Bill Self is standing against a brick wall in a quiet hallway surrounded by a few dozen cameras and notebooks explaining a terrible NCAA Tournament loss, and how many different times could these words have been said?
The Kansas basketball coach has built an empire, but he is also building quite the list of losses that make fans want to punch a tree. This is what he is, and what his program has become.
Another season that Self will claim as great (conference championship, 31 wins) but not special (no Final Four). Kansas fans have heard some version of that in 11 of the last 13 seasons — all conference champions, an average NCAA Tournament seeding of 1.