Still stinging from Kansas University’s first-round loss to Bucknell, Bill Self doesn’t plan on watching the NCAA Tournament on TV.

“I really doubt I’ll watch much of it the rest of the way,” Self, KU’s second-year coach, said Wednesday in his postseason wrapup media teleconference.

“It’s not because I feel like we should definitely be in the mix. Every time you watch somebody else play, you are thinking about how you wish that was you and thinking in your mind how it could be you.”

Self has been doing a lot of thinking about Friday’s 64-63 first-round loss to the Bison.

“It won’t wear off until the tournament is over. It hurts a lot. Every waking moment those are your thoughts,” Self said.

“You can be spending time at dinner or at work, you are talking about recruiting, and still your thoughts are that particular game and getting eliminated. It’s not going to wear off for a while.”

Self — he never had experienced a first-round loss in his career prior to the Bucknell bummer — thinks he will “learn a lot through this experience.

“I think that is what life is about. It’s not as much what happens to you, it’s how you react to what happens to you,” he said. “Nobody likes going through this. No coach would. Fans don’t like losing in the first round to Bucknell.

“Players certainly hurt. Families of coaches and players … we all hurt.”

Self said he would not blame injuries that slowed Keith Langford and Christian Moody the final weeks and might have slowed the progress of players like Alex Galindo and C.J. Giles.

“We weren’t at full strength, but still yet, we were a (No.) 3 seed and Bucknell was a 14. Those are the type of games you still have to win, and we just didn’t get it done,” said Self, who talked with all his players before they left this week for spring break.

6Sports video: No player defections expected this year

He chatted the longest with seniors Aaron Miles and Wayne Simien.

“We talked about how this is going to sting for a while, and how you are going to have to watch it on TV if you follow the tournament the next couple of weeks. People are going to say things, and you could come to expect that,” Self said. “I think young people are pretty resilient even though I know they hurt.”

Self was asked if he regretted playing Langford for 26 minutes against Bucknell despite the fact the senior had been out of action two weeks because of the flu and an injured ankle.

“No, not at all,” Self said. “We did not intend for it to be like that, but we didn’t intend for the game to go as it went also. If we were to go down and Keith was not in the game, then I would really second guess it.”

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More on snub: The Jayhawks continue to catch flak for most of the players not shaking hands with Bucknell’s players after the game.

“I addressed it with the team,” Self said. “I am not happy about that at all, regardless of the circumstances. Even Pat (Flannery, Bucknell coach) told me, ‘Don’t sweat that. We were running around like we won a championship, and certainly I can understand guys not waiting around for us to finish celebrating.’

“I think it’s more a matter of that. I don’t think anybody on our team would intentionally stiff anybody in that way, shape or form.”

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No offseason operations: Self said Giles would not need surgery to repair what for six weeks was believed to have been the start of a stress fracture in his foot.

“C.J. (Giles) is going to be fine from that standpoint, unless he were to re-injure it. We don’t anticipate any of our underclassmen requiring any surgery unless something happens that hasn’t occurred yet,” Self said.

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Recruit to visit: DeAndre Thomas, a 6-foot-6, 270-pound senior forward from Chicago Westinghouse High, told rivals.com he will visit KU a week after the Final Four. He said KU leads Illinois, Florida State and Georgetown.

KU currently has no scholarships to award in recruiting but continues to pursue players in case the roster changes — like last year, when David Padgett and Omar Wilkes decided to transfer.

“All the meetings (with players) were positive, but I’m not going to say positively that this is definitely going to happen or not going to happen,” Self said of possible transfers.

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Newcomers: Self is excited about incoming players Micah Downs, Julian Wright and Mario Chalmers.

“We think all three will have a big impact right off the bat. I hope they (expectations) are not unrealistic. But I also think the expectations should be they are going to be good.”

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Style of play: Self said the Jayhawks would utilize more defensive pressure next year which could lead to fast-paced games.

“We thought we could end up pressuring a lot more than what we did this year. There at the end we couldn’t pressure but one or two spots for a lot of different reasons (injuries). I don’t think that will be the case next year.”

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Freshmen progressing: Self isn’t displeased with his current freshman class.

“I think C.J.’s injury was a big blow. Nobody writes that but losing him for six weeks hurt,” Self said. “It is also more difficult for freshmen to come in and play if you have guys ahead of them — seniors primarily — that are going to play. There weren’t that many minutes.

“I’m not saying all of them will be all-league performers but they certainly have a chance to be good basketball players. With the class coming in behind them we need one or two of them to develop into those type of (all-league) performers. You do that, all of the sudden you have yourself quite a team.”