, the NCAA Independent Accountability Resolution Process reduced the charges against Kansas to Level II and III violations stemming from the 2017 FBI investigation into college basketball recruiting corruption. The Jayhawks received the proverbial slap on the wrist, allowing the Jayhawks to begin their quest at a Final Four run unencumbered while putting the final nail in the six-year corruption fallout that ultimately fizzled with little to no consequences for the programs involved.
Earlier this week, the Jayhawks landed atop the Associated Press preseason top 25.
Self admitted he recently broke two ribs while chasing around his young grandchildren at KU’s Allen Fieldhouse. The potential of his loaded roster may well have dulled the pain.
“I think we’ve got a roster that has a chance,” Self said. “I know nothing is guaranteed and we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us to become what I think we can potentially be. But I do like our roster. I think it should be a fun year for us as long as we can stay healthy.”
The NCAA in recent years has steered away from punishing programs, and current players, for transgressions committed by previous coaching regimes. That wasn’t much solace to Oklahoma State coach Mike Boynton, whose program received a one-year postseason ban — the only postseason ban leveled against any of the programs ensnared in the 2017 FBI investigation — despite the transgressions occurring prior to Boynton’s arrival.
“I had no desire to see Kansas get hammered. What happened to us was wrong, not that someone else should also be done wrong,” Boynton said. “I’ve got a lot of respect for coach Self. I’ve said this publicly before, I think he’s the best coach in college basketball. I’m happy for (Kansas players) that they don’t have to suffer for something that someone else may have done in the past. But I was really, really disappointed that the guys I was coaching at the time had to go through that.”
Wildcat in West Virginia
Former Arizona point guard Kerr Kriisa has found a home at West Virginia. But he almost was a repeat transfer portal player this offseason.
Kriisa transferred to West Virginia shortly after last season. However, when former Mountaineers coach Bob Huggins resigned in the wake of a DUI arrest, Kriisa again put his name in the portal. West Virginia assistant Josh Eilert developed a close relationship with Kriisa while he was being recruited. Now the Mountaineers’ interim head coach, Eilert said that relationship helped convince Kriisa to stay.
“I know the transfer portal, it’s not a long recruitment process. It’s kind of like speed dating,” Eilert said. “But we got to know each other really well in that short period of time. I remember even taking him out turkey hunting. We sat in a turkey blind together, so we had a pretty good relationship going prior to everything going down.
“Now, he didn’t come to West Virginia to play for Josh Eilert by any means. He came to play for Bob Huggins. I had to sell my vision to him in terms of what we wanted to do offensively. In a lot of ways I built our offense around how efficient he is at getting people the ball at the right time and place.”
Kriisa led the Pac-12 with 5.1 assists per game last year.
Blue Devil battles
Two Duke basketball legends are set to be reunited as coaching rivals in the Big 12 when Arizona State and coach Bobby Hurley join the league next season. Hurley is considered one of college basketball’s all-time great point guards from his time at Duke in the early 1990s, and Johnny Dawkins, the head coach at Central Florida, was a Blue Devils star prior to Hurley’s arrival.
The duo squared off as coaching rivals for one year in the Pac-12 during Hurley’s first season at Arizona State in 2015-16, but that season marked the last of Dawkins’ eight years at Stanford before he landed at UCF.