Bill Self: 'Season starts Saturday' against Ohio State

Count Kansas Jayhawks head basketball coach Bill Self among those pleased with the way the Jayhawks have handled their pre-conference schedule. But don't count him among those truly impressed just yet.

After the No. 9 Jayhawks trounced the Richmond Spiders, 87-59, on Tuesday night to improve to 9-1, Self said the season hasn't really begun yet. But it will on Saturday, when the Jayhawks continue their pre-Big 12 schedule with their biggest test of the season, on the road against No. 7 Ohio State.

Richmond was the latest in a line of out-of-conference opponents Kansas has handled well of late. Along with the 28-point win over the Spiders, the Jayhawks also have a 36-point win over Colorado and a 29-point win over Belmont in December. Self was satisfied with the effort against Richmond:

"We controlled the game pretty well from start to finish tonight," Self said. "Our biggest lead was 37, so that's pretty good. Our biggest lead against Belmont was 41, and our biggest lead against Colorado was in the 40s. We've done a good job holding serve at home and playing with energy."

However, Ohio State will provide a good barometer of where the team is, Self said:

"Now we'll find out how good we are, though. Let's be serious. The season starts Saturday. Now we can go up there and hopefully take a real enthusiastic team up there, hunker down, see how tough we are and find out a lot about ourselves."

Kansas and Ohio State tip off at 3 p.m. CT on Saturday.