Bill Self
Coach

Bill Self has completed three seasons as head coach at the University of Kansas and has won two regular-season Big 12 titles and one league tournament. He was named the eighth head coach in Kansas basketball history on April 21, 2003.

 

In 13 seasons as a head coach, Self has compiled an overall record of 279-129 (.684), including a 72-24 (.750) record in three years at Kansas. He has posted a 13-8 mark in NCAA Tournament play and guided his teams to eight-straight 20-win seasons and nine overall. Self has won six league crowns in the last eight years, with the other two resulting in runner-up finishes.

Self is a four-time finalist for the Naismith Coach of the Year Award (2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003), and The Sporting News named him National Coach of the Year in 2000. In addition, Self has led three different teams - Tulsa, Illinois and Kansas - to the NCAA Elite Eight.

In 2005-06, Self won his second-straight and sixth league title as a head coach. He won two titles at Tulsa (1999, 2000), two at Illinois (2001, 2002) and a share of the last two Big 12 titles at Kansas (2005 and 2006). Self was also named the 2006 Big 12 Coach of the Year, finished fourth in the Associated Press Coach of the Year voting and guided KU to the league tourney title.

A member of the USA Basketball Competition Committee, Self has coached three league player(s) of the year in the last six seasons. At Kansas, Wayne Simien was the Big 12 Player of the Year in 2005. At Illinois, Self's Big Ten Player(s) of the Year included Frank Williams in 2001 and Brian Cook in 2003. In all, Self has coached 28 all-conference selections in nine years of league competition.

In 2004-05, Kansas not only won a share of the Big 12 regular-season championship, but also opened the season ranked No. 1 nationally in the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today Coaches' polls. KU?was ranked in the top 10 for all but the final poll of 2004-05.

In his inaugural season at Kansas - 2003-04 - Self guided the Jayhawks to 24 wins and the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight. He tied former KU head coach Dick Harp for the most wins by a first-year KU coach, and only Harp's 1956-57 team - which advanced to the NCAA title game - went further under a first-year coach than Self's Elite Eight squad.

Self came to KU from the University of Illinois, where he guided the Fighting Illini to a 78-24 record over three seasons, including two Big Ten regular-season championships, a Big Ten tournament title and three straight NCAA tourney appearances. In Self's first season in Champaign, the Illini advanced to the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight.

In 2002, Self became the first Big Ten coach since 1912, and just the second all-time, to lead his squad to league championships in each of his first two seasons at the school.

The 2002 Illini's 26-9 record then-tied a school high for the third-most wins as Illinois advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tourney for the second straight year. In his first season at Illinois, Self became just the ninth head coach in Big Ten history to win a league title in his first season, as the Illini shared it with Michigan State.

Prior to his stint at Illinois, Self coached at Tulsa from 1998 to 2000, where he led the Golden Hurricane to a record of 74-27 in three seasons, including a trip to the NCAA Tournament in 1999 and 2000. Tulsa went 32-5 in 2000, setting a school single-season record for victories and made the NCAA Elite Eight. With the Illinois Elite Eight appearance in 2001, Self became the first coach since 1950 and 1951 (Tippy Dye at Ohio State and Washington) to lead two different schools to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament in successive seasons.

Self began his head-coaching career at Oral Roberts, where he resurrected the Golden Eagles' program. Before Self took over the reins, ORU had compiled the worst record in the program's history with a 5-22 mark in 1992-93. Although Self 's first ORU team managed just six victories in 1993-94, the win total increased to 10 the following year. In his third season at the helm, Self guided the Golden Eagles to an 18-9 record. In 1996-97, ORU registered a 21-7 mark and made the school's first postseason tournament appearance since 1983-84, receiving an invitation to the NIT.

Prior to his appointment at ORU, Self spent seven seasons as an assistant coach at Oklahoma State University. He originally joined the Cowboys' staff for the 1986-87 season and spent the next four years working under then-OSU head coach Leonard Hamilton. In the three seasons prior to his arrival at ORU, Self served as an assistant on Eddie Sutton's staff at OSU.

During Self's seven seasons at OSU, the team advanced to postseason play a total of five times, including three trips to the NCAA Tournament (1991-93) and two straight appearances in the NIT (1989-90).

Before Oklahoma State, Self spent the 1985-86 season on Larry Brown's coaching staff at Kansas. While Self was at KU, the Jayhawks registered a 35-4 record and advanced to the Final Four. A native of Edmond, Okla., Self competed at Oklahoma State where he was a four-year letterwinner from 1982 to 1985. He received his bachelor's degree in business in 1985 and a master's degree in athletic administration in 1989, both from Oklahoma State.

He and his wife, Cindy, have two children: daughter, Lauren, and son, Tyler.

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