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Also see our Daily Threads, February 4, and the News Digest for Yesterday, February 3, as well as Daily Threads for Yesterday, February 3

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Newell: KU basketball coach Bill Self says Texas defeat 'not the end of earth' ↗

WACO, Texas — Bill Self believes he’s learned from a year ago.

His Kansas basketball team was in a similar situation then. The Jayhawks started the season 7-0 in Big 12 play before losing their first conference game at home to Oklahoma State.

Dodd: Kansas’ Self takes different approach to first conference loss ↗

One year later, Bill Self knows it was a mistake.

It was last February, in the moments after Kansas’ loss to Oklahoma State at Allen Fieldhouse, and Self had slipped into Rip Mode during his postgame news conference. He groused about not having a point guard. He called his players soft. In the span of nearly 10 minutes, his frustration turned into an honest evisceration of his veteran-laden team.

Bill Self tells Seth Davis he's not interested in coaching in the NBA ↗

Davis, a college basketball reporter for Sports Illustrated and CBS Sports, brought up the NBA to Self during a 30-minute interview with the KU coach, and began the discussion by mentioning how the Boston Celtics lured Brad Stevens away from Butler, even though few college coaches are sought after by NBA front offices these days.

** Don’t panic: Self steadies ship after loss as KU preps for Baylor ↗**

Kansas University basketball coach Bill Self gave his Jayhawks a bit of a pep talk this week following their first loss in Big 12 Conference play.

“I told our team, ‘Guys, you weren’t going to run the table and might not lose just one, may not lose just two, who knows?”’ Self said Monday, referring to his frank message to the 2013-14 Jayhawks, a bit shell-shocked after Saturday’s 81-69 setback against Texas in Austin.

Also see our Daily Threads, February 4, and the News Digest for Yesterday, February 3, as well as Daily Threads for Yesterday, February 3

This has been another awesome year of Kansas Basketball. 5 starters gone from a Sweet 16 team, yet here we are in the top 10 and leading the Big 12 Conference. There is a lot more to feel good about than bad. Been a long time since we have had a losing season in basketball. Enjoy the view from the top. Losses will happen, but so do many, many wins. We have a wonderful program, and we are everybody's Super Bowl.

http://t.co/y7U4HdjYop ↗

Bill Self might have just said "I don't give a #$%*($# about the NBA right now" to Seth Davis. But i don't think he's leaving.

Why do losses like Texas feel like the end of the earth?

Baylor suddenly worries me. Memory is still fresh of the pounding we took last year in the conference tournament. We love to beat up on Scott Drew but he's been close to the Final 4 twice I believe so he is doing something right.

Heslip raining threes tonight with an amped up home crowd on a team that almost can't lose again and stay alive for a ticket to the dance means there's no rest for our Hawks tonight.

If we shoot 57% against them like we did last time and make 26 of 29 FTs means we will start a new winning streak.

This team is too young to rest on its' laurels. Texas taught us that.

After such a bad loss I thought we'd drop out of the top 10.

I do believe firmly we are as good a bet as any team to win it all.

@wissoxfan83 KU won the big 12 tournament last year. But did get waxed by Baylor in Waco.

@wissoxfan83 @dylans : It was the year before when Baylor beat us in the conference tourney. The same year those one morons won it (conference tourney) and then got embarrassed by Norfolk State.

Last season, Self implodes, throws EJ under the bus, and has a complete meltdown after a close home loss to a very good OSU team. We lose the next two in a row, including an inexplicable loss at TCU. Big mistake. One of the few big mistakes Self has mad in 11 seasons. That stuff will happen sometimes.

This time, we play a much worse game, get hammered, and Self plays it cool. The world did not end.

I'm liking door number 2.

Self said, "I tell our guys, ‘Hey, just try not to let one become two, two become three.’ We’ve been in situations in the league where we’ve had three to four losses, and the leader had two or three. We’ve needed a little help, and it seems to me in this league the help usually comes because people lose away from home. I don’t think it’s a panic-mode deal at all."

Exactly.

I am scared about our weaknesses as I always am. We are a pretty soft team and a streaky shooting team but we play with heart and have a ton of talent. The way the season is shaping up is great, though as far as seeding for the NCAA is concerned. I would love to get a 2 or a 3 seed and play with a chip on our shoulder but still get a relatively easy first round...if those exist.

@HighEliteMajor

I'm with you on that.

Maybe this time he'll give them the carrot... instead of the whip!

Tonight's outcome is a simple equation:

Effort = Victory

Jogging = Loss

@dylans Can't believe my memory is wrong.

Sorry @wissoxfan83 meant to reply and accidentally edited your post. I paraphrased you above as I deleted the original post.

Happens. I was at the Big 12 tournament last season. It was freakin' awesome! Saw a few former players and learned exactly how whiny ISU fans are.

I had never been around ISU fans before - all white and mostly middle aged. These suckers whined the whole KU - ISU game about fouls in that game and the previous two match-ups between KU and ISU. After KU beat ISU and advanced to the championship game against KSU, many of the ISU fans were back. They didn't really root for KSU, but just b***hed the whole time about the officiating. I got to hear a running total of all supposed missed calls against KU. Interestingly enough the refs never blew a call on the other teams, they only messed up in KU's favor.

@wissoxfan83

Baylor wins not because of Scot Drew but in spite of him. Over the last few years, Baylor has had as much or more talent than just about every team in the conference and they have almost always managed to underachieve. Baylor plays better when Drew is suspended and the Assistants are running the team.

How about this statistic from last night's game:

The game went 3 OTs so there were 55 minutes of play and 275 available minutes.

ISU played a total of 8 players but the top 6 players played 259 minutes and Niang fouled out and did not play the 3 OTs

OSU played a total of 8 players and the top 6 players played 271 minutes.

Talk about short benches. I am sure the players are glad they have until Saturday to recover and they are both playing the two bottom teams in the conference. This is not good at tournament time when you play every other day and an injury to a starter can be devastating.

@JayHawkFanToo

That was a heck of a good game.

I loved the one call where Kane drove on Smart, Smart flopped down, didn't get the call then started to get up while Kane drove over him... this time both players flopped but the foul was called on Smart. I actually thought he should have got the call that time...

And that other call where Smart faked it on the high elbow and the only call was a personal foul.

The refs are on to Smart.

Now.... getting the refs to realize Kane is just as bad.

@drgnslayr

Yes, it was a really good game indeed.

I believe the rules now indicate that once the offensive player start his movement, the defensive player cannot get in position to get a charge. Since Kane never stopped moving, Smart had no chance to get in position to draw a charge. This is one aspect of the rule that different referees enforce differently.

On the other flop that was called a personal foul, I am still not sure what happened. The referees went to the monitor and then OSU in bounded the ball from the sideline when they were already in the bonus situation and should have been shooting free throws; was the foul call rescinded? Go figure.

@HighEliteMajor I can dig it.

@JayHawkFanToo : I replied in yesterdays thread to this but I think they deemed the Smart elbowing flop as a "charge" or offensive foul so no free throws.

Tonight's game should be a good indicator on how well the team bounces back. At the beginning of the season. most of us probably penciled this game as a likely loss, but in view of how the conference play has developed, this is no longer the case.

However, Baylor is a dangerous team. They have height, talent and on a given game, outside shooting. If they get their outside shooting going early, this could be a long evening. The key is to neutralize Heislip outside shooting and Cory Jefferson inside. Use our bigs to pester Jefferson and either draw fouls or send him (and Rico "Suave" Gathers) to the line where he is not that good. Austin is a fairly passive player and I don't think he would take over a game.

A win by Baylor wold be huge boost to their moral and would put us on two game losing streak that would be worrisome. A win by KU and it is right back in full command of the conference and with a somewhat easier schedule ahead. The potential 3 tough games left after Baylor are against UT and OU at home and against a short handed OSU on the road,

@Kip_McSmithers

But, but, but...when you are in the bonus situation (which I believe both teams were). don't you shoot at least a one in one?

I don't know, maybe my recollection is not good and I did not record the game, oh well, I need to project positive energy to tonight's game; so much for OSU-ISU.

@approxinfinity Im nervous about this game. Think I'll dvr it and watch later. Coach was right last year though, we didn't have a point guard. Not at that time we didn't. Hindsight is always 20/20 and he knows he cant rip his team like that this year. He is a very smart guy, obviously emotionally intelligent too because he senses this years team needs to be approached differently. I just hope he can pull the right strings at the right time with these guys because they wont last a single round in March playing like they did at Texas.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaab-the-dagger/marcus-smart-earned-reputation-college-basketball-most-notorious-170457405--ncaab.html ↗ ↗

Live blog is up ↗ to join the CJ/KUbuckets crew ...

@JayHawkFanToo No freethrows on charge calls, regardless of the bonus situation.

@dylans

You are correct, for some reason I forgot that caveat.