LAWRENCE — When analyzing one of his player’s performances, Bill Self often turns to a philosophy he learned at a young age, long before his Hall of Fame head coaching career tipped off.
“My dad used to always tell me this: If you have to make shots to play well, then you’re not really a player, you’re a shooter,” Self said Thursday on his weekly “Hawk Talk” radio show. “If you have to make shots to play well, there’s got to be other ways that you can help a team win if you don’t make shots.”
With the biggest test of Kansas basketball’s season on the horizon, a pair of slumping Jayhawks would be well-served to heed that wisdom.
Starting guards Christian Braun and Jalen Wilson were unable to find traction in last Tuesday’s 75-70 defeat at Oklahoma State. Braun finished that contest with seven points on 3-for-7 shooting, three rebounds and no assists in 25 minutes, while Wilson netted just four points on 2-for-7 shooting, five rebounds and three assists in 32 minutes.
Perhaps most telling, neither player was on the court when KU was at its best.
Both guards were benched with the Jayhawks trailing 65-49 and 9:15 left to play, and by the time Wilson checked back in with 2:12 remaining, KU had clawed all the way back to take a 68-67 advantage. Braun finally returned for the game’s final 17 seconds.
Self opted to give that playing time to sophomore Tristan Enaruna and true freshman Bryce Thompson, the former averaging 10.2 minutes per game and the latter coming off an injury and making his first in-game appearance since Dec. 22.
Why, then, did Self opt for those personnel moves?
“I’ll be honest with you,” he explained, “I wasn’t thinking that the other two (Wilson and Braun) had anything going positively at all.”
Wilson turned it over three times against the Cowboys, who outscored the Jayhawks by 17 when the redshirt freshman was on the court. Braun was a total nonfactor, adding a block, a steal and a turnover to his ledger. The two combined to hit just 1 of 8 tries from 3-point range.
Self said he believes Braun and Wilson will “be fine” in the long-run, though he reiterated his stance that both can contribute more from aggressiveness and athleticism standpoints.
“That doesn’t mean you have to be a jet-quick athlete, but that means you have to be turned up and thinking quick and reacting and being instinctive and things like that,” Self said, “and I don’t think that our team, and I’m not just saying anyone particular individual, I don’t think our team played with that the other day.”
Arguably the Jayhawks’ best player across the team’s first 11 contests, Wilson has struggled to keep that pace throughout the last two games. In a 63-59 victory over Oklahoma on Jan. 9 at Allen Fieldhouse, Wilson committed seven turnovers and finished with just nine points, though he did snag 11 rebounds and hit two late 3s. The 6-foot-8, 215-pounder is now averaging 13.8 points on 48% shooting with 7.8 rebounds and two assists per game.
Braun, meanwhile, has been in a more prolonged skid. Thought to be KU’s best shooter entering the season, the 6-6, 205-pounder has reached double-figure scoring just twice across the Jayhawks’ last seven games, a stretch that has seen the sophomore average 7.9 points and shoot 28.2% on 33 attempts from beyond the arc. For the season, Braun is at 10.2 points, 5.6 rebounds and two assists per game with a 40.5% clip on field goal tries and a 37.1% mark from 3-point range.
“I think I just need to hit shots, shoot the ball better,” Braun said. “All that takes (is to) just keep shooting. I can’t go away from that. I know I’m a good shooter and they’re going to fall eventually. I’ve just got to keep putting ’em up.”
Wilson and Braun will both look to break their funks at 8 p.m. Monday when KU travels to No. 2-ranked Baylor. The undefeated Bears are already two games up on the Jayhawks (10-3, 4-2 Big 12) in the loss column in the race for the league championship.
“We put ourselves in a position where we can’t have any more slip-ups,” Braun said. “There are a lot of good Big 12 teams this year and we dropped two early. Like I said, we can’t have any more slip-ups. We’ve just got to win out from here.”
Speaking Friday, Self said he doesn’t believe Braun is in a shooting slump, instead arguing that the Burlington native has simply missed shots. The same could be said of Wilson, who has “made plenty of big ones” for the Jayhawks this season, Self added.
Self then again referenced his father’s advice — and how it applies to the scuffling duo.
“My father, that’s one of the first things he ever told me. He said, ‘Oh, so you play good if you make shots (and) you play bad if you don’t? Wow, that takes a lot of courage,’ ” Self recalled. “How are you going to help a team win when things aren’t going that way? I do think that Jalen and CB can both do more in that regard, but I’m not worried about their shot, not at all.”
NO. 6 KANSAS AT NO. 2 BAYLOR
Tipoff: 8 p.m. Monday, Ferrell Center, Waco, Texas
Records: Kansas 10-3, 4-2 Big 12; Baylor 12-0, 5-0 Big 12
Line: TBD
TV/radio: ESPN/KWIC-FM (99.3) (Topeka)
Up next for KU: at Oklahoma, 11 a.m. Saturday, Lloyd Noble Center, Norman, Okla.
