For the first time during his tenure at Kansas, head coach Bill Self was ejected as his Jayhawks were blown out by Texas Tech 79-50. The ejection occurred with 5:49 remaining as Hunter Dickinson was called for an offensive foul after he and a Texas Tech defender were battling for position.

“I didn’t cuss at him, I didn’t yell, but I did say a magic word I guess, multiple times,” Self said. “I really wasn’t trying to get thrown out, but the way things went… I honestly thought the game stopped being called the way it needs to be called. Regardless if it’s our favor or their favor, it makes no difference to me. I don’t feel like the game’s being officiated the way it’s intended to be officiated. So that was frustration, but I felt that all year.”

The ejection serves as the third time in the last two week in which a head coach from the Big 12 Conference has been ejected as Scott Drew of Baylor and Kelvin Sampson of Houston were both tossed recently as well. While the tension surrounding Big 12 officiating seems to be rising, Self says that what happened on the court Monday night did not stem any sort of unified talks with fellow coaches.

“I don’t bitch and complain to other people about that stuff,” Self said. “To me that’s a league level.”

Self’s overall unhappiness relies in the direction that the physicality has been allowed to take this season.

“There’s a lot of physicality,” Self said. “There's more this than there has been in year’s past.”

For Dickinson in particular, it has been an adjustment to come over to the Big 12, as he was shooting about 2.7 field goals for every free throw during his last season at Michigan (436 field goal attempts-to-161 free throw attempts). Meanwhile at Kansas, that stat is at about 4.9 field goal attempts for every free throw (334-to-68).

Dickinson might be enduring more contact than he was last year, but he did not want to excuse his 2-for-12 shooting night from the field, even if he could not pinpoint what went wrong.

“I don’t know… I feel like if I knew the answer I would have made the adjustment,” Dickinson said.

Self wanted to make sure Texas Tech got their props, as he thought they did a good job of keeping him and KJ Adams from getting good positioning throughout the game, as the pair combined to shoot 3-of-22 from the field.

“I actually think we missed some shots,” Self said. “I also thought they contested the shots really well. I thought they did a good job of keeping Hunter off his spots. And I think most of the credit should go to them for how they defended him.”

Kansas had not been held to 50 points since their loss to Tennessee in November of 2022 until Monday night. The combination of Kevin McCullar missing his second straight game, Self’s frustration with officiating reaching a new height and the offensive performance the Jayhawks put on (32.7% field goal percentage) was what it took for Self’s first ejection at Kansas, and first since a game that took place in the mountains of Wyoming.

“I have been ejected one other time,” Self said. “It was in altitude, so I obviously wasn’t thinking clearly in Laramie, Wyoming. Maybe as good of an official as our sport’s ever known threw me out there because he said ‘you don’t have to yell, I’m standing right here,’ and I said ‘I can yell if I want.’”