Verdict in, KU’s Bill Self attempts to not disrupt the system he’s mastered

LAWRENCE, Kan. — They say that posture is the most important part of walking a tightrope, but that’s in a real circus, with elephants and lions and bearded ladies.

The most important part of walking a legal and public relations tightrope is discipline and defiance. Or, at least, that’s the way Kansas coach Bill Self is trying to tame his corner of the college basketball circus.

The one with indictments, FBI investigations, and now guilty verdicts involving adidas — KU’s apparel partner — recruiting basketball players to several schools, including Kansas.

“We all know shoe companies have influence on all levels of basketball,” he said.

“My staff and I have not and do not offer improper inducements to (recruits) or their families … nor are we aware of any third-party involvement to do so,” he said.

“I’m not shucking responsibility at all,” he said.

The whole thing — from the investigation to the trial to the desperate clinging to plausible deniability — reminds me of a moment just after Kansas’ greatest achievement last season, when it beat Duke to make the Final Four, the confetti coming down and hats being passed around. We’ll get to that in a moment.

First, it’s worth mentioning that viewed from a legal perspective, Self refrained from commenting on anything involving the trial, even whether the guilty verdicts — technically and comically, a jury determined that KU and other schools had been defrauded by the shoe company influence that’s defined college basketball for decades — were good for his program.

This is sort of like going into a restaurant and being defrauded by them serving you food.

So, kudos on that?

From a public relations standpoint — and there are few places in the world where perception matters more than in college sports — the results were mixed. He stood up for KU fans, said he won’t run from the reports, and (correctly) pointed out that relationships between shoe companies and recruits and schools do not violate NCAA rules.

But his non-answers to anything he deemed connected to the trial will be seen by many as running from the reports, and he said the question of whether Kansas should continue its relationship with adidas is for the school’s chancellor and athletic director. Self is the highest-paid and most powerful man on campus, which he would not deny, and it is simply not believable that the university would go against his wishes on this either way.

Self gave assistant coach Kurtis Townsend unwavering support. This is notable, because in a phone call that the defense tried unsuccessfully to enter into evidence, one of the defendants told Townsend a recruit was asking for money and housing.

“If that’s what it takes to get him for 10 months, we’re going to have to do it some way,” Townsend is recorded as saying.

The recruit, Zion Williamson, is now at Duke, and the cynic might say that’s KU’s best defense here. Not just that Williamson didn’t choose KU, but that he is now at Duke, the sport’s glamor program. That means an investigation with even the pretense of credibility must include Mike Krzyzewski’s domain.