Tyshawn Taylor Suspended: Do Bigger Issues Loom for Bill Self And Kansas?

Years ago, I was at recruit camp at Siena College in Loudonville, New York. Siena's head coach at the time was Rob Lanier, who has since gone on to be an assistant for Billly Donovan at Florida.

Lanier told the camp that when coaches recruit players, they look for players that will ensure job security. Coaching is not a hobby, Lanier said, and coaches need players that will make them a success and further their career.

Lanier, however, was fired from Siena soon after that speech because of a string of losing seasons.

Lanier was not successful at one aspect of coaching. He did not win basketball games.

There is another aspect to the coaching profession though, that is not talked about on ESPN.

That is the duty of the coach to teach players, mold teenagers into men, and keep players focused and engaged in both school and athletics.

Bill Self of Kansas seems to be unsuccessful at that aspect of coaching.

Point guard Tyshawn Taylor has just been suspended indefinitely for violating team rules. As USA Today has noted, that could mean something as minor as not doing his homework or something as major as taking a swing at a teammate.

We don't know, and I will not speculate.

What we do know however, is this is one more instance where a player coached by Bill Self has had to be punished for off the court activity.

Again thanks to Marien Garcia of USA Today, I learned that earlier this year Taylor was involved in a fight with a football player and teammate Mario Little was suspended six games after being arrested for his involvement in a domestic disturbance, leading Doug Gottlieb of ESPN to declare that the Jayhawks have character issues.

The issue for Self and Kansas is, if he has a team of players who cannot control themselves off the court how can he control them on the court?

Furthermore, college campuses are not big cities.

Players know, or they should know, that news of their actions will spread. With that in mind, if they still do things that warrant disciplinary action, one has to question their dedication to the program.

Kansas has the talent to win a national championship but unless Self can find a way to get his players to buy into the team, I'm not sure they have the poise and mental stability to do it.

When players speak of John Wooden and Mike Krzyzewski they rarely talk about the coaches mastery of X's and O's. Instead players mention how Wooden and Kryzyzewski could teach, motivate and encourage.

Winning games is a major part of a coaches success, but it is hard to win games with players behaving poorly.

Self needs to find a way to focus his team or Kansas could find themselves leaving the Dance earlier then expected.

If that's the case, one has to wonder what Self's future with Kansas will be.