Notebook: Updates on Harris and Adams, Kansas’ leadership, Baylor preview

Bill Self met with the media on Thursday to discuss Kansas’ win over UCF. He updated the media on Dajuan Harris and KJ Adams, discussed where Kansas gets its leadership, previewed the Jayhawks’ upcoming road test against Baylor, and said Kansas needs to return to its defensive mindset.

Dajuan Harris and KJ Adams should practice this week

Self said Adams was sore following his first game action in a couple of weeks. He was supposed to be limited but practicing on Thursday.

Adams was sidelined with a shoulder separation, but he played 26 minutes against UCF. He scored 12 points on 3/6 shooting and got a lot of work done at the free-throw line.

“He made the free throws and he missed three or four of those little short floaters too,” Self said. “I think because he was rusty, but I thought KJ did great.”

Harris missed his first game in over four years after he tweaked his ankle in practice. Self said he hoped Harris would practice on Thursday, and the Jayhawks missed him a lot against the Knights.

Kansas’ leadership comes from a lot of different places, and it can improve

The Jayhawks have the oldest roster in the country with an average of 3.6 years played at the Division One level. Bill Self said the leadership of this team is similar to that of 2008, with everyone doing it collectively. However, the returnees of Dajuan Harris, KJ Adams, and Hunter Dickinson are counted on for a lot of that authority.

“Juan more so than anybody gives us stability,” Self said. “KJ to me gives us energy more so than anybody else. And then Hunt would give us more of a presence, but I think everybody’s done okay.”

Self also said that it’s an area that Kansas can get better at. Outside of that trio, other players can provide authority. Self mentioned Diggy Coit as a guy who “personality-wise has the most potential to be a good leader.”

Coit had a solid performance against UCF, making 4/8 threes. Self thinks Coit has a chance to use that performance to assert himself as a leader.

“No matter where you are in a new situation and how much experience you had, there’s still some things that have to happen to validate your performance as a leader, and that would probably be performance related,” Self said. “Maybe he [Coit] can have more of a role in that regard. Because there’s still something to being able to take over and get others to follow you is – been there, done it, they’ve seen you do it. And some of them just haven’t been seen yet.”

Baylor’s season has played out somewhat similarly to Kansas’

The Bears have underperformed their preseason expectations, currently sitting in seventh place in the Big 12. Baylor has been inconsistent this season, and a lot of their issues have been due to injury.

“Obviously, they’ve been nicked up,” Self said. “I talked to Scott [Drew] probably two or three weeks ago, and he told me that their top eight players have been together eight times the whole year for a practice. For practice, not even games.”

However, Baylor still has a very talented team. Freshman VJ Edgecombe is expected to be a top five-pick, and his counterpart Robert Wright III has impressed as well. The Bears also have one of the most successful transfer portal gets in former Miami Hurricane Norchad Omier.

Self likes their talent and thinks Baylor’s lack of consistency can mirror his own squad’s in some ways.

“To me, they’re a lot like us,” Self said. “When we’ve been good this year, we’ve been really good. When we haven’t been good, there’s been too big a drop off. I’m sure Scott would probably say the same thing about them from a consistency standpoint.”

Kansas has to get back to guarding

When the Jayhawks won three straight conference games in early January, it looked like a strong defensive intensity was emerging as the team’s identity, however, in recent games, that hasn’t been the case.

“I would say we need to get back to guarding how we guarded three weeks ago,” Self said. “We’re not guarding the same way. That was very evident the other night against UCF.”

Kansas currently ranks fifth in KenPom’s defensive efficiency. The Jayhawks have an elite rim protector in Flory Bidunga and a couple of strong on-ball, perimeter defenders. Self thinks it has a chance to be one of his better defensive teams.

“We’ve shown that we can guard, we just don’t do it as consistently well,” Self said. “That’s got to be something that’s continued to be emphasized every day. But it could be one of our better defensive teams.”