No. 1 in all-time victories, KU Jayhawks need more NCAA championships, Bill Self says
Kansas, which as a program has won the most Division I men’s college basketball games, enters the Final Four comfortably in front of fellow participants Villanova, Duke and North Carolina in overall victories.
The Jayhawks — who lead Kentucky by two on the all-time win list (2,355 to 2,353) — do not hold NCAA championship bragging rights, however.
Villanova, like KU, has secured three NCAA titles (Nova in 2016, 2018 and 1985; KU 2008, 1988, 1952), while Duke has five and North Carolina six.
“I started thinking about it today. I don’t want to put our program down, but Villanova has won a couple here recently,” KU coach Bill Self said Tuesday of KU’s Final Four opponent in a 5:09 p.m. Saturday semifinal at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.
“Duke has won a couple in the last decade or 11 years or whatever it’s been,” Self added of the Blue Devils, who won the tourney in 2015 and 2010 to go with earlier titles in 2001, 1992 and 1991.
“Hey, Carolina has won a couple in an amount of time,” Self continued of the Tar Heels winning in 2017, 2009, 2005, 1993, 1982 and 1957.
“So I do think for our program — it is without question one of the top programs in the country I mean nobody can debate that at all — but for it to be thought of it as the equal of anybody else’s, we’ve got to cut down nets on Monday night.
“We need to do more of that because we can stack up against anybody in any particular area but when you talk about total number of national championships we are behind obviously some of the other bluebloods that we compete with ... for the program and the historic nature of it, I think it certainly would add something very significant to it.”
UCLA has 11 NCAA men’s titles, followed by Kentucky (eight), UNC (six), Duke and Indiana (five), UConn (four), KU and Nova (three). Carolina, by the way, is third in all-time wins (2,322) and Duke fourth (2,246). Villanova is well back with 1,851 wins.
To reach Monday’s title game, KU must defeat a program that dealt the Jayhawks a significant defeat in the 2018 Final Four.
Villanova rolled over the Jayhawks 95-79 in San Antonio.
“I’ll be honest with you, after about the first four minutes of our first game I try to forget everything. We got punched in the mouth down there by Villanova without question. I do think there are a couple of things that I know personally that I made notes on and stuff I’ll try to handle differently down there than the way we handled it in San Antonio,” Self said.
Asked what the changes will be, Self smiled and said: “They are my notes. Not your notes.”
Self, who gave the Midwest Regional champion Jayhawks a day off Monday, will have practice Tuesday and an afternoon flight to New Orleans on tap for Wednesday, said the health of the squad currently is good.
Of senior forward David McCormack (sore right foot), Self said: “I do think he’s feeling as well as he has all year long. We certainly need him to be big on Saturday.”
Meanwhile, senior forward Mitch Lightfoot, who sprained his left knee in the Big 12 Tournament final against Texas Tech, told the media at Monday’s availability that he’s close to 100%.
“I’m good. I’m good. The knee’s good,” Lightfoot said. “I think against Miami (regional final on Sunday in which Lightfoot had nine points and three boards) is the first time I didn’t think about it. I forgot about it in the game. It’s kind of nice getting over that, getting back to playing my best ball.”
Villanova suffered a significant injury during its regional final win over Houston. Junior guard Justin Moore suffered a tear in his right Achilles’ tendon late in the contest.
“They obviously lost Justin and that’s certainly a blow to him and to their program and (I’m) so sad for him,” Self said. “But they’ve got capable guys. They’ll bring Daniels (Caleb, senior guard) in or whatever. They usually have five guards you’ve got to defend all the time on the perimeter.”
Self doesn’t plan any huge changes at this stage. He was asked Monday if he considered starting Remy Martin at the point in place of Dajuan Harris.
“No, no, no. We’ve done pretty well this year starting who we’ve started,” Self said. “Even though his (Martin’s) play definitely warrants starting, I still think it’s best for our team to have energy off the bench. It’s also best for the other guys and best for Juan to be a starter because Juan has been a point guard on a team that’s won 32 games (against six losses; Nova is 30-7). I don’t want to change that at all. I don’t look at it anything other than we have seven starters right now. That’s how I look at it.”
Self filled in the media on KU’s schedule for this week.
“We got back at 10:15 (p.m.) or whatever Sunday night (from Chicago after beating Miami) and had a little gathering (rally) in Allen Fieldhouse. The guys all enjoyed it,” Self said. “I hate to admit this, yesterday was a slow day. It wasn’t an off day by any stretch but a logistics day, whether tickets, hotels, outline media things. That was the focus with (watching) some tape, but not like today. I wanted to get everything done yesterday so we could focus on scouting and Villanova starting today.”
Asked if the players would be allowed to “explore” New Orleans, Self said: “I don’t think there’s going to be much exploration taking place. We’re going tomorrow. I think everybody else (other three teams) is as well. We’ll have a nice dinner as a team and let them do some things (but) if there is a walk through Bourbon Street it’ll be in the early hours and certainly with a curfew right after it.”
This story was originally published March 29, 2022 at 12:08 PM with the headline "No. 1 in all-time victories, KU Jayhawks need more NCAA championships, Bill Self says."
