Kansas basketball coach Bill Self hopes Big 12 won’t stay at 20 conference games in future

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — The Big 12 Conference is set to play 20 league games in men’s basketball this season, up from 18 last season, but as Brett Yormark talked at media days in October he left open the possibility that could change in the future.

Yormark, the Big 12’s commissioner, outlined that they’re going to see how it goes this year and that it isn’t something that is set in stone. He noted they’ll evaluate it with their coaches as the season unfolds, as well as after it ends. From there, they’ll make a determination as to whether or not they want to stick with 20 games moving forward.

Kansas basketball coach Bill Self, though, doesn’t seem to need to go through the season to see what he would think about a 20-game slate. Also speaking during media days at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri, he highlighted how he feels about the decision. And if there’s a group of people who want change in the future, it sounds like he’s a part of it.

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“I don’t like the 20 at all, but hopefully it’s not going to stay there,” Self said. “But I think the 20 is too much. I thought last year was too much. Maybe not too much if you don’t play a competitive non-conference schedule, but when you play the schedule we’re playing that’s the same as playing — guys, a minimum of 26 out of your 31 games are league games, basically, that you have to win, when you count the at Missouri, at Creighton, Michigan State, North Carolina, NC State, Duke.”

As Self mentioned, Kansas’ non-conference schedule for the 2024-25 season includes a pair of road games at Missouri and Creighton, a couple neutral site games against Michigan State and Duke, and a couple of home games against North Carolina and NC State. They’re all significant matchups, he explained, that carry the same value and difficulty of those his Jayhawks will play during Big 12 play. It’s a lot for…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/kansas-basketball-coach-bill-self-080110368.html

Author : The Topeka Capital-Journal

Publish date : 2024-10-30 08:01:00

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