Kansas head coach Bill Self questions one of his players during the second half on Saturday, Dec. 3, 2016 at Allen Fieldhouse.

Tired of watching his team allow opposing players to get to the rim for easy baskets, Kansas basketball coach Bill Self has spent the past couple of weeks digging through his bag of tricks to try to inspire his third-ranked Jayhawks to put forth better defensive effort.

“We’re doing it all,” Self said Thursday during his regularly scheduled meeting with the media.

Perhaps at the top of that list is something that has become somewhat routine now whenever Self takes the mic. Whether he’s on a conference call, sitting for a postgame presser or standing in the hallway before practice while previewing the Jayhawks’ next game, Self is talking defense.

This is nothing out of the ordinary, of course. Throughout his 14 seasons in Lawrence — and well before that, too — Self has made it clear that the most important part of his basketball philosophy is sound defense.

What is new, or at least rare, is Self spending so much time answering questions about one of his teams not defending very well.

After Tuesday’s 90-88 squeaker over Kansas State, Self pulled no punches in calling this group the worst defensive team he has had at Kansas. True or not, that soundbite had a dual purpose. First, it offered Self’s actual thoughts on the play of his team. Second, it served as a public challenge to his players to get it together.

“You do it through film, you do it through talking, you do it through challenging, you do it through demanding,” said Self when asked how he was trying to get through to his players. “You do it a lot of different ways. The guys care, certainly, but I don’t think their actions show that they care as much as maybe what they think they do about certain things. I’m talking about strictly defense.”

Although each scouting report — including the one for Saturday’s 6:15 p.m. tip-off against Texas Tech at Allen Fieldhouse — offers a number of specific instructions on how to defend this player or that one, one set or another, Self has said over and over that enticing the Jayhawks to play better defense comes down to one thing — pride.

“We’re just not active,” said Self, noting that no one on his roster was playing up to the typical Kansas standard on the defensive end of the floor. “We just don’t have near enough activity and create opportunities for steals or deflections or poor possessions by the other team, because we basically are right now in a mode where we’ve let the other team run their stuff.”

Although Self added that “everybody can get better,” he singled out his veteran backcourt as the place he would like to see things turn around first.

“I think if you cut the head off, people say that the body will follow,” Self said. “So I think most of the responsibility falls on (guard) Devonte’ (Graham) and Frank (Mason III) more than anybody else because I think they can set the tone for everything…. We don’t have any excuses. We’re just not doing it. But we’re going to get there. I say that with supreme confidence. We’re going to get where we want to go. That doesn’t guarantee success either, but it certainly puts us in a better position to have success.”

Asked if he was concerned about his team’s defensive slump, KU senior Frank Mason III shook it off and pointed to the fact that this veteran team understands what it takes for the Jayhawks to achieve what they want to achieve.

“We’re not worried at all,” Mason said. “We all know what we’re capable of and everyone’s trying and giving effort. Hopefully everything will fall in place.”