Men’s Basketball
Kansas head coach Bill Self watches a replay during the second half of an NCAA collegiate basketball game against Texas on Saturday, March 4, 2023 in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Kansas City, Mo. — Kansas men’s basketball coach Bill Self was admitted to the University of Kansas Hospital to recover from an illness.
According to a statement from Kansas Athletics, “I’m fine and she’s being looked after very well by the University of Kansas health care system.”
The Hall of Famer coach and two-time national champion will not be with the team for today’s Big 12 tournament when the Jayhawks take on West Virginia at 2 p.m. at the T-Mobile Center. It is currently unclear when he will be able to join the team again.
A source with knowledge of Self’s condition told Journal-World that the long-term prognosis is positive.
Self assistant Norm Roberts, who led the team through the first three games of the regular season while Self was serving a varsity suspension, will serve as the Jayhawks’ interim head coach.
Roberts, who was previously the head coach at St. John’s from 2004 to 2010 and also at his alma mater, Queens College, from 1991 to 1995, led Kansas to three wins in three tries earlier this season, including a Champions Classic win over Duke in Indianapolis.
Self was with the Jayhawks at the team’s open practice Wednesday afternoon at the T-Mobile Center and spent about 15 minutes with the media after practice ended.
Appearing in normal shape, he was looking forward to the start of the postseason and KU’s readiness to contest another run for a national title later this month.
“We talked about it a lot,” Self said Wednesday at the start of the Jayhawks’ postseason run. “We’ve talked about going to Kansas City to try and position ourselves to win this thing, but we know we better take one game at a time. But I didn’t care about winning it. I put the emphasis on doing our best. What the (Big 12) tournament does, it can confirm what your regular season was. And this is an opportunity to confirm that.”
The Jayhawks (25-6) won the regular-season Big 12 title by a game over Texas and entered this week as the top seed in Kansas City, in good position to pick a No. 1 seed in the being NCAA tournament.
However, all of this likely took a toll on the Jayhawks’ head coach’s health.
Self is 581-130 in his 20 seasons in charge of the Jayhawks and 788-235 in his 30 seasons as head coach, which included stints at Oral Roberts, Tulsa and Illinois before Kansas.
He has long been considered one of the top coaches in the game, with one of the best winning percentages in NCAA basketball history, and more recently has been considered the best active coach in basketball after Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski recently retired is. Roy Williams from North Carolina and Jay Wright from Villanova.
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Written by Matt Tait
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