Former Villanova basketball coach Jay Wright has nice things to say about KU Jayhawks
Former Villanova basketball coach Jay Wright, who directed the Wildcats to a pair of NCAA championships (2016 and 2018), called Kansas “a championship-caliber team” after the Jayhawks’ 75-71 victory over Indiana on Saturday at Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Indiana.
“To be a championship team you’ve got to be able to go on the road and understand that you are going to be down, (that) the opponent is going to play at a different level against you. It can’t impact you. Stick with what you are doing. That’s a championship-caliber team,” Wright, an analyst for CBS, said after the No. 2-ranked Jayhawks’ successful comeback from 13 points down.
“Don’t worry about how many points they win by,” Wright added from the CBS studio. “Can they win on the road in a tough environment when the other team is playing at the top of their game? Indiana played great.”
KU improved to 10-1 overall while the unranked Hoosiers, who are already 2-0 in the Big Ten, dropped to 7-3.
Like Wright, KU coach Bill Self is a two-time national champ (2008, 2022) and a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
“Jay is great,” Self said on Monday’s Hawk Talk radio show. “I talked to him after the game, not in relation to any of that (postgame commentary on CBS). I said, ‘I’m having trouble with this, what do you think?’ Jay said, ‘I always struggled with that, too,’ so basically he didn’t help me at all. I wanted him to help me with that.”
Self said that last part with a laugh, and he didn’t reveal what aspect of the game he sought the expertise of Wright on.
Could the topic have been KU’s bench? KU reserves Johnny Furphy, Jamari McDowell, Nick Timberlake and Parker Braun accounted for six points, four rebounds and two assists in 23 combined minutes against Indiana.
The Hoosiers’ bench (Anthony Walker, Kaleb Banks, CJ Gunn) had three points, five rebounds and one assist in 37 combined minutes.
“I thought Jamari did some nice things. He made a big shot (1-of-2 from 3), had a great pass to Hunter (Dickinson) when they went zone on one possession and got him a layup. He’s getting better. He’s just young,” Self said of freshman guard McDowell, who had three points, a rebound and an assist in eight minutes.
“I thought Nick (one rebound, one assist, 0-for-2 from 3 in six minutes) did better. He got in and competed, just didn’t make shots. The lid is going to come off for him anytime. When it does it will in a big way.”
Self added that Braun, two points in two minutes, “didn’t get to play much. He did fine.”
He offered a similar assessment of Furphy.
“Johnny (one point, two rebounds) played seven minutes. He did fine. I didn’t think he was as aggressive as he’s been in some other games,” Self said.
Self added the reserves’ value is more than providing points off the bench.
“I think sometimes we worry about some things that don’t have really the impact in winning as what we think it does,” Self said. “These guys all come from backgrounds (in which) they were scorers. Things were catered to them when they were the No. 1 option. I think if guys would concentrate on what gives us the best chance to win — ball and body movement, paying attention to scouting report, taking care of the basketball, rebounding the basketball, guarding your man — focusing on things that don’t require a skill to be good at, like shooting.
“Some guys want to play a lot. They want to get in the game and show they are ready to play a lot, (then) take two bad shots when they check in and boom they are done (for that game). Let’s maybe get Hunter a basket or Kevin (McCullar) a basket and really guard your man, play good team defense, play with great energy and enthusiasm. Those guys in those situations tend to stay in the game a lot longer than somebody that needs to make a shot in order to stay in.”
KU will next meet Yale at 7 p.m., Friday at Allen Fieldhouse.
