What Kansas HC Bill Self Said After Jayhawks Advanced in Big 12 Tournament

Kansas' performance in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Tournament was far from pristine, but it was enough to outlast TCU coming off a back-to-back. The Jayhawks advanced to the semifinals of the tournament for the first time since 2023 and will play Houston tonight with a chance to advance to the championship round.

Following the victory, head coach Bill Self spoke to the media about his squad's win. These are all the notable quotes that Self had to say leading into the matchup with UH.

On his general comments about the game:

"Well, it was a hard game. We didn't play our best by any stretch, but we were pretty good early, and then kind of let it get away from us. But TCU is good, and they did some good things. The thing that we did best, obviously, was get fouled and shoot free throws, so that was great to see. We have to be better tomorrow night. It was kind of one of those games, survive and advance games. It's good it ended up the way it did."

On why he thought the game was "ugly:"

"Well, you know, you've got the game won and make it interesting late. And we didn't shoot the ball well. Usually, when you don't shoot the ball, it tends to look that way a lot. And then we went through stretches where we didn't rebound it defensively. But all in all, I've had a lot of losses in which we probably visually look better. And I'd certainly prefer the result tonight than those games."

On Darryn Peterson driving to the rim more often than usual:

"Well, I think people are going to try to take away his shots off the catch. So with that being said, a lot of stuff he's gotta do is off the bounce. And I think tonight, from my vantage point, in one-on-one situations, he was far better as far as getting shoulders past people and going to score, and that tells me that, he can always do that, but it just tells me his body's feeling better. So that's a very positive sign."

On Flory Bidunga's impact:

"Well, you know, he's +31 in a close game. And when he came out, we just weren't as good, bottom line. So to me, he's the best defender in the league. To me, he's the best defender in the country. And I don't know that he really had a chance to play to that tonight as much because it's hard playing to that whenever you have two fouls with 12 minutes left in the half or whatever. But, yeah, I thought he was really good."

On how he will prepare his team for Houston:

"Well, you know, that game doesn't really mean anything. I think, moving forward, I'm sure Kelvin wanted to play Kansas. I would if I were him. And we love the opportunity to play the best in our league, and they certainly have been the best, or right there, over the last three years in which they've been in the league. So we'll be excited. We'll get back and have dinner around 12:30 and start the scout tomorrow. But tomorrow's game, I don't know if it will be as much about scouting as it will be who wants the ball more."

On Peterson playing all 20 minutes in the second half:

"I didn't even think of taking him out tonight, so, you know, it's been, a month ago, you may try to limit his minutes to the point where he could still feel good down the finish line. But I don't know, I can't speak for Darryn, but I would think that over the last two or three weeks, his body's felt a lot better."