Self reflects on heated victory against Cal

Kansas University basketball coach Bill Self — who pulled into Allen Fieldhouse at 7 a.m., Thursday after an overnight charter flight from Oakland, Calif. — wasn’t too weary to watch tape of Wednesday’s chippy KU-California game.

Here’s his final take on some of his players’ roles in the Jayhawks’ heated 78-63 victory.

— Thomas Robinson: “I thought Thomas showed unbelievable restraint with everybody jumping on top,” Self said of a second half pile-up on the floor in which sophomore forward Robinson appeared to get hit in the face by Cal’s Jorge Gutierrez.

“The first one when Gutierrez was laying on and Thomas swung around and made contact. … Gutierrez went down. The official said he had to call something (intentional foul on Robinson). I can certainly understand that, but I don’t think it was because of Thomas losing his cool.

“I thought Thomas did a very good job,” Self added. “I don’t think he did anything in either situation other than playing the right way. He did happen to make contact with the kid on the first one when he fell, but there was no intent to try to do anything bad.”

— Marcus Morris: “Marcus has got to get himself under control as far as not getting frustrated,” Self said of the junior forward, who was ejected for committing a flagrant foul after elbowing Harper Camp in the face with 17:23 remaining.

Morris does not face suspension for KU’s next game (Texas Arlington, 8 p.m., Wednesday, Allen Fieldhouse). “It’s suspension for the rest of the game (on Wednesday), not the next game,” Self explained.

— Brady Morningstar: “Marcus’ was far worse than Brady’s, but Brady can’t do that. He’s a fifth-year senior. He knows better. He has to think, ‘next play,”’ Self said. He was responding to Morningstar being whistled for a ‘T’ for intentionally batting the ball out Brandon Smith’s hands into the stands during a stoppage of play. “That was ridiculous.”

The bottom line?

“After watching the tape, I will certainly not make excuses for our guys. They’ve got to keep their composure,” Self said. “But I will say this. One thing our kids do, is they play hard. Even when we were not playing well, we competed hard last night. We’ll learn from this.”