Bill Self revealed that the 2024-2025 season has been on his mind since the start of March.

It hasn’t been the easiest month for Kansas. The Jayhawks lost by way of the upset in the 2nd round of the Big 12 Tournament to Cincinnati. To make things worse, Kansas was sent home from the NCAA Tournament Saturday after losing to Gonzaga 89-68.

The game was close at halftime as both teams headed to the locker room with a score of 44-43 favoring the Jayhawks. Self’s team was outscored 46-24 in the 2nd half as things really fell apart.

Self quickly clarified at the postgame presser that he wasn’t in that headspace while on the court. He referenced how Kansas had a limited number of scholarship players available in the final months of the season. The Kansas head coach put the blame on himself and the staff for not preparing more readily available players.

“For the last month I’ve been thinking about next season to be honest. Not in the moments during the game, but obviously we had 8 guys on scholarship that were healthy there late,” Self said. “Injuries are a part of the game so that’s not an excuse, but we could do a much better job as a staff of putting more guys out there that we could play. That’s something that I’ve thought about for a long time.”

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Self has been around basketball for a long time and understands how injuries can happen throughout the course of a season. However, he mentioned that they definitely impacted Kansas this season, who didn’t have as strong of a team in March Madness compared to recent memory.

“The thing about is in basketball, early on you can play through some things. But the course of a season, there’s a grind that goes with it. Bodies get run down; injuries occur and it’s all part of it,” Self said. “When you don’t have as much firepower that maybe you’ve had in past years, it certainly showed this year.”

This was a season that Kansas fans and Self alike will be wanting to forget. This is especially true for a program with as much rich history as Kansas has. The Jayhawks had an early exit from last season’s tournament too, being knocked off by Arkansas in the 2nd round. It’s been a rough last couple of seasons for Kansas since the 2022 national championship.

Gonzaga will take on the winner of Purdue-Utah State in its Sweet 16 matchup. That game will tipoff on Sunday at 2:40 p.m. ET on CBS.