Notable Quotes From Kansas Basketball HC Bill Self During Big 12 Media Day

Bill Self made a brief appearance on ESPNU this afternoon during Big 12 Basketball Media Days to talk about the 2025-26 Kansas basketball team. Here is what the Hall of Fame head coach had to say about his squad on set.

On What Stands Out About Darryn Peterson:

"I would say, to me, it's the maturity he has as an 18 year old. The thing about it is, with the youngsters, the longer you play the game, the slower the game becomes. And for many young kids, the game's in fast forward. And as you get older, the game becomes slow motion, and you're able to see everything and not be rushed. He's at that phase — now, granted, he'll have his moments, but he's at that phase where the game's ridiculously slow compared to other guys his age. And to me, that's the biggest difference, that he sees it and he feels it."

On Darryn Peterson’s Versatility:

"I think he can be whatever the situation calls him to be. Could he be our best defender? He could. Could he be our best shot blocker? Absolutely. Could he be our best quick-hands guy? Yeah, he could be. Could he be your best scorer, your best shooter, your best handler, your best off-ball screener? He could be. Now, granted, everything that he does well, he can still get better at doing them all. So, I'm not trying to paint a picture that he's arrived by any stretch, but he's as advanced in all those areas as anybody I've ever been around."

On Flory Bidunga’s Improvements:

"Flory, he's had a great offseason. He's probably the most improved player in all areas. People will think about him from a scoring standpoint, and you know he can score, but he needs to score in certain ways, and we probably didn't take as much advantage of that as we hoped. So, he still has got a lot of things he's got to work on and improve on, but as for his knowledge and how he sees the game, I think it really helped him playing with Hunter [Dickinson] last year. In playing behind him, he saw what a good passing big can mean to a team, and even though he's not Hunter yet, he's becoming more and more of that, which allows the floor to be spread."

On the Keys for This Team To Excel:

"I actually think — it's coachspeak, but are we tough enough to win the 50-50 battles? We're explosive enough, we're quick enough that we can make plays you can't coach. I don't think we were great at that last year. Our quick twitch, our second jump, our instinctive ability, I think, is better in chasing the ball down and doing some different things. But it's still going to come down to — you mentioned Houston. I don't know if people realize this because they lost some guys, but they got the same guy coaching. So, they're going to play with that reckless abandon regardless, and you've got to be a man to compete with them inside of 15 feet of the basket. Can we get to that point? And then the other thing is, can we shoot it consistently enough? Because I think that we got a player that we can kind of showcase, and whether or not that means him scoring or whether that means him drawing a teaching now everybody else has to be able to score."

All quotes transcribed by Kansas On SI.