Kansas basketball: Bill Self, Shaka Smart get into heated exchange in Jayhawks loss

Kansas basketball head coach Bill Self and Shaka Smart exchanged some words on the sidelines in last night’s loss to Marquette.

The Kansas Jayhawks were dethroned from the No. 1 spot in college basketball last night when the Marquette Golden Eagles dominated them 73-59 in the semifinal of the Maui Invitational. But while the game was still close, things got heated for a while.

After Kevin McCullar hit a 3-pointer to cut KU’s deficit to five, some words were exchanged and Smart began to shout toward the Kansas basketball sideline. This sparked tension and MU’s coach to shout a vulgar phrase at the Jayhawks.

Coming out of the TV timeout, Shaka and Bill appeared to have calmed down but still didn’t seem happy with each other as they walked away. “Unbelievable,” Self seemed to have said to himself.

Watch it yourself:

In his postgame press conference, the Hall of Fame coach didn’t feel like speaking about the altercation. “I doubt it was accurate, whatever he [Smart] said. I’m not going to get into it,” Self told media.

The two coaches have a deep-rooted history. In the 2010-11 season — which had one the best Jayhawk rosters in the 21st century — Kansas had a free ticket to the Final Four but suffered an upset loss to No. 11 seed VCU, who Smart coached at the time. It was arguably the most painful defeat KU has suffered in the Self-era.

They also met plenty of times while he coached at Texas from 2015 to 2021 in Big 12 play. He took the Marquette job two years ago. Self is now 10-5 all-time in games coached against Smart.

It was certainly a disheartening loss for KU, but they can leave their trip on a high note with a better outing in a few hours. Kansas basketball will finish its three-game set in Maui this afternoon versus No. 7 Tennessee.