Kansas Coach Bill Self Gave High Praise To BYU After 34-Point Loss
Feb 19, 2025, 2:38 AM | Updated: 2:44 am
PROVO, Utah – Bill Self has been the head coach at Kansas for 22 years. Only one other time has he experienced what BYU dealt him on Tuesday, a 34-point loss.
The 34-point setback is tied for the largest margin of defeat in the Bill Self era.
Self is currently in his 22nd season as the headman in Lawrence.
BYU jumped all over Self’s Jayhawks from the opening tip, cruising to a 91-57 victory.
Self’s assessment of Kansas was similar to last year’s loss to BYU in Allen Fieldhouse. He said his team played “pitifully” a year ago against BYU. This year’s loss, he called an “awful” performance by his Jayhawks that began this season as the preseason No. 1 team in the country.
Bill Self after BYU’s 91-57 win over Kansas
However, Self was complimentary of how BYU played.
“Well, I thought we were awful, and I thought they were great,” Self said. “I think BYU could have beat anybody tonight. They were great, and then we didn’t do anything to make them play less than great.”
Tuesday was the largest defeat Kansas has experienced to an unranked opponent in the AP poll era. That dates back to 1948.
BYU limited Kansas to 36.5% shooting from the field and 28% from three.
The Cougars jumped out to an 8-0 lead in the opening minutes and never looked back from there in the wire-to-wire victory.
Bill Self was very complimentary of BYU after the Cougars 91-57 win over Kansas. pic.twitter.com/wv5qaDN3kQ
— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) February 19, 2025
Thoughts on the Marriott Center
It wasn’t the memorable debut in the Marriott Center that Kansas was hoping for. However, Self, who previously coached as an opposing coach inside the Marriott Center when he was the headman at Tulsa in 1998, praised BYU’s home arena, which had a capacity crowd of 17,978 fans in attendance.
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“We were so poor that I don’t think we felt the energy in the building that it would have been in a tight game. But, I love this place,” Bill Self said.
“It’s great, it’s classy, it’s clean, there are so many good things about it. The fans are as close to you as any other place that we play in our league. They’ve done a remarkable job with this place and they have really good players playing on it. That is the best anyone has played against us this year.”
Kansas will look to end its two-game losing streak on Saturday when they host Oklahoma State at Allen Fieldhouse. BYU travels on the road to take on No. 19 Arizona in Tucson.
Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and hosts the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (12–3 p.m.) on KSL Newsradio. Follow Mitch’s coverage of BYU in the Big 12 Conference on X: @Mitch_Harper.
