Bill Self watched KU Jayhawks’ opener at home. Here’s what he thought about the game

Instead of watching from his regular perch on the Kansas basketball bench, Bill Self viewed Monday’s regular-season opener between Kansas and Omaha on a livestream feed from his West Lawrence abode.

Self, KU’s 20th-year head coach, has assigned assistant Norm Roberts the head coaching duties for the first four games of the 2022-23 season in response to a self-imposed suspension stemming from the NCAA’s three-year investigation into KU hoops. For the opener, Self made the best of it and enjoyed the two-hour hoops show.

“To be real honest with you, I thought there were a lot of good things that happened last night,” Self said of KU’s 89-64 victory over the Mavericks of the Summit League, played before 16,300 fans in Allen Fieldhouse.

“I liked our guys’ energy. I think in spurts we were really good. Forget about the score. Look at it as, ‘Did the ball move? Did you play with energy? Did you share it? Did the ball get where it needed to go?’ Those sorts of things. There were a lot of good things that happened.”

Self was speaking Tuesday night on his weekly Hawk Talk radio show, which took place after a film session with the team.

“I told the guys today, ‘We don’t guard, but we are a heck of a lot better defending than we were a week ago,’” Self said.

The Jayhawks, who hit 52.2% of their own shots, held Omaha to 64 points on 38.6% shooting. Omaha went 5-of-21 from three to KU’s 9-of-22 mark.

“We’ve got to tighten up our ball screen defense or it will not be very pretty early. I know we will. Last year we struggled with it until around Christmas. When we get better at that our defense will get a lot better, too,” Self said.

KU had several stellar individual performances in the opener.

Freshman guard Gradey Dick scored 23 points on 9-of-13 shooting (4-of-6 from three). Junior forward Jalen Wilson scored 19 points with 11 rebounds and seven assists. Sophomore backup point guard Bobby Pettiford had 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting, while starting PG Dajuan Harris had eight assists and 11 points.

Freshman forward KJ Adams grabbed nine rebounds, while freshman center Ernest Udeh had five points with five boards. Senior guard Kevin McCullar posted 10 points and two steals.

Self said, “You could make a case Gradey Dick was the best player on our team last night for a snippet. You could make a case for Jalen Wilson, KJ Adams, Bobby Pettiford, Juan and yet the guy who dominated the game more than anybody when we needed it the most was Kevin. We go up from seven (points) to 17 just like that (in second half). Kevin made every play during that stretch.

“I told the guys today even though it’s never going to be like that, you saw flashes of each one, what they can potentially do and be. That’s exciting to me. We are a long way away from being any good from what good standards look like. It’s encouraging (because) I think the pieces are there for us to have a pretty good ballclub before it’s all said and done.”

Self applauded his longtime friend and assistant coach Roberts for directing the victory.

“I thought Norm and the staff did great,” Self said. “ I thought the guys played hard. Their body language was good, all those things. I thought out of timeouts Norm got us easy shots a few times. That was good. We’ve always taken pride in that.

“I don’t like it at all,” Self added of having to tune in at home and not be part of the excitement on game day, “but I’ve got to do it for three more games. It’s the right thing to do. K.T. (Kurtis Townsend, assistant who is also out four games) does as well. Hopefully what happens on game day is a reflection of what happens in practice the other five days of the week.”

KU will next play North Dakota State at 7 p.m., Thursday, at Allen Fieldhouse. The teams met two seasons ago, and North Dakota State led KU a good portion of the game before ultimately falling, 65-61, at Allen Fieldhouse. NDSU is 0-1 in 2022-23 following Monday’s 76-58 loss to Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

“We can’t let them be comfortable in our building,” Self said. “We need to do a good job not letting them get in rhythm offensively. And we have to be patient to score. The way they guard it’ll get deeper in the shot clock.”