Bill Self Reveals the Secret to Kansas’ Defensive Dominance

The Jayhawks suffocated the Sun Devils on Wednesday night at Allen Fieldhouse. What sparked the dominant performance?

Kansas Jayhawks head coach Bill Self looks back after a play in the second half of the game against Arizona State Sun Devils inside Allen Fieldhouse Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. / Evert Nelson/The Capital-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Kansas basketball turned up the heat defensively on Wednesday night, smothering Arizona State in a 74-55 victory.

The Jayhawks didn’t just win the game—they made life miserable for the Sun Devils on the offensive end, forcing them to work for every bucket.

Head coach Bill Self credited the defensive intensity to a deliberate game plan aimed at wearing down Arizona State’s starters, who typically log heavy minutes.

“When [Arizona State is] playing everybody, 33, 35, 37 minutes, the more you make them have to earn things and not give them times where they can rest, I think it makes it harder,” Self explained.

The strategy wasn’t just about physical effort but also about being mentally locked in.

Self shared that the team had focused on this approach in practice, pushing to create a more disruptive and relentless defensive identity.

“And that’s one thing we wanted to do. We actually talked about that a lot in practice, that we were going to try to be different,” Self said. “But I will tell you this, we tried to be different against West Virginia in many ways, and there just wasn’t the intensity to go do it till the very end. I thought that was good, and you’ll see more of that going forward.”

Kansas’ ability to execute this plan not only frustrated the Sun Devils but also set a tone for the kind of defense Self wants to see moving forward.

Could Kansas be leaning toward using the press more often? Either way, the Jayhawks seemed to unlock something special on Wednesday night.

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