April 4, 2022 was a significant day for folks in Lawrence, Kansas. First and foremost, it was the date of the 2022 NCAA Men’s Basketball National Championship Game between their beloved Jayhawks and fellow blue-blood North Carolina.
After going into the locker room trailing 40-25, the Jayhawks erased a school 16-point deficit to defeat North Carolina in the largest comeback win in championship game history.
As wonderful as the memories of that night are for KU, they also point to the last time the Kansas basketball truly looked like Kansas basketball.
There were glimpses of it in 2023, but even that season ended with an early exit in the NCAA Tournament.
From 2003-2022, Bill Self’s Kansas teams had never finished worse than third in the Big 12 standings and had won the league 16 of a possible 19 times, including 14 straight conference titles from 2004-2017. In that time, the Jayhawks suffered five or more losses in Big 12 play just four times.
Dating back to the start of the 2022-23 season, Kansas has a gone, 13-5, 10-8, and is currently 8-6 in the Big 12, giving them a combined record of 31-19 in the conference over three seasons. The Jayhawks have been knocked out of the tournament in the second round in back-to-back seasons, and as of this week, they certainly aren’t playing like a team primed for some magical run.
Is the Bill Self era starting to come to a close? To no fault of his own, Self has had to deal with serious health issues over the past couple of seasons, but his team, even in a brutal Big 12 conference, just doesn’t look like it used to.
For two decades, Self’s program was a model of excellence and consistency, but through the past two seasons, they’ve been anything but.
After their most recent head-scratcher, a 74-67 loss to Utah, the Jayhawks are 5-5 in their last 10 games and are currently tied for fifth place in the Big 12 standings.
As one of the most prominent programs in the sport, Kansas’ struggles have become a major talking point. On a recent episode of The Field of 68 Podcast, Jeff Goodman posed an interesting question.
“Would it shock you to see Bill Self retire?” Goodman asked.
It seemed like a stale talking point, at first, but John Fanta’s response made it a lot more interesting.
“I think this might be it for him,” Fanta told the crew.
Goodman closed out with, “I’ll put it this way, I would not be shocked if Bill Self says, ‘you know what, I’m good.'”
Now, Goodman has about as good of connections as you’ll find in college basketball, but there hasn’t been any indication that Self is going to hang it up after the season. But, as he points out, it’s not the craziest idea in the world.
What do you think? Should Kansas start preparing for life after Bill Self? Let us know in the member forum!
