Kansas' Self: No reason for player discipline during campus rape probe
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Kansas coach Bill Self said Thursday that a police investigation of an alleged rape at his team's dorm has given him no reason yet to discipline any players as the second-ranked Jayhawks prepare to play at No. 4 Kentucky.
Self acknowledged that the investigation of the alleged attack last month of a 16-year-old girl at McCarthy Hall has become a "major distraction" heading into Saturday's showdown. No charges have been filed, and police have not publicly identified any suspects or offered any time frame about how long the investigation may take.
Five of Self's players are listed as witnesses on the police report, by Self's definition meaning they could have information about "anything that happened before, during, after." The girl is not a student at Kansas and was visiting the dorm's residents, police on the Lawrence campus have said.
Self refused to publicly reveal what any players have confided in him, though he insisted "we've been given zero information that would warrant suspensions or anything like that" for now. Discipline could come later if the police findings warrant such a step, he said.
"Regardless of what I've been told, it doesn't matter. It's what is found out to be the facts," he said. "Hopefully, that'll happen sooner rather than later."
Self said he learned about the incident from the athletics department the day it was reported, Dec. 18, and he insisted without elaboration that "we met it head on." When asked Thursday whether he discussed with KU officials about "getting in front of this" well before the matter became public this week, Self said "there's nobody withholding information at all."
"I don't know where you're going, but I don't like it," Self told the reporter. "If you wanted to discuss how it's being handled, go to the (police), OK. That's not our responsibility to report everything that the (police) does. And it's not their responsibility, I don't think, to report it, because they have certain things that they have to do to certainly follow their protocol.
"So no, nobody is hiding behind this at all, and I kind of resent the fact that you would even hint at that," Self said.
Self, whose Jayhawks (18-2) lost at No. 18 West Virginia on Tuesday night, said he wasn't sure how his team will play against Kentucky.
"It's going to be a situation (in which) guys are going to have to use the basketball court as a way to kind of bond together rather than to be talked about off it," he said.
