LAS VEGAS — Kansas basketball handed Tennessee its first loss of the 2025-26 season, coming from behind to knock off the Vols’ 81-76 in the third-place game at the Players Era.
Following the game, Kansas head coach Bill Self discussed his team growing up, holding steady with Tennessee on the glass and much more. Here’s everything Self said.
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On what allowed his team to make a second half run and take control of the game
“I’d have to watch the tape. I don’t know that a lot changed. I actually thought we guarded them 40 minutes. I actually thought they made shots in the first half or shots we wanted them to take and they were just good players and made them.
What did we go down, 12? Then it was about to get away from us, and then who would have thought we got better when Tre was out of the game actually. And Marko played great and ‘Mari made some big plays and Mel kind of got into a rhythm and roll.
But we just kept defending and rebounding. It’s a big deal for us to out-rebound that team even though it was only by one. I thought we did a great job with the physicality-type plays.”
On who he looked to to step up after Tre White fouled out
“Well, it was a group effort. I didn’t say, it’s your job now. I thought Flory did some good things, obviously, and Bryson rebounded the ball. Didn’t score the ball today, but he played well.
But the biggest thing is you look at it, hey, Melvin and Elmarko the last 10 minutes of the game were both pretty damned good. They got downhill and they got fouled, and that’s something we should be able to play to that we haven’t done a good job of late, or up until this point, bit hopefully that will give us some confidence playing that way later.”
On Elmarko Jackson stepping up
“Well, he had about as bad a three-minute stretch the end of the first half a guy could have and he flipped it, which to me showed some toughness and everything because we went to end down 7 and we could have easily — he missed the lay-up and then threw it to them for a basket and then had another bad play.
To me it just says that maybe that was the icebreaker that takes the lid off the cover, so to speak, and maybe he can start playing a little bit freer. Because he played free the second half, and he hadn’t done that all year long.”
On saying Kansas has been soft at times but was tough against Tennessee
“I don’t think that we played near as tough as what we need to play to be shorthanded now. I think you’ve got to figure out a way to win where it’s not very pretty, when you don’t score the ball easily.
Today we scored the ball better and we actually executed better. But the biggest thing is when the game got in question and we went down, the guys just played one possession at a time as opposed to Duke and Carolina, I think we felt like there were some eight- or ten-point plays out there for us to go make, and today was just one after another, and I thought that’s maybe a sign of growing up.”
On going 3-0 in Las Vegas while shorthanded
“It’s nice. It’s been a good tournament for us. The matchups have been good for us, different styles. It’s a first-class event, and obviously the national media has treated it like it’s the premier basketball event so far this year, which I think is true.
I’m not going to — the format to me is fine, but the format can be tweaked, I think. You can still go by point differential, but you can’t penalize teams for going 2-0. Everybody should get a piece of it, even if only four played the last day, in my opinion. But it’s first class. This thing is going to continue to grow and get better.”
On what this week will do for his team’s psyche
“I think we came here doubting how good we could be, so if anything — we didn’t play bad against Duke. It was a three-point game with four minutes left, but it wasn’t good enough and too many mental mistakes. I even thought yesterday and the day before against Notre Dame, I thought we had too many mental mistakes.
Today I thought we actually played sound. I actually thought we followed what we’re trying to do. I actually thought the ball got to the third side quicker. I actually thought we screened somebody. I actually thought the shots we gave up were the shots we were supposed to give up.
So that’s encouraging. And you guys have seen him play. He’s really good. We’re not offensively fluid enough to win games like we did there and expect guys to just come off the bench and get 17 or whatever. But what it should do is give us confidence that when we are whole, if we can learn to play together, that we can defend and rebound well enough to actually be pretty good.”
On seeing his players’ energy postgame
“Well, you should have been in the locker room. They gave me the Gatorade shower because obviously that’s their way of getting back at me for being pissed at them, which I totally get and I love.
But it’s better than the alternative. I think we’re growing up as a team. We seem to like each other. I couldn’t be — I’m going into Thanksgiving very optimistic.”
