What Kansas HC Bill Self Said After Jayhawks' Season Ended vs St. John's

Kansas had its season end in heartbreaking fashion on Sunday night, losing 67-65 to St. John's on a buzzer-beater. The Jayhawks finished the year with a 24-11 record and failed to make it out of the first weekend of March Madness for the fourth consecutive season.

Head coach Bill Self made his final media appearance of the campaign following his team's defeat. He touched on a number of topics, including whether he has a future in Lawrence beyond this year.

On his general thoughts about the loss:

"Well, the tournament is, one of the things that makes it so great is that it can be great, but it can also be cruel. And you know, we obviously put ourselves in a position to play from behind the whole game, and then really competed and played great down the stretch, and just didn't finish what we had started down the stretch. But certainly disappointed, sad for our guys, because they tried so hard. But you know, just a tough afternoon."

On Kohl Rosario's strong second half:

"Well, yeah, we tried to get our best defensive team in there. So that was why we did that. Obviously, it wasn't a very good effort on us the last, what was it, 3.9? We had to guard four bounces, and we didn't guard four bounces. So yeah, that was really disappointing. But Kohl did a great job. That's hard not to play and then be inserted in and do what he did in a short amount of time. I thought he was great."

On whether he plans to coach any longer:

"Well, I haven't really gone through much on the court. You know, I've gone through some stuff off the court. So I'll get back and get with family, and visit and see what's going on. I love what I do. You know, I need to be able to do it where I'm feeling good and healthy to do it, you know, fairly well. So I'll get back home and it'll all be discussed."

On how his team matched up with St. John's physically:

"I thought great after the start of the game. I thought the first five to seven minutes we didn't, and then after that, I thought we did very well. Zuby made the two plays late. You know, catches the ball in the dead corner with three on the shot clock, drives it and shoots a right-hand jump hook and scores. And then he makes the really good spin move late. Other than that, I thought, until the last play, I thought we defended them soundly. We rebounded it well. We offensive rebounded. They were playing a little bit like we were on Friday, just trying to get to the finish line. And we were more aggressive. And I wish we'd been that way earlier in the game."

On his decision to use all KU's fouls to give before the buzzer beater:

"Well, to use the clock, that's what I was thinking. I wish that when Kohl fouled the first time, he fouled in one second. I wish he could have just let him hold it and foul with five seconds into it, so now, you've got a situation where maybe there's not 3.9, maybe there's 2.0 or 1.5. But our whole deal was, with only two team fouls, why wouldn't you go ahead and foul in that situation? We left them too much time. But regardless of that, gotta guard three or four bounces, and we didn't do it."

On if he felt this team ever got into a rhythm together:

"Well, I didn't think we ever got rhythm offensively the whole year. You know, it's one thing to get rhythm, but it's another thing, when you go against teams like Houston and Arizona and St. John's that guard differently than the other teams guard you. So it's a little easier to get rhythm when you're comfortable. And the key to, you know, having rhythm is doing it when you're put under duress, and I didn't think we handled that very well at all. At the end, we were aggressive and played to athletic ability and went and made athletic plays, which was great. But certainly a frustrating year would be probably too much to say. But it's certainly a year that didn't seem like it was nothing about it was very smooth. Seemed like, to me, we were having to adjust on the fly quite a bit."

On Darryn Peterson's performance and reflecting on his time in Lawrence:

"Well, I thought he played well, and I thought he played really hard. The thing about it is, when you guard as well and as hard as what St. John's does, those shots are hard shots. And you switch coming off every screen and all that stuff. Those are hard plays. I thought he competed hard. I was really proud of his effort. You know, he's had moments where he's looked great and moments where obviously his health didn't allow him to play like we all know he's capable of playing. But I hope the year was enjoyable for him. I know I enjoyed being around him an awful lot."

On the current state of his health:

"I don't know about completely [healthy]. But I'm feeling, I feel as good as I've felt in a long time. And I'm not making any statements whatsoever, but every year, I think, it used to be you work, when you get to be doing it as long as I've done it, I look at it in five-year increments. Now, I'm probably looking at it in more two-year increments, so to speak. So I try to focus on this season and trying to get us to a second weekend, which we failed at. So I'll go back now and break it down and see where that leads."

On the outlook of the roster before the offseason:

"Well, you know, you're going to have to figure out who's staying, who's not staying, portal. I just think in today's time, the next four to six weeks will be indicative to the question that was asked earlier is, how can you improve yourself moving forward? The next four to six weeks will be the most important time to do that."