Bill Self

File:Bill self.jpg

Bill Self, current head coach of the University of Kansas basketball team.

Bill Self (born December 27, 1962 in Okmulgee, Oklahoma) is the head men's basketball coach at the University of Kansas. He replaced Roy Williams, who left KU to be the head coach at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill in 2003.

Self played collegiate basketball at Oklahoma State University, where he was a four-year letterwinner between 1982 and 1985 and was an All-Big Eight freshman selection in 1982. He received his bachelor's degree in business in 1985 and a master's degree in athletic administration in 1989, both from Oklahoma State University.

He is a four-time finalist for the Naismith Coach of the Year Award (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003), was named National Coach of the Year by The Sporting News in 2000, and the Big 12 Coach Year in 2006.

Collegiate coaching history

After a successful playing career for Paul Hansen's Oklahoma State Cowboys, Self spent the 1985-1986 season on Larry Brown's coaching staff at the University of Kansas. Between 1986 and 1993, Self was an assistant coach at Oklahoma State University under Leonard Hamilton, then Eddie Sutton.

After Oral Roberts University, in the 1992-1993 season, compiled its worst record, 5-22, in its history, Self was hired as head coach of ORU. In his first season at ORU, the team managed just six victories. Things improved slightly the following year when ORU won ten games. In Self's third season at the helm, he guided the Golden Eagles to an 18-9 record. And in his fourth season, ORU registered a 21-7 record as the school made its first post season tournament appearance since 1983-1984 in the National Invitation Tournament.

After rebuilding the Golden Eagles to MidCon dominance, Self was hired by the University of Tulsa and spent three seasons (1998 to 2000) there, compiling a Tulsa-best 74-27 record. While at TU, he coached the Hurricanes to two NCAA tournament appearances in 1999 and 2000. In 2000, TU went 32-5, setting a school single-season record for victories, as well as coaching the Golden Hurricane to their first-ever Elite Eight appearance.

The University of Illinois hired Self in 2000, and Self's teams compiled a record of 78-24 over three seasons. In those three seasons, Self led the Fighting Illini to two Big Ten regular-season championships, a Big Ten Tournament title, and three straight NCAA tournament appearances, including a run to the regional final in his first season when they were a number one seed. After the 2003 season, Self left Illinois to take his "dream job", the head coaching job at Kansas.

In his first season at Kansas, Self led his new Kansas team to the Elite Eight at the NCAA tournament. There they took Georgia Tech to overtime before falling to the Ramblin' Wreck, finishing his first season at Kansas within 8 points of a Final Four appearance.

Big things were expected of KU in 2004-05, and they began the season #1 and started off 20-1, but then they tanked with six losses in their final nine games, including a humiliating loss to Bucknell in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The team finished 23-7 and settled for a Big 12 co-championship with Oklahoma at 12-4; and the Sooners held the tie-breaker, having beaten KU 71-63.

In 2005-06, little was expected of the freshman/sophomore dominated Jayhawks, and they began the season 10-6, including 1-2 in the Big 12. While they did post a 73-46 win over Kentucky, they also saw the end of their 31-game winning streak over rival Kansas State with a 59-55 loss at Allen Fieldhouse, and two nights later blew a seven point lead in the final 45 seconds of regulation en route to a 89-86 overtime loss at Missouri. But afterward, the Jayhawks matured rapidly, winning 15 of their final 17 games. They picked up impressive road wins over Texas A&M (83-73), Iowa State (95-85), Nebraska (69-48), and Oklahoma State (64-49). They mounted a monumental comeback victory over Oklahoma (59-58) after falling behind by as many as 16 in the second half, and avenged their loss to Missouri with a 79-46 blowout of the Tigers in Lawrence (by that time Mizzou coach Quin Snyder had resigned in disgrace after his team lost six straight, including a 90-64 loss to Baylor). KU did stumble against Texas, taking an 80-55 beating, but they won their final two Big 12 games over Colorado and at Kansas State (avenging the earlier loss at home), and taking advantage of a Texas loss to Texas A&M to force a tie for the Big 12 title at 13-3. KU played as the #2 seed in the Big 12 Tournament in Dallas, TX, and avenged the loss to Texas with a 80-68 victory over the Longhorns in the final to clinch the Tournament championship and the highlight win of the season. KU was handed a #4 seed for the NCAA Tournament but stumbled again in the first round with a loss to the Bradley Braves.

Prior to the 2006-07 season, Self was 72-24 (.750) in his third season at KU and 279-129 (.683) in his 13th season overall and 13-8 in NCAA tourney play. On February 10, 2007, Self recorded his 300th career win in a 92-74 victory at Missouri. Self did lead Kansas to the 2007 Big 12 regualar season championship with a 14-2 record. Thus, in his first four seasons at KU he has won the conference title three times, outright once. At the end of the regular season, Kansas stood at 27-4 and ranked #2 in the nation in both the AP and Coaches polls.

Self is one of two active coaches to guide three different teams in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament (Rick Pitino is the other.)

Known for his recruiting successes as he successfully recruited Luther Head, Deron Williams, Dee Brown, and James Augustine at the University of Illinois. All four were intregal parts to the Illini's 2005 National Runner-up team. During his first few seasons at the University of Kansas, he has also gotten several McDonald's All-Americans to become Jayhawks including Mario Chalmers, Julian Wright, Micah Downs (who later transferred), Sherron Collins, Darrell Arthur, and Cole Aldrich.

Coaching Record (Overall)

School	Season	Overall Record	Conference Record	Accomplishments
Oral Roberts University	1993-1994	6-21	N/A	none
Oral Roberts University	1994-1995	10-17	N/A	none
Oral Roberts University	1995-1996	18-9	N/A	none
Oral Roberts University	1996-1997	21-7	N/A	none
University of Tulsa	1997-1998	19-12	9-5	none
University of Tulsa	1998-1999	23-10	9-5	WAC Co-champs
University of Tulsa	1999-2000	32-5	12-2	WAC Champs
University of Illinois	2000-2001	27-8	13-3	Big Ten Co-champs
University of Illinois	2001-2002	26-9	11-5	Big Ten Co-champs
University of Illinois	2002-2003	25-7	11-5	Big Ten Tournament Champs
University of Kansas	2003-2004	24-9	12-4	none
University of Kansas	2004-2005	23-7	12-4	Big 12 Co-champs
University of Kansas	2005-2006	25-8	13-3	Big 12 Co-champs, Big 12 Tourney Champs
University of Kansas	2006-2007 (in progress)	30-4	14-2	Big 12 Champs, Big 12 Tourney Champs
Total	-	309-133	116-38	7-time Conf Champ, 2-time Conf Tourny Champ

Coaching Record (Postseason)

Oral Roberts University Golden Eagles

1994 - None

1995 - None

1996 - None

1997 - NIT (0-1)

University of Tulsa Golden Hurricane

1998 - None

1999 - NCAA 9 seed, 2nd round

2000 - NCAA 7 seed, Elite Eight

University of Illinois Fighting Illini

2001 - NCAA 1 seed, Elite Eight

2002 - NCAA 4 seed, Sweet Sixteen

2003 - NCAA 4 seed, 2nd round

University of Kansas Jayhawks

2004 - NCAA 4 seed, Elite Eight

2005 - NCAA 3 seed, 1st round

2006 - NCAA 4 seed, 1st round

2007 - NCAA 1 seed,

External link

• University of Kansas Athletics