Bill Self wants Kansas to ‘react like men’ after getting embarrassed at Iowa State

Saturday didn’t go as planned for Kansas basketball, a the red-hot Jayhawks saw their winning streak stifled in a blowout 74-56 loss to Iowa State in Ames. Of course, there’s no shame in losing on the road against Iowa State; many Big 12 teams will fall victim to the same fate this season. However, it was a poor showing for one of the hottest teams in the country.

Self and company will take this loss hard, but the legendary head coach has been around long enough to know that this isn’t uncommon in such a talented league full of so many good teams. After the game, Self talked about the depth of the Big 12 and detailed how he wants his team to respond to this poor performance, via Joshua Schulman of Sports Illustrated.

“In this league? Guys, it’s a good chance it’s going to happen again,” Self said. “It’s a good chance Iowa State will lose again. It’s a good chance Arizona will lose again. This league is good, and especially away from home. So, how do you think we’ll react? God, I hope we react like men, because in February, when you play conference games and you play away from home, there’s a great chance even the best teams leave unhappy. So we just can’t let one become two.”

Self knows all about the difficulty of winning in the Big 12, with 16 Big 12 regular season titles and eight Big 12 Tournament titles on his resume with the Jayhawks. On Monday night, Kansas knocked off top-ranked Arizona at home, so it’s clear that this Kansas team is capable of big things.

Self and company will get to stew on this one for a few days before a tricky road test in Stillwater against Oklahoma State, a bubble team in desperate need of a win, on Wednesday night. Following that game, the Jayhawks will host Cincinnati on Saturday, so this is a good spot in the schedule for Kansas to reset and get back on track before tough games against Houston and Arizona to close out the February slate.

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