Is Bill Self Done at Kansas? St. John's Loss Could be the End

Kansas suffered another brutal NCAA Tournament exit, and now the biggest question in college basketball is impossible to ignore: is Bill Self done at Kansas? In this video, I break down KU’s heartbreaking loss to St. John’s, what went wrong offensively, why the Jayhawks still never fully clicked this season, and whether Kansas fans are justified in wondering if the Bill Self era could be nearing its end. The conversation also includes Self’s recent health issues, Kansas’ struggles to adapt in the NIL and transfer portal era, and what the future could look like if KU ever has to make a change.

Bill Self has still delivered incredible consistency at Kansas, but KU has now gone four straight seasons without reaching the second weekend, and the frustration is building. I get into why this year’s team felt off from the start, how roster construction has changed in modern college basketball, and why replacing a legend is never as simple as fans think it is. If you’re a Kansas fan, Big 12 fan, or college basketball fan trying to make sense of what comes next for one of the sport’s biggest brands, this video is for you.

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Transcript

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Did we just witness the end of the Bill Self era at Kansas? KU loses at the buzzer to St. John's in heartbreaking fashion. So what does that tell us about Self's future? What do the tea leaves say right now? Where might Kansas go if he does opt to retire? And are Kansas fans crazy for wanting him to retire at this point? I'll answer all that in this video. Welcome into the Open for Business Big Twelve podcast. I am your host, John Kurtz. This is where the Big Twelve just means more. Well, look, uh, St. John's won at the buzzer. They get a layup from a guy that had not scored the entire game in a really weird, disjointed last 12 seconds or so because Kansas had so many fouls to give for, in fact, as St. John's tried to take it up the court. And man, Rick Petino found a way to win just a total, total rock fight. This was an ugly game. The box score was ugly. It was even uglier if you watched it in person. The final score 67 to 65. But Kansas shot 44%. St. John shot 36% and won. It's because of the turnovers that St. John's forced. And Kansas had not just the amount of turnovers in the game, 16, which was 24% of their possessions, but it was how bad some of them were. Not being able to inbound the ball. Tough day for Trey White, trying to get the ball in bounds throughout the game. Multiple passes where someone's zigging when the guy throwing the ball thought he was going to zag, and the ball just goes out of bounds, like completely unforced errors. Not attacking the basket, not anything like that. And that is the staggering thing about this game for Kansas today. St. John's being able to shoot only 36% and still win this game is one very on brand. I mean, let's be clear. This is what St. John's is. Uh, but it it's it's also just a testament to how bad Kansas was offensively throughout this game. KU only made five three-pointers the entire game, and that's that's generally not going to be a recipe for success. Uh, Darren Peterson had three of those, so only two others in the entire game for the Jayhawks. They just needed more. And a guy like Trey White is where you might start there. He scored only four points in 28 minutes, 0 of 2 from three-point range. Like he's typically the guy who will pick up some of that scoring load. Look, Kansas fans, I know, rightfully upset about a lot of things. Now, for the contingent that wants Bill Self out, we'll talk about whether or not they're crazy and whether or not that's actually going to happen if this is the end of the Bill Self era. But I can understand the issue that I'm seeing a lot of Kansas fans having after this game, which is not playing Cole Rosario more because he gave Kansas some great minutes, nine of them, but down the stretch, he hits a big three. He saved the ball in bounds that secured Kansas uh at the time, the game tying layup. Like he made a couple of monster plays, and he was more impactful, more noticeable on the floor in nine minutes than Bryson Tiller, who's getting minutes over him was in 27 minutes. Bryson Tiller did not score. Oh two from the floor in 27 minutes. And, you know, Tiller's had a rough end of the season, and so I understand Kansas fans being like, hey, what's the deal here? This game could have changed had those minutes been dispersed a little bit differently. Totally get it. And I'm not saying Bill Self was at his sharpest today or this season, or frankly, for the last four years since he won the national championship. I don't know what it is with this team. Kansas fans maybe would have a better feel for this, but it just they never really seemed to have it. Outside of a couple magical Big Monday performances highlighted obviously by the win over Arizona. This team just never totally seemed to click. And for a long time this year, it was easy to blame that on the Darren Peterson will he, won't he saga, where he's got injuries, he's playing, he's not playing, he's got cramps. We now have more clarity on that. Like it's much more understandable. He he called him traumatic, like full body cramps. Sounded like it was a really traumatic issue for him. But here's the thing that was not the issue over the last like three weeks of the season. He he played 28 plus minutes in the last nine games, and all but two of those were over 30 minutes. Like he was playing a lot, and the team was only five and four in those nine games. So it just it still didn't totally click, even with him back in the lineup and scoring. I mean, he had 21 points in the game today, but not very efficient. Five of 15 shooting. So, whatever it is, maybe he was getting worn out by playing more minutes. He didn't have his legs under him from the beginning of the year. I'm sure it's a little bit of a lot of things, right? It's typically never just one answer. But this this thing never really clicked with this team. And the crazy part is here's where we're gonna talk about what now for Bill Self, right? Is this the end for Bill Self? The crazy thing is we're we're talking about a four seed here, guys. We're talking about a four seed. Bill Self has been a four-seater higher 22 of 23 years at Kansas. That's insane consistency. Okay, so maybe you can see where I'm going with the are Kansas fans crazy if they want him to retire. But what is next? What are the Tea Leaves saying? Please do subscribe to the channel. Appreciate those who do pushing toward 35k subs, and we are getting there, my friends. Uh, what now for Bill Self? I know a lot of Kansas fans will be quick to tell you he's failed to make the second weekend four straight seasons. That's a pretty well publicized fact. They had the graphic up there about it, what's happened each of the last three years. Uh, six of the last seven. I saw another Kansas fan account pointing out that six of the last seven seasons have ended with a first weekend exit. Now, that's a lot easier to swallow when the one that wasn't was a national championship, right? But in this new NIL era, we have seen self just not, first of all, lose the dominance on the Big 12. But I'm willing to put a lot of that on just the extra competition that came in. Like Arizona Houston come riding into your conference. My friend, it's going to be a lot harder to dominate the league. You're not going to be winning the league 14 straight years at that point. But it's it's also pretty clear, like he has not totally mastered the art of NIL and the transfer portal and how to roster build when you're not able to, I mean, self for so long relied on your Devontae Graham's Frank Masons of the world that stayed on the roster for four years, grew, and developed. It's harder to do. And it's perfectly evidenced by the guy on the other sideline today, Zubi Edu4 for St. John's. Like, didn't stick around. Kansas recruited over him with Hunter Dickinson. He said, I'm going to leave. Now he's the biggest player of the year at St. John's, and he's beating Kansas in an NCAA tournament game. Edufor had 18 and 9 in 34 minutes today. Pretty good. Tough SOB type of thing, Kansas, I think, could have used more of probably this year. On top of that, obviously you have the health issues, right? When we're talking about retirement, it's not so we can talk about like the struggles and getting to the second weekend. It's not a performance level that's going to get you f like. I'm sorry, full stop. You're not, you know, no matter what any Twitter person is going to say, you're not getting fired for that, obviously, right? But when you combine that with, hey, there have been a lot of health issues here. Bill Self had two stints put in his heart in 2023, another couple in 2025. Then before the Colorado game this year, there was the hospitalization where he didn't go coach that game, missed a little bit of time. You've just had the these things adding up, the health issues adding up over the years. So you you wonder what is going to happen here. I would just say, based on the health issues alone, it seems like Kansas would would have to at least be somewhat prepared for this. Whether it's going to be this year, next year, two years from now, you've got to you've got to have your list, right? If you're if you're Travis Goff the AD, you've got to have your list of like, here's who we'd go after, here's what we would do. I would think you need contingency plans in place just because of the health stuff alone. All right. Um that doesn't mean I think it will happen, but I would guess that Kansas is is pretty prepared. As for whether or not Kansas fans should want that, I still think that's pretty crazy, man. I mean, I it's just to be careful what you wish for situation. Like, are you looking at Kentucky and North Carolina right now? I mean, they are every bit the blue blood that Kansas is, and I know Kansas has had way more consistency than them over the last 20 years. Guess why? Because of Bill Self, right? So you can turn into Kentucky wanting to run out Mark Pope, right? Wanting to run out the alum. That feels to me more like if you were to hire Jacques Vaughan, which I don't think Kansas would, at least uh uh not until they struck out on three, four, or five other guys. But if you hired that guy and then you're worried about, you know, him being a 10 seed and losing in the second round and probably should have lost in the first round. And uh, you know, you could be that. Or you could be Hubert Davis, right? Another one they hired one of their own and they're wanting to run him out now, too. It sounds like Hubert Davis is probably going to be fired within the next couple of days once North Carolina can like dot I's and cross T's. So you could turn into that. I mean, there have been plenty of examples, you know, Kentucky has had its ups and downs. North Carolina certainly has had its ups and downs. It's not a guarantee that you'll maintain this level of consistency. Now, I know Kansas fans will want, I'm sure, your Dusty May, Nate Oates, Todd Golden, maybe like Tommy Lloyd, TJ Ozelberger. I'm sure those will be names that would be linked to the job, and that Kansas fans would probably want. If you can get somebody on that list, I mean, obviously that does sound great. It sounds awesome. But they don't, I mean, Todd Golden won a national title last year. He does have a one-seed team this year that's currently playing right now as I record this video. But he has not displayed the consistency over the years that Bill Self has. Like, you don't you don't know yet if he has that in him. Uh Nate Oates, I guess, has had a bit longer of a track record with less of a high than Todd Golden. Dusty May, still pretty new at the top at at Michigan right now. I mean, you know, like a TJ Otzelberger, honestly, that's that's a guy that's been really consistent. But then does he work at a North Carolina, Kansas type of environment? And that's a guy that Iowa State fans will probably need to get used to hearing his name more and more if some of these like huge, huge jobs do open. So look, I I would still be surprised if he were to retire at the end of this year, but I would imagine Kansas has contingency plans in place. And if I'm a Kansas fan, I totally understand why you're frustrated, right? I I do. Uh there's levels to all of this, but as a fan, I have been there before or understood like the K-State fan base, like, all right, Chris Kleiman wins like eight games every year. Great, we're getting frustrated, do more. And so for a Kansas fan, it's like awesome. We're a four-seater higher basically every year, but you can't get past the second weekend, do more. I understand that's how it works. I I still do think that's a be careful what you wish for thing if he were to retire. And hey, one thing that's making life a lot more difficult for Bill Self and Kansas fans these days is the Big 12 itself. Uh, click here to find out how exactly that's making life much more difficult.