Kansas center Udoka Azubuike (35) shoots a free throw during the second half at Lloyd Noble Center on Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2018 in Norman, Oklahoma. by Nick Krug

After sitting at the podium in the Oklahoma media room and taking the blame for KU's 85-80 loss to the Sooners on Tuesday night, Kansas basketball coach Bill Self felt like he needed to make one more gesture to put some closure on the Hack-a-Dok free throw shooting issue that cost fifth-ranked Kansas its latest Big 12 game.

So Wednesday morning, after letting the whole thing soak in and settle down, Self made a phone call to 7-foot sophomore Udoka Azubuike, who, the night before, had missed six consecutive free throws with the Sooners putting him at the free throw line on purpose and Self leaving him in the game instead of opting to sub him out.

According to Self, who talked about both the free throws and the phone call with Azubuike on his Hawk Talk radio show on Wednesday night, the conversation featured a KU big man in better spirits than many might have expected.

“I said, 'I kind of put you out there, didn't I,'” recalled Self of his conversation with Azubuike. “And he said, 'No, no you didn't at all.' I said, 'I put you out there. I apologize for that, but I think you and I should get together and we've got to correct this, don't we?' He said, 'Yes we will.' He said all the right things. He actually sounded good. He was fine. I said, 'Dok (did the) sun come up today? You OK?' (And he said), 'Yeah, I'm fine.'”

“I know most fans probably think I’m an idiot for not subbing him,” Self added before quipping, “If you (do) you would probably be in the majority with many of my family members.”

As he explained Tuesday night, the purpose of Self choosing to leave Azubuike — a 41 turned 38 percent free throw shooter — in the game for those critical free throws was to show some confidence in his big man and force Azubuike to understand the importance of working to improve his free throw stroke regardless of how things went. But just because it went poorly does not mean Self did not see the benefit of his decision.

Even still, the KU coach reiterated Wednesday night that he was the one to blame for the loss and nobody else.

“By no means should anybody be down on him,” Self said of Azubuike. “That should be all on me. I told the guys afterward, 'Don't even think twice about this one. This one's on me because we didn't play enough to win.' I certainly feel like my decision obviously kept us from having the best chance to win, with hindsight.”

But even that hindsight, and his admission that if he had it to do over again he might do something different, did not change the bottom line in Self's eyes.

“I do know this in moving forward, and fans know this too; for us to really have a chance to have a really good team, Dok's got to make free throws. It’s not a situation where you can sub him every time the other team is going to foul. They are all going to try to foul him. You think (just) one scouting report says when he’s got a layup make sure you foul him and don’t give him an and-one? That’s every scouting report. He’s got to be able to do it. So he’s going to feel pressure the next time he goes to the line and the next time he goes to the line and the next time he goes to the line. He has to work through that.”

While there are all kinds of methods and options available for Azubuike to turn to in his quest to become a better free throw shooter, one area that likely will not be in the mix is moving to the underhanded, Rick Barry method. Self said again on Hawk Talk that the KU coaching staff had no plans to severely alter Azubuike's shot at this point in the season.

“You’ve got to understand, I don’t consider it,” Self said of the decision to change the shot. “That would be something Dok would have to consider. If you want to lose a player fast, make him do something he doesn’t want to do. We have thought about that and talked about it. I’ve had people text me or call and said they shot it back in the ’50s that way and would be more than happy to come to work with us and even teach our staff how to shoot it, which probably would be pretty good because none of us ever shot that.”

“I called (former KU assistant and current SMU head coach Tim Jankovich). He said, ‘That sounds good in theory. If I shot 1 percent from the free-throw line there’s no way they could get me to shoot it underhanded.’ I think in players’ minds they feel that would be something they shouldn’t do. I don’t want to say never. Maybe when you talk to Dok about some things he may say, ‘Yeah I’ll be more than happy to try that.’”

But Self does not believe it will come to that.

“He can make some free throws,” he said. “It’s between his ears as much as anything. … I felt this year he could shoot 55 to 60 percent (from the line). Of course that hasn’t happened. The last two games he’s (5 of 19). He’ll do better than that. Certainly we need him to. I still think if he’s fouled again I think he’ll get up and make them. All he has to do is make one or two and that changes everything.”