Roy Williams had a lot of complaints about his Kansas basketball team Sunday. He had no beefs about the Jayhawks' No. 4 seeding in the Midwest Regional of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.
"You play yourself into the spot where they put you. We played ourselves into that spot," said Williams, mighty disappointed in KU's play and the in-house bickering of his own players in Saturday's Big 12 semifinal loss to Oklahoma at Kemper Arena.
The Jayhawks, who finished the regular season 24-6, barked at each other on the court during the second half of the game.
After the contest, senior Kenny Gregory said publicly the Jayhawk players were guilty of "selfishness."
So instead of winning the tournament and perhaps landing a No. 2 seed in the Midwest Regional at Kansas City's Kemper Arena, the Jayhawks were shipped to Dayton, Ohio, for a 6:40 p.m. Friday battle against No. 13 seed Cal State Northridge (22-9) of the Big Sky Conference.
The winner will meet either No. 5 seed Syracuse (24-8) or No. 12 Hawaii (17-13) on Sunday in a second-round game. Winner of that contest heads to the Round of 16 in San Antonio.
No. 1-seed Illinois or former KU assistant Jerry Green's Tennessee team are potential third-round foes with No. 2 Arizona and No. 3 Mississippi on the bottom half of the Midwest Regional bracket.
"It would have been nice to be a 2, but the reason it would have been nicer is it means we would have won another game or two in Kansas City," said Williams.
Williams held a team meeting Sunday at Allen Fieldhouse in which he said some "harsh" things.
Later, the KU players ate dessert at Williams' house and watched the NCAA Tournament Selection Show on CBS.
"I do think if we'd played better we'd have gone there," Williams said of the Kansas City regional. "It would have been great for our fans. They wouldn't have had to drive as far. Dayton is 643 miles or something. Kemper is a little closer."
Williams knows Dayton well. His 1995 KU team beat Colgate and Western Kentucky and advanced to a regional semifinal in Kansas City where the Jayhawks lost to Virginia. In 1992, KU beat Howard and lost to UTEP in a second-round battle in Dayton.
"I always said I wanted to go somewhere warm this time of year. When I go on my morning jog I don't have to wear six suits of clothes and mittens and things on my ears," Williams said.
"It doesn't work out that way very often so they're sending me to a place I'm familiar. Kenny wanted to go to Dayton. It's close to home (Columbus, Ohio). Eric Chenowith wanted San Diego," he said of the Californian. "Once the game starts it doesn't matter if it's Kansas City, San Diego or Dayton."
KU's coach promises some rigorous practices heading into the NCAAs in response to sloppy play and bickering on the team that apparently took place during and after the Oklahoma game.
Nobody is talking specifics, but at one point in the second half it appeared Drew Gooden and Chenowith may have had words.
"I think it's more postgame frustration than anything," Williams said of Gregory's assertion of team selfishness. "There was some talking going on the court I've never seen in one of my teams and will never see again.
"The easiest way to stop that is for me to make a commitment it'll stop and it better stop.
"Eric and Nick just listen to what I just said," Williams ordered Jayhawks Chenowith and Nick Collison, who were sitting in the back of KU's interview room Sunday. "It (bickering) better stop right there. If you guys want to perceive that as a threat, it's your prerogative," he added.
Chances are the Jayhawks will do some extra running in preparation for the NCAAs.
"We are going to have three great practices. I mean great practices. I can spell with capital letters because it's going to be one frickin' great three days of practice," Williams said. "If it's not there are some people who are going to want to transfer on Thursday morning."
Williams said the Jayhawks must put what happened at Kemper Arena behind them.
"I want us to learn from it," he said. "We made some serious, serious mistakes. Saying that, we have to move on. We will try to get our team better from here on out.
"If we get things rolling we can have some big-time fun. The only way you can have big-time fun is to play well."
Williams said KU will have to play well to beat CS Northridge. The Matadors are coached by Bobby Braswell, who was ex-Jayhawk point guard Adonis Jordan's high school coach in Reseda, Calif.
"I've known Bobby for 13 years. His teams with Adonis were coached as well as you can be coached," Williams said. "They beat UCLA. They play extremely hard and aggressive.
"Bobby was (former KU assistant) Jerry Green's assistant at Oregon before he went to Cal State Northridge. We'll face a team that's really hungry and a team that will think, and rightfully so, that they can make a name for themselves by beating Kansas."
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