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Bill Self

Bill Self (born December 27, 1962 in Okmulgee, Oklahoma) is the head men's basketball coach at the University of Kansas.

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.

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.

Collegiate coaching history

Early coaching jobs

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.

Oral Roberts

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 1993-1994 in the National Invitation Tournament.

University of Tulsa

After rebuilding the Golden Eagles, 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.

University of Illinois Fighting Illini

After his success at Tulsa, The University of Illinois picked Self from a list of numerous candidates to succeed Lon Kruger, who moved on to the NBA to coach the Atlanta Hawks. In 2001, his first season at Illinois, Self took over an immensely talented team, and coached his new Fighting Illini squad to a 27-8 record, a share of the Big 10 title, and a number 1-seed in the NCAA Tournament. Self and star guards Sergio McClain and Corey Bradford along with center Brian Cook led the Illini to the Elite Eight where they met and fell to eventual finalists Arizona in a much disputed contest. The Illini were accused of being overly physical, especially McClain and pesky guard Lucas Johnson (younger brother of former Illini forward Brian Johnson). Numerous mild, "ticky-tack" fouls were called on Illinois and it seemed that the officials were looking to make an example of the Illini's so called "bullying". The coach himself was called for two technical fouls for protesting the officiating during charges taken by Arizona'a Luke Walton and Loren Woods on dunks by Illini forward Marcus Griffin. The '01 Illini team also included future NBA players Frankie Williams and Robert Archibald. With mostly the same core, Illinois followed up the seaon with impressive 2002 and 2003 campaigns, but fell in the sweet 16 both years.

After the 2003 season, Roy Williams left the University of Kansas to take his “dream job” at the University of North Carolina. This left a vacancy at KU and many speculated that Self would take what was thought to be his own "dream job" with the Jayhawks. In an interview with Terry Boers on Chicago-based WSCR, the Illini radio network at the time, Self said that he was happy at Illinois and had no plans to leave. Despite these statements, Self jumped ship for Kansas just a few weeks later.

Self was largely responsible for the recruitment of the 2005 Fighting Illini which won the Big 10 title and went undefeated until the final game of the season, before playing in the NCAA championship game under Bruce Weber, who replaced Self prior to the 2004 season. Self's recruits on that team that included four eventual NBA draft picks, Utah Jazz guard Deron Williams, Dee Brown, Luther Head and James Augustine. Self also secured a verbal commitment from forward Charlie Villanueva, who was a projected to be a 1st round pick in the NBA draft out of High School. After Self left for Kansas, however, Villanueva withdrew his commitment to Illinois, opting to attend the University of Connecticut instead. Due to this defection, Self was villified in the Illinois media for some time.

In Self's three seasons in Illinois, he led the Fighting Illini to two Big Ten regular-season championships, a Big Ten Tournament title, and three straight NCAA tournament appearances, compiling a remarkable record of 78-24 in that span.

University of Kansas Jayhawks

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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 Yellow Jackets, 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 slumped and lost six of 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.

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. Although 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, 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 three seasons at KU and 279-129 (.683) in 13 seasons 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, highlighted by beating the Kevin Durant-led Texas Longhorns in monumental come-from-behind victories in the last game of the regular season and in the Big 12 Championship game. Thus, in his first four seasons at KU he has won the conference title three times. 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. In the NCAA Tournament, Self's Jayhawks received a number 1 seed, and advanced to Self's fourth career Elite Eight, with the team garnering commanding wins over 16-seed Niagara and 8-seed Kentucky, as well as a tough-fought victory over the 4th-seeded Southern Illinois Salukis. Kansas's tournament run ended in the Elite Eight with a loss to 2-seed UCLA.

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

During his first few seasons at Kansas, he has also persuaded several McDonald's All-Americans to become Jayhawks including Mario Chalmers, Julian Wright, Micah Downs (who later transferred to Gonzaga), Sherron Collins, Darrell Arthur, Cole Aldrich, and Brandon Rush, the youngest brother of NBA guard Kareem Rush and former UCLA star JaRon Rush.

Assists Foundation

In June 2006, Self and his wife, Cindy, established the Assists Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization to serve as a fundraising conduit for organizations that serve a variety of youth initiatives. The mission of Assists is to help provide young people access to better lives. This is accomplished by identifying areas of need and working with other community-based institutions to provide creative and lasting solutions

Head coaching record

External links

• University of Kansas Athletics

• Bill Self's Assists Foundation

• Articles lacking sources from August 2006
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• 1962 births
• American basketball players
• American basketball coaches
• Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball coaches
• Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball coaches
• Living people
• Oklahoma State Cowboys basketball coaches
• Oklahoma State Cowboys basketball players
• Oral Roberts Golden Eagles men's basketball coaches
• People from Oklahoma
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