What did Bill Self say at Big 12 Media Day?

The annual Big 12 Media Day took place Wednesday at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, where Kansas basketball head coach Bill Self conducted a busy afternoon of interviews alongside players Dajuan Harris, KJ Adams and Hunter Dickinson.

Here’s everything Self had to say at the event.

INVOICE ITSELF: “Well, first of all, I’m happy to be here and looking forward to the season. It’s obviously going to be another great year for our league and expectations are high. I think the expectations are actually a little underestimated because I think that’s the case. “There are actually more great teams in our league than people are talking about. I think we have a better squad I don’t know for sure when you win games when you play the schedule you play. But if things go well and you can get lucky, obviously like everyone else, if the pieces fit the way I think they could, then I think this could potentially be one of our better teams.”

Q: There’s been a lot of talk about the Big 12 and SEC, which is the best conference in America. How difficult will it be to win in this league this year, especially with all the teams involved?

Himself: “Well, you know, you have five of the preseason top 10, and I was told earlier that that has never happened in a league. Then you have – you’ll have three or four other top 25 teams. “Whether they’re there now or not, they’ll be there at some point during the year. I’ve said this many times and we’ve had some success in the league that I feel like this year is probably going to be the most difficult of all the years we’ve had.

I can tell you that this will undoubtedly be the most difficult year to win our league, in large part due to the unbalanced scheduling depending on who you play at home and who you play on the road and who you play twice in these Things. But it will be a great league. I don’t think you look at it the way we might have before, that it’s a win-the-league-at-all-costs deal. I think you look at it more as if we could compete and be at the top of this league, we have a chance. Even though there will be disappointment if you don’t win, you better be prepared for disappointment because no one is going to come out on top.”

Q. There were some coaches, Tony Bennett just decided he didn’t want to coach today’s game anymore. We’ve seen some football coaches who’ve had enough of it. What do you think the state of college athletics is like right now and have you been able to adapt, manage and work with all the changes?

Himself: “Well, I don’t disagree with what anyone did and the reasons for it. I would say that at this point I don’t feel quite the way they feel. I do think it’s very uncertain.” The world we’re living in right now is going to balance out from a college athletics perspective, but I think so – I don’t know exactly what the formula is, but I think We’ll look at our sports and college athletics in a few years and it will feel and look different than it does now.

If you’ve been in the industry for three or four decades, I don’t know what industry anyone has been in that hasn’t seen significant changes over time. We’re going through one of those changes right now, and people probably aren’t that comfortable with the change, neither am I, but I think we’ll get through this and it’ll even out and we’ll be in a place in a short amount of time , where we feel much more comfortable.”

Q. If someone told you a few years ago that Texas and OU would be leaving your conference and the conference would be adding eight new schools from Phoenix to Orlando, what would you tell them? Would you have expected this a few years ago, or is this completely out of the blue?

Himself: “Well, I’ll tell you, I’ll say this: It was 12 years ago when all we worried about was whether we were going to be in a league. So I actually feel better about where we are now because I think the Big 12 is solid, more solid than it has been in a long time, and even though losing two brands like OU and Texas is obviously a success at first glance we replaced them with I I think, especially from a basketball perspective, I don’t think we’re going to go backwards in any way. Well, we may have taken a step sideways, but I’m not at all confident about where we are.

Q: You are bringing in a very impressive transfer class this year with six players. Can you tell us what you’ve seen so far in the first few training sessions and what you expect from all six training sessions this year?

Himself: “Well, we got five on scholarships. We added a sixth one that is accessible. I like her. I think they all have the opportunity to contribute and you can make the case that they all contributed. “I was one of our better players every single day, whether it was David Coit or AJ or Rylan or Shakeel. I think the question comes from a different place – it’s like this with all coaches and all programs, how do you fit your current players and how do they fit playing differently than maybe the way they played at their other place have?

I don’t think we feel completely comfortable yet. I think we have more talent. I think we are more sporty. I think we’ll spin it a little better. I think all of these things. But do they fit exactly as we have gained over time? I think that remains to be seen. You’ll know a lot more the first time we get punched in the stomach or face and see how we react. But from 10,000 feet or whatever, I like them all, and I think that makes for a pretty deep roster.”

Q: You mentioned five teams in the preseason top 10 in the AP poll, which is unprecedented. Other coaches have mentioned that this makes the league difficult, but the fact that there are no teams outside the top 90 also makes it difficult

Himself: “That’s what makes the league difficult. I don’t want to cut you off, but many leagues are top-heavy but also bottom-heavy. This league has no bottom. No matter where you go, winning on the road or not winning on the road is not seen as a surprise in the minds of coaches. What are we playing, 18? We’re playing 20 league games this year, man, anyone I think it’s been a good year, but I don’t think something like this would happen in the past. For teams in our league that don’t actually have rest days, it’s going to happen far more often that you have just hit.

Q: The thing I hear from other coaches is that even if you’re playing the last-place team in that conference, it’s probably still a top-100 team and the arena is probably still pretty full.

Himself: “That’s true, and it’s a great league for all sports. But in basketball, we are very proud of our league and the fan base is very proud. All away games are great victories. There may be a scheduling advantage.” For some teams, it was just that way because that’s how it was in the Big Ten. In the Big 12 it was like that and you played the South once and the North twice. But I don’t think you see it that way in this league.

Someone asked me earlier what the biggest league game on your schedule was and I actually thought about it and said: probably the next game. I know that’s coach speak, but it’s true. If you are not ready, you will be beaten. It could be that people from the outside are looking at it or our fan base sees it as an uproar. Hey, every away win in our league is considered a Quad 2 win in the worst case scenario in my opinion. Worst case scenario. That’s why there are so many opportunities to make our league the NCAA Tournament because you have the opportunity to play 15, 18 Quad 1 games and the rest of them are Quad 2 games, which makes the league difficult .”