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 basically 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 mentioned that he had an aortic valve replaced in the fall, months just before the March eight “episode.” He mentioned he was told he would really feel improved right away but did not.

“I in all probability hadn’t felt nicely for a although,” Self mentioned of his situation just before the Major 12 tournament, “but in all probability didn’t know I didn’t really feel nicely for the reason that I didn’t actually ever really feel excellent.”

Now, he mentioned, “I can inform what feeling nicely basically feels like.”

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

“I could inform I wasn’t really suitable, and they told me I ought to lay off,” he mentioned on the podcast. “But if we have been fortunate adequate to advance, I believe I could have gone the subsequent week in Vegas when we would have taken on Connecticut.”

Self also discussed how the transfer portal has made considerable roster turnover at KU this offseason, with eight players departing — “I basically have been incredibly content and pleased with exactly where they’ve landed, for the reason that I believe they’ve gone to excellent spots for them respectively” — and 4 coming in. Although he expressed satisfaction with how the portal has treated KU this offseason, he criticized its lengthy-term influence.

“The portal’s not excellent, and I’ll be the 1st to say this, in a way that is excellent for our sport more than time,” he mentioned. “… The 1st time you hit a road bump, you ought to basically go more than it from time to time as opposed to about it.”

Goodman asked Self if alterations in the sport had produced him take into account stepping away. Self responded with remarks that mirrored these he produced when he 1st spoke to media just after the season on April five.

“I took about a month or six weeks and reflected and believed a lot about it,” he mentioned on the podcast, “and the 1 issue that I have discovered out in the time in which I had my episode was how substantially I missed it.”

In truth, he added, “As substantially as today’s game has changed, and as substantially uncertainty as there is with our sport and college basketball, and all the points that are going on, I believe 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 specialist 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 just after spending nine earlier years functioning with Self more than the course of his profession. Roberts has worked as a coach in 1 type or one more considering the fact that graduating from Queens College in New York in 1987, which includes 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 through two separate stints. Roberts led the Jayhawks to 4 straight wins as Self served a season-opening suspension. Then, through Self’s hospitalization and recovery in March, Roberts filled in at the leading 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 have 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 1st 18 holes of stroke play at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.

King was in exceptional shape via 12 holes at two-beneath 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-beneath 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 Might 17, 2023.

Women’s track and field preliminaries continue

KU track and field sent 3 competitors to the 1st 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) have been all unable to qualify for the subsequent round.

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

Likelihood Parker/Journal-Planet photo

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

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Written By Henry Greenstein

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