Jayhawk notebook: Self discusses well being, personnel on podcast Roberts receives honor KU golf and track compete

Sports

Nick Krug

Kansas head coach Bill Self requires the court subsequent to assistant Norm Roberts prior to tipoff against Pittsburg State on Thursday, Nov. three, 2022 at Allen Fieldhouse.

Kansas men’s basketball head coach Bill Self’s hospitalization and ensuing recovery in March triggered him to miss 5 KU postseason games, 3 in the Major 12 Conference tournament and two in the NCAA Tournament. That flare-up, which necessary a heart catheterization and the installment of two stents, was in fact the culmination of longer-term lingering discomfort, as Self explained Thursday on The Field of 68 podcast.

Calling into the podcast with Rob Dauster and Jeff Goodman, Self stated that he had an aortic valve replaced in the fall, months just before the March eight “episode.” He stated he was told he would really feel far better quickly but did not.

“I in all probability hadn’t felt nicely for a whilst,” Self stated of his situation just before the Major 12 tournament, “but in all probability didn’t know I didn’t really feel nicely simply because I didn’t definitely ever really feel fantastic.”

Now, he stated, “I can inform what feeling nicely in fact feels like.”

The episode that prompted Self to verify into the University of Kansas Wellness Technique consisted of disorientation and a lack of balance. He was released from the hospital 4 days later but was not capable to coach the Jayhawks in their tournament matchups against Howard or Arkansas.

“I could inform I wasn’t rather ideal, and they told me I really should lay off,” he stated on the podcast. “But if we had been fortunate sufficient to advance, I consider I could have gone the subsequent week in Vegas when we would have taken on Connecticut.”

Self also discussed how the transfer portal has created important roster turnover at KU this offseason, with eight players departing — “I in fact have been pretty satisfied and pleased with exactly where they’ve landed, simply because I consider they’ve gone to fantastic spots for them respectively” — and 4 coming in. Though he expressed satisfaction with how the portal has treated KU this offseason, he criticized its extended-term effect.

“The portal’s not fantastic, and I’ll be the initially to say this, in a way that is fantastic for our sport more than time,” he stated. “… The initially time you hit a road bump, you really should in fact go more than it from time to time as opposed to about it.”

Goodman asked Self if adjustments in the sport had created him take into account stepping away. Self responded with remarks that mirrored these he created when he initially spoke to media right after the season on April five.

“I took about a month or six weeks and reflected and believed a lot about it,” he stated on the podcast, “and the a single point that I have located out in the time in which I had my episode was how a lot I missed it.”

In reality, he added, “As a lot as today’s game has changed, and as a lot uncertainty as there is with our sport and college basketball, and all the items that are going on, I consider in some way it is type of reenergized me.”

Roberts honored

KU men’s basketball assistant Norm Roberts was inducted into the A STEP UP Assistant Coaches Hall of Fame. The organization, which concentrates on skilled improvement and networking possibilities for coaches, honored Roberts at its series of symposiums in Charlotte, N.C., earlier this week.

Roberts rejoined Self’s coaching employees in 2012 right after spending nine prior years operating with Self more than the course of his profession. Roberts has worked as a coach in a single kind or one more considering the fact that graduating from Queens College in New York in 1987, like a six-year stint as the head coach at St. John’s.

He came to the forefront final season when he filled in for Self as acting head coach for the duration of two separate stints. Roberts led the Jayhawks to 4 straight wins as Self served a season-opening suspension. Then, for the duration of Self’s hospitalization and recovery in March, Roberts filled in at the major spot to go two-1 in the Major 12 tournament as KU lost in the final to Texas, then 1-1 in the NCAA Tournament as the Jayhawks had been eliminated by Arkansas in the Round of 32.

Nick Krug

Kansas assistant coach Norm Roberts and Kansas guard Dajuan Harris Jr. (three) speak with small time remaining on Saturday, March 18, 2023 at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa.

Men’s golf championship starts

Will King, the KU freshman golfer from Olathe who won an eight-hole playoff round in regional competitors to qualify for the NCAA men’s golf championships, teed off Friday for his initially 18 holes of stroke play at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.

King was in fantastic shape by way of 12 holes at two-below par, but double bogeys on the 13th and 16th offset a late birdie and brought him back up to 1-more than, exactly where he remained. He completed with 71 strokes on the par-70 course, which, as of Friday afternoon, place him in a tie for 55th location.

King had been inconsistent earlier in the season. Getting into regionals, he had ranked fourth on the Jayhawks with a scoring typical of 73.21 and had only paced the squad in two of 12 prior competitions, but even as KU missed out on qualifying as a group, King posted a pair of four-below rounds in Norman, Okla., and emerged victorious more than Hugo Townsend of Ole Miss in sudden death to make it to Grayhawk as an person.

He will be back on the course in Scottsdale on Saturday.

Kansas Athletics

KU golfer Will King competes in the final round of the NCAA Regional in Norman, Okla. on May well 17, 2023.

Women’s track and field preliminaries continue

KU track and field sent 3 competitors to the initially round of women’s preliminary competitors in Sacramento, Calif., on Thursday but none sophisticated, as Samantha Van Hoecke (three.82 meters, 41st) and Gabby Hoke (four.12, 18th) in the pole vault and Avryl Johnson in the 1,500 meters (completed in four:23.09, 36th) had been all unable to qualify for the subsequent round.

The Jayhawks women’s group will nonetheless have quite a few higher-ranking athletes in competitors Saturday, like Sofia Sluchaninova and Tori Thomas in the discus, conference champion Rylee Anderson in the higher jump and Saudia Heard in the triple jump.

Possibility Parker/Journal-Globe photo

Kansas senior Rylee Anderson competes in higher jump for the duration of the 100th Kansas Relays on Friday, April 14, 2023.

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Written By Henry Greenstein

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