Men’s basketball completed its regular season 22-9 overall and 12-6 in the Big 12, with a No. 3 seed in the conference tournament and national ranking of 14. With NCAA tourney time at hand—the Jayhawks will take on California Baptist on Friday in the first round—Crimson & Blue has compiled a timely selection of press conference commentary from Coach Bill Self and his Jayhawks to offer fans an outlook for March and beyond.
1.
In the Jayhawks’ final meeting with the press ahead of the Big 12 Tournament, Coach Bill Self was asked to address “rumors and speculation” that hint, yet again, at his possible retirement. “Are you feeling good?” The Hall of Famer replied, with his trademark wry smile, “I’m feeling fine today. I appreciate your concern.”
Self continued, “There are a lot of things out there that … all it takes is for one person to say, and then it’s your job to follow up on that one person. But I wouldn’t believe what the social media internet is saying. I actually feel pretty good, and now I’m really excited about the next, hopefully, several few weeks.”
When asked whether he still carries the same passion for tournament season 23 years into his KU tenure, Self answered, “Is it still enjoyable? Just so you know, if it’s not, then I would quit. March is the best time of year for me. March would rank ahead of Christmas for me. This is what we love to do, what we live for.”
2.
Asked about growing speculation that sophomore forward Flory Bidunga, the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, could declare himself eligible for the NBA draft, Self confirmed that Bidunga has played himself into position to at least consider the jump. “To me, he’s the most versatile and best defender in our league, and there’s some other good ones too,” Self said. Shutting down any possible transfer speculation, Self added, “I’m not concerned about anything else, if that’s what you’re asking.”
Self noted that, in the modern NIL world, all players have agents, and those agents could be “putting feelers out there” merely in the hopes of getting “a better deal at the school that you’re at. There’s way too much read into a lot of this stuff. I’m not saying it can’t be true, but the reality of it is, a lot of stuff takes place without players actually knowing about it.”
3.
Senior guard Melvin Council Jr., a breakout star in his only season at Kansas, has repeatedly said he is exploring the possibility of filing an appeal for the NCAA to grant him one more year of college eligibility, adding that he thinks his appeal’s chance of success would be 50-50. And if the appeal were successful, would he turn his back on the NBA draft and stay at Kansas? “I love this place,” Council said March 10. “If we weren’t to go as far as we think we should, and I think we could do it next year, why not come back and do it?”
And how might the Jayhawks go as far as they think they should? “I’ll probably say we have to play to our strength,” Bidunga said March 10. “I feel we are showing that we can beat everybody in the country, but if we don’t get to our strength, then everybody can beat us, as well. So I think that needs to be the big difference.”
Superstar freshman Darryn Peterson, projected to go No. 1 overall in the NBA draft, even hinted Feb. 23 in the postgame euphoria following KU’s 69-56 victory over Houston that—gasp!—he might return too. “I love Kansas and I love everything about being here, and I love my team,” Peterson said. As teammates seated nearby began softly chanting “One more year,” Peterson, grinning, continued, “Maybe one more year. I might run it back.”
4.
Council, who proudly sports the nickname “Dawg,” on Feb. 5 revealed his amazement at what he discovered inside Allen Fieldhouse: “We have the best fans in the country. Coach said so on my visit, and I didn’t believe him. You know, all coaches try to sell a kid a dream, but these fans are unbelievable.” Council shared that he anticipated being a hit with fans—“I will say that my smile was going to go a long way”—and said he’s comfortable as a team leader who can help instill a fighting spirit in his teammates. “I’m the keys to the car. That dawg is gonna start with me.”
5.
Team leadership is always a topic on Self’s mind, especially as he tries to get his best players to be more vocal, on the court and off. For this year’s team, Self said he was uncertain whether he could point to one, especially with Peterson repeatedly missing games with an unlucky run of injuries.
“With our best teams, I always thought we did it by committee,” Self said Feb. 16. “You can go back to ’08, a lot of people said Russell (Robinson) was the leader; he was one of the most quiet guys on our team. And you go back to ’22, who was our leader in ’22? They all were. You could make a case that David McCormack probably was as much as anybody. So this one, I don’t think anybody’s really emerged to the point where it’s natural, but I think Melvin is the closest thing to it. … You know, you’d love for it to be Darryn, but Darryn hadn’t been in a position where he’s been out there enough yet that he feels comfortable in doing anything like that.”
6.
Asked on Feb. 26 to discuss what appeared to be obvious coaching challenges thrust on him and his staff this season, given the national spotlight on Peterson’s inconsistent appearances, Self replied, “One thing about this team that minimizes the so-called challenges is that they all like each other. They’re fun to be around. There have been some teams that maybe weren’t as much fun to be around, that we didn’t talk about publicly, but that creates chemistry (problems) and creates other things that are challenges. But this team really does like each other. I don’t see this as being a bigger challenge than other years; it’s just, whatever our challenges have been, they’ve just been fairly well documented.”
Self continued, “I had high expectations for this bunch. I don’t know that I expected the collective group to maybe improve as much, individually, as what a lot of them have, or all of them have, but I still think that the high expectations that I had before the season are 100% still in play. But, are we there yet? No, not there yet.”
7.
The new docuseries “Made for March”—which features unprecedented behind-the-scenes access to the Jayhawks’ high-stakes 2025-’26 basketball season—begins streaming on Paramount+ April 4. For the first time, cameras have followed two NCAA Division I teams across an entire season, capturing the intensity, pressure and passion on the road to and through the postseason.
Watch the official “Made for March” trailer:
Chris Lazzarino, j’86, is associate editor of Crimson & Blue.
