Kansas City, Mo. — Kansas coach Bill Self spoke to his team remotely during breakfast on Friday while the Hall of Famer continued to recover from an emergency medical procedure earlier this week, and told the Jayhawks that he needs to focus on his performance in the quarterfinals Proud. Big 12 Tournament.
His semi-final performance could have been even better.
Jalen Wilson had 25 points and 10 rebounds, Grady Dick made some key baskets in the second half to help Kansas regain control, and the third-ranked Jayhawks routed Iowa State 71–58. Took and went inside another. Win to defend your tournament title.
“It was great to talk to him and hear his voice,” Wilson said of Self, who went to the hospital on Wednesday night and is out for the tournament. He is very proud of the way we performed in the last match and I am sure he will be proud of us in this match.
Dick finished with 15 points for the top-seeded Jayhawks (27-6), who fell behind early in the second half before heading into Saturday night’s title game against defending champion No. 7 Texas.
Longtime assistant Norm Roberts, serving as acting coach, said Self was “doing much better.” It is still unknown whether he will be available when the Jayhawks begin their NCAA championship defense next week.
Roberts said, “We talked to him this morning, going over the game plan – how we wanted to guard, what we wanted to do – and he was good with it.” “He talked to us right after the game and was very excited about the way the guys played. He said, ‘Hey, we really guarded today.’ He was really happy for our guys.”
The Jayhawks were never threatened as they secured their spot in the title game.
“Our guys were excited to play, excited to play today,” Roberts said, “and we did a really good job defensively getting them out of whatever they wanted to do.”
