Chatting with Bill Self

Not to sound like the creepy phone voice from The Ring, but 27 days. 27 days. 27 days until the start of the University of Kansas basketball season. Granted on November 9th it’s an exhibition game against Ft. Hays State – a school in a town known more for its reasonably priced and conveniently located hotels, clean restrooms, vast fast-food choices, and a mall that is cleverly called “The Mall” (seriously, that is what they call their mall in Hays), than college basketball, but nonetheless – it marks the start of another season of exciting Jayhawk basketball.

(Quick side note: it bugs the hell out of me that Jayhawk isn’t in the Microsoft Word dictionary and comes-up as a misspelled word every time I type it. I’ve added it like 14 times to the dictionary and it still pops as being incorrectly spelled! Argh!

Strangely, Wildcat, Gamecock, Buckeye, Aggie and Orangemen are in the dictionary, but Tarheel is not.)

Anyway, KU coach Bill Self hosted an online chat yesterday and my question was answered by the coach. Pretty cool. Below is the transcript of our brief Q/A session. If you are interested in reading the rest of the chat, click here.

Bill, Denver, Colo.: When you're recruiting, is there any difficulty getting over perceptions about Kansas, i.e -- it's flat, it's boring, it's in the middle of nowhere, etc., when talking to players who have never seen the campus or been to Lawrence? Or does the program sell itself because of the history, the coaches and players, and the success?

Bill Self: I think recruiting is difficult wherever you're at. Tulsa had its own unique obstacles, Oral Roberts had its own unique obstacles, Illinois had its own unique obstacles. Kansas has its obstacles as well, but the positive is we can be in the top-five or top-10 of most recruits list. But the negative is we have to go in to someone else's back yard to get them. I've heard the stigma that Kansas is flat, and I've even made the joke that guys ride their horses to class. But the truth is Kansas is hilly, there are trees, water, beautiful landscape. The city is great, and you're 35 minutes away from Kansas City. Kansas is just about the best of the sells.