What Bill Self Said About Kansas' 86-75 Loss To West Virginia

Kansas fell 86-75 to West Virginia on Saturday afternoon in a disheartening road defeat. Now sitting at 1-2 in Big 12 play, here's what Bill Self said following his team's loss.

On WVU's 16-0 run in the second half:

"We were up eight and they go up eight, obviously, so we were very poor. They backed us down, our guards down on the post, and we didn't get much resistance at all and they took advantage of that. And then, we didn't obviously score on the other end. But they were tougher, we never stopped them the whole night. They still got 39 in the first half. We never stopped them and never made them play poorly. We actually did a good job on their two 3-point shooters in the first half, and they had three other guys combined for four, which they played great. But that was kind of the scouting report, don't dare them to shoot but make somebody else beat you from beyond the arc, and we actually did the first half, and the second half we didn't."

On his concern about the team with its upcoming schedule:

"We suck right now, but it's right now. Everybody goes through ebbs and flows in the season. The last three games, we haven't played well. We've got to flip it, because the thing about it is, the three teams that we played thus far, the common denominator is they've all played really well. So that tells me that we're not doing something to make them play poorly. We can talk about a 16-0 run, which obviously occurred, but the bottom line is there was a time we had 58 or 59 points with 15 minutes left in the game against the team that only averages giving up 67 or 68. So, it wasn't our offense, it was at the end, but it wasn't our offense up until the game flipped. It was the fact that we didn't get consistent stops on the other end and finish possessions, and that's a credit to them. I thought they played really well."

On the defense's performance and why it has been worse in conference play:

"I don't know. Today, we didn't switch near as much. We actually did some things a little bit different. But still, our attention to detail, and let's just call it — I have to watch tape. And no matter what a coach says now, usually you can go back and say, 'Well, that's because the coaching staff and the coach hasn't done a good enough job training them in what you want them to do different.' So I get it, if anything is said now, it sounds that I'm placing blame more on players, I'm not. I'm placing fault with all of us, but we have not consistently got everybody to understand that your value to our program and to our team is being a junkyard dog more so than it is being a skilled player. We haven't gotten through to that. And we've got to do that, and that's the coach's responsibility, is to get the players to do that. But our best teams here weren't great all the time, but we never let anybody else play well."

On WVU's 5-8 all-time record against Kansas in Morgantown:

"I think we're 5-8 here now, is that right? They've had some really hard rocking cats come through here too, that were really good players and good teams. And they got a good team now. Ross does a great job. You guys should be thrilled to have him. I've always thought the best home courts have the best players playing on it. But we've lost over here, I know twice in a row, and maybe it's three, I don't know. So certainly, maybe there's a Jerry West, Hot Rod Hundley, Rod Thorn tipping balls in or tipping balls out. I don't know. Maybe they're ghosts."

On if the team plays differently on the road than at home:

"There's not much different, we haven't been great at home either. We just labored to win a game another day at home. I would say, usually, the best road teams are always the ones that can either outscore you or the ones that can make you play poorly. And we're not going to outscore anybody. We can score enough points to win, I'm not saying that at all, but to get in the contest where you want the game 95-92, that's not who we are. We need to be able to grind, and we haven't been able to do that yet. And I say yet because I think we're capable of getting there, but we're not there yet.

On how Darryn Peterson's supporting cast played with him:

"I don't know, I'd need to go back and watch the game. I thought Darryn was aggressive, didn't make shots. He still gets 23 in 30 minutes, but I look at it differently than you guys do. I look at it as, regardless of who you're playing with, if Flory's in the game or Bryson or Tre, what are we doing to give ourselves the best chance to win that possession? And we're playing like there's always time left and that's not how you win on the road."

On the difficulties of conference play:

"First of all, our league is a b****. That's one thing. Secondly, the way that I see this isn't that we can't have a terrific team, isn't that we can't get it flipped. The one thing that we have to know is, much like last year's team and the year before too, not so much the year before that, we were a No. 1 seed, is that margin for error isn't like it used to be. We're not bringing pros in off the bench. Let's just call it like it is. That's not an excuse, because the guys out there are good enough, but the margin for error isn't. If Markieff and Marcus want to take a couple possessions off and give up a couple of threes. You know what? You got to play a lot harder than that but our Jimmy's were better than your Joes."