During his regular, weekly press conference to preview the Jayhawks’ upcoming game against Colorado, Kansas basketball coach Bill Self dove a little deeper into the idea of what finding consistency means to him.
This Kansas team, which sits at 16-7 overall, 7-5 in Big 12 play and No. 17 in Monday’s latest Associated Press Top 25 poll, has had fits of inconsistency throughout the season.
As a team, as individuals and on both ends of the floor.
And never more clearly than in the past 20 days, when the Jayhawks have alternated wins and losses dating back to a road win at TCU on Jan. 22.
Sure, finding consistency has to do with playing hard, limiting turnovers, taking good shots and making the right play.
But, in many ways, Self and countless others believe those things should be automatic. Especially in mid-February.
What Self is looking for — and, therefore, what he is hoping his players are searching for, as well — has more to do with philosophy and approach than execution. And the foundation of what he hopes this team finds is based on an age-old concept.
Building habits.
Self said he and his staff tell the Jayhawks that studies have shown that if you do something for 18 days in a row it becomes a habit.
But because of the Jayhawks win-loss-win-loss routine lately, they’ve had to hit the reset button well before they reach that magic number.
For instance, at best Monday was Day 2 of building back toward better habits, following the Jayhawks’ tough loss at Kansas State on Saturday.
To illustrate his point about good habits and how they can favorably impact a team, Self used the example of running “22s” – down and back sprints in 22 seconds — and said that if a player shows he can do it in 17 seconds one time and then does the next five sprints in 22 seconds, it’s up to the coaches to hold them to the standard of that faster time.
“That’s what I think we’ve got to get,” Self emphasized on Monday. “Consistent energy effort. It doesn’t mean you’re not trying. But that all starts way before practice starts. We’ve still got a ways to go before it becomes habitual. Can it be done? Absolutely. It should’ve been done before now, but we gotta get it done starting right now.”
The rest of this season, and how the Jayhawks perform from here on out, which starts at 8 p.m. Tuesday night against Colorado on ESPN2, likely comes down to one very simple thing — how close they can collectively get to buying into the Bill Self brand of basketball.
That may sound simple and like something that should’ve been addressed months ago. But, remember, a lot of these guys are new faces going through this with Self as their coach for the first time.
It’s one thing to run the offense or learn the plays — a struggle in and of itself for some guys so far this season — but it’s something completely different to prove you understand the foundation of what Self believes wins.
He acknowledged that there are likely things that he and his coaching staff can do to tweak this or tweak that to reach a desired outcome and manufacture energy and success on any given day.
But he also made it clear that he doesn’t think that’s the solution. If they have to push those buttons every time — change up the pregame meal, restructure the practice schedule, show a timely video that explains a particularly lesson or point of emphasis, etc. — what happens during the times when the button-pushing doesn’t work? Do they revert to old habits? Do they become more lost than they were before? Does the frustration grow?
All are possibilities.
And that’s why, like it or not, Self believes the foundation still has to be firmly set. No matter how late in the season it is.
“Can we get hot? Absolutely,” Self said. “Can we play our best moving forward? Absolutely. But we need to develop some habits before we get there. I’m not gonna make excuses for us because we’ve shown that we can play at a higher level.”
Beating Duke, taking Houston to the wire, holding Iowa State to 52 points in a convincing win at home are examples of reaching that higher level.
“That, to me, is the bar,” Self said Monday.
And no matter what it takes to reach it, Self still believes there’s only place to start.
“The reality of it is, we need to enjoy playing for each other as much as (thinking) how do we do something to try to create this moment at this one time,” Self said Monday. “I think a lot of that is just from within, playing for each other and just having a general idea of this is who we are, this is how we play, this is how we compete and we like doing it and we like doing it with each other.”
How close is this team to getting to that point?
It depends. Last Monday night, after the win over Iowa State, Self believed they were pretty close. But the past two Saturdays, after a collapse at Baylor and a no-show against Kansas State, he said it felt “miles away.”
“I watched something the other day (that said) when you have great teams, they’re comfortable being uncomfortable,” Self explained. “And I don’t think we’re quite to the point where we’re comfortable being uncomfortable yet.”
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