Bill Self makes clear that he's Kansas' biggest problem amid Jayhawks recent skid

When a coach points to lack of energy among the team for either stretches of the season or even stretches of a game, it boils down to the coach themself to be the change. Bill Self is finding that out now as he said his team has lacked energy, following their most recent loss to Kansas State. 

Sure rival games are a bit of an anomaly because anything can happen in a game with high emotion and pure hatred. But how the Kansas Jayhawks has looked in certain moments throughout the season, Self has attributed that to a lack of energy. 

“To me, we have, we have – this is what I just told them. It’s been very difficult for us, for whatever reason, to string games of superb energy back-to-back or ever consistently at all,” said Self, h/t On3 Sports.

It’s his job as the coach to fix that. Coaching is all about getting the best out of your players in the highest of highs and lowest of lows. Kansas has lost three of the last five games, only one of those against a ranked opponent and another a colossal collapse against Baylor. 

If consistent energy is the biggest problem with Kansas’ caving during conference play, Self needs to figure out how he can reach his players to close out the season. At one point, Kansas looked like a team that was going to run through college basketball. 

Now they look like a team that might not even make it out of the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament; assuming the string enough wins at the end of the season to make it in.

What will it take for Kansas to get out of rut, finish Big 12 play strong?

Much like the football season, the Big 12 in college basketball has been all over the place. At one point, Iowa State was atop the conference, then they lost three straight. Houston and Arizona have been the most consistent in the conference, but they both lost to Texas Tech. 

That leaves Kansas, which has long been the leader of the conference, which has nearly sputtered to a point of no return. Do they realistically have enough time to turn things around? The short answer is yes. 

College basketball has changed so much over the years that truthfully anything can happen. First, they can’t panic despite a rough stretch in conference play. Unlike football they have the conference tournament to look forward to as a second chance. 

Look at NC State last season, they entered the ACC tournament on a four-game losing streak. They went on to win the whole tournament and reach the Final Four last year. They got hot at the right time and almost played for a national championship. 

Kansas has a chance to put together a similar run. Not saying they need to be on a losing streak, entering the conference tournament to have a chance. But if they can use the final few weeks of the regular season to reshape their perspective, the Big 12 tournament could be a new chapter for them. 

That starts with Self finding a way to keep his players in the game mentally. They can’t afford to blow 20-plus point leads or lose to 11-loss teams. The next five games against inferior opponents will tell Kansas just how ready they are for the postseason. 

Their final three games are home to No. 12 Texas Tech, at No. 6 Houston and home to No. 13 Arizona. How the final eight games go will determine if Self is a good enough coach to reignite his team.