What Kansas coach Bill Self said after losing to BYU – Deseret News
Bill Self isn‚Äôt used to losing like this.Self‚Äôs No. 23-ranked Kansas squad was blown out by BYU by a score of 91-57 Tuesday night at the Marriott Center, marking his worst regular season defeat in 22 seasons at the helm of the Jayhawks.BYU HANDS NO. 23 KANSAS THEIR BIGGEST LOSS OF THE BILL SELF ERA (tying USC in the 2021 NCAA Tournament) ü§Ø A SPLATTERING IN PROVO. pic.twitter.com/O5EzloVLaWDespite the brutal outcome for his team, Self was highly complimentary of the Cougars following his first visit to Provo.‚ÄúI think BYU could have beaten anybody tonight,‚Äù Self told reporters after the game. ‚ÄúThey were great, and we didn‚Äôt do anything to make them play less than great. Our offense stunk, but that wasn‚Äôt it. It wasn‚Äôt our offense. We couldn‚Äôt stop them or get any momentum.‚ÄùKansas had never faced a greater deficit under Self than Tuesday against BYU, which led by as many as 38 points and ended up winning by 34.The Jayhawks had also never been beaten so badly as a ranked team against an unranked opponent across their entire program history.The 34-point margin of defeat was the third-largest ever for Kansas, which is a true college basketball blue blood that stands atop the sport‚Äôs all-time wins list with more than 2,300 victories.BYU shot 51.5% from the field and 38.9% from 3-point range against the Jayhawks, who couldn‚Äôt handle an excellent defensive effort from the Cougars and turned the ball over 15 times.Hosting a program of Kansas‚Äô caliber was a major milestone for the Marriott Center, which lived up to its reputation as one of the toughest road environments in the country as Cougar fans went ballistic throughout Tuesday night amid BYU‚Äôs dominance.Even the two-time national champion Self couldn‚Äôt help but rave about the venue.‚ÄúI love this place,‚Äù Self said. ‚ÄúI mean, it‚Äôs great. It‚Äôs classy, it‚Äôs clean. There‚Äôs a lot of good things about it. The fans are actually as close to you in my opinion of any place that we play in our league … they‚Äôve done a remarkable job with this place, they‚Äôve got really good players playing (in) it. Tonight, that‚Äôs the best anybody‚Äôs played against us this year.‚ÄùKansas, which opened the season as the No. 1-ranked team in the country, now finds itself at one of its lowest points of the Self era. The Jayhawks have dropped five of their last eight contests, will likely be booted from next week‚Äôs top 25 poll and appear headed for a disappointing March showing.‚ÄúWe need to regroup, you know, get away from each other for a day and go home,‚Äù Self said. ‚ÄúA lot of times with teams, there needs to be something happen to pull everybody together that is us against the outside, and we‚Äôre going to have an opportunity to do that for sure.‚ÄúA lot of teams go through it. We just haven‚Äôt been through it much at all in a long time, but certainly we‚Äôre going to go through it this time.‚Äù
