Kansas’ Bill Self enjoys return to coaching in Bahamas: ‘It felt great to be out there’

Bill Self normally is tempted to hit the snooze on his alarm when awakened in the early a.m. hours.

Not Wednesday.

“I’m excited about being here,” he said after the No. 3-ranked Jayhawks’ 80-74 victory over North Carolina State in a first-round Battle 4 Atlantis game. “Usually, at 7 o’clock when I get the wake-up call (for early-morning tipoffs), I usually don’t jump out of bed.

“I kind of did today because I was excited about what was getting ready to happen.”

Self, KU’s 20th-year men’s basketball coach, coached his first game of the regular season Wednesday at Imperial Arena in the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas.

“It felt great to be out there,” he said.

Self had sat out four games, all wins, to open the 2022-23 campaign as a self-imposed penalty in relation to the NCAA’s investigation into KU basketball. Assistant Norm Roberts was acting head coach in those wins over Omaha, North Dakota State, Duke and Southern Utah.

Thanks to a freshman, Self’s eyes were wide open from the start of Wednesday’s contest. Guard Gradey Dick drilled six threes in the first half en route to a career-high 25 points on 7-of-17 shooting (6-of-12 from three, 5-of-5 from line).

Dick’s six threes in the first half were the second most by any Jayhawk in a half in KU history. Jeff Boschee hit seven threes in one half against Kansas State on March 9, 2000.

Terry Brown holds the record for most threes in a game in KU history. He hit 11 against North Carolina State in 1991. Dick went 6-of-9 from three in the first half, one in which the Jayhawks went 9-of-14 from long range to take a 39-31 lead. Kansas was 10-of 21-from three for the game; N.C. State 8-of-22.

“We played him too many minutes I think. I think his legs left him a little bit,” Self said. Dick played 35 minutes.

“He is a terrific shooter. He really didn’t do much the second half but made a great cut and made his free throws,” Self added.

Dick, who said he thinks he once hit 10 threes at Sunrise Christian Academy last season, scored on a reverse layup with with 2:50 left to give KU a 74-68 lead.

“I get a kick all the time out of fans (who say), ‘Work on your free throws; work on your free throws.’ I don’t really coach free throws, but it is nice when No. 4 (Dick) shoots them. You kind of take that for granted. When he shoots three (free throws) you think he’s going to make all three. That obviously helped us,” Self said.

Dick sank three free throws to up a six-point lead to 58-49 at 11:14.

“He started the game for us. He played great. We needed that. He got the crowd involved,” forward Jalen Wilson said of Dick’s early effort.

“He’s a sharpshooter, has no conscience. That’s what we need, someone confident shooting the ball. We want him to shoot the three every single time he can. When he gets going, getting cuts … we need him to play like that,” Wilson added.

Of his quick start, Dick said: “I just shoot it. I’ve got a short-term memory so once I saw the first one go in I started getting them up. My boys were finding me. I just played my game.”

Wilson played the 5-man late after KJ Adams fouled out (with eight points, five rebounds). Wilson scored 19 points on 5-of-15 shooting (1 of 5 threes; 8 of 12 free throws) with 11 rebounds. Dajuan Harris had 14 points and six assists with three steals. Kevin McCullar had 11 rebounds and 10 points.

Quick guards Casey Morsell, Terquavian Smith and Jarkel Joiner had 21, 19 and 17 points respectively for N.C. State, which dropped to 4-1.

“That’s the quickest team we’ll play on the perimeter all year long,” Self said. “I don’t know from a raw speed standpoint if we’ll play a team as quick as those guards. We are athletic but not jet-quick. We had to be turned up to stay in front of them.”

KU will next meet Wisconsin at 10 a.m. Thursday in a semifinal. The Badgers edged Dayton 43-42 on Wednesday.

Self will coach that game, too.

“It’s great to have him back, great to have a Hall of Famer in our corner,” Dick said.