For the first time in his coaching career, Kansas basketball coach Bill Self talked openly, after the end of his season, about the possibility of him putting down the clipboard and moving into retirement.
The Hall of Fame KU coach ultimately decided to continue coaching, moving ahead with plans for Year 24 at Kansas and year 34 as a head coach at the Division I level.
But for a while there, it looked like his future was very much up in the air, and speculation ran wild about this being it for Self after an incredible career that delivered some astonishing numbers and accomplishments.
We know now that he'll be back for at least the 2026-27 season, so while we wait for the offseason to move into high gear — the transfer portal opens on April 7 and the Jayhawks, like so many programs, will likely be active and early players in the portal world — let's take a look back at some of the best and biggest numbers and achievements of Self's career to date.
Many of these will now be added to in the year ahead and before his career comes to a close.
# Bill Self, By The Numbers...
• Career wins: 855
Self is 855-272 during his 33-year career, giving him a .759 winning percentage and putting him just 45 wins away from becoming just the 6th men's coach to eclipse the 900-win mark in the college game.
• Career wins at Kansas: 648
Self owns an even-better record of 648-167 during his 23 seasons at KU, giving him a winning percentage of .795 and an average of 28 wins per season. That number includes an astonishing record of 345-23 in games played at KU's Allen Fieldhouse, giving Self as many home losses as seasons coached at Kansas.
~ You might see these numbers listed differently in other places, because, a few years ago, the NCAA required Self to vacate 15 victories from the 2017-18 season as part of the IARP ruling against Self and the school. ~
• Number of 30-win seasons: 10
Self has won 20 or more games in a campaign every season since his second at Tulsa in 1998-99 — and 29 times in 33 seasons overall — but its those 30-win seasons that really set him apart and helped land him in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame back in 2017. Self's most impressive stretch of flat-out winning came from the 2006-07 season to 2012-13, when he won 30 or more games in six of those seven seasons. His most recent 30-win season came in 2021-22, when the Jayhawks went 34-6 and won it all.
• National titles: 2
The Hall of Fame coach returned Kansas to the top of the college basketball mountain for the first time in 2008, 20 years after Danny Manning led the Jayhawks to the title under Self mentor Larry Brown. Self joined elite company as the 15th head coach (at the time) to win two or more NCAA men's basketball titles during a career when he led the Jayhawks to the 2022 title in New Orleans, 10 years after finishing as the national runner-up in the same city. Dan Hurley, of UConn, has since joined that list and Hurley and Self are the only active men's coaches with 2 or more national titles.
• Final Four appearances: 4
Self has had nine cracks at reaching the Final Four during his time at KU and he knocked the door down on roughly half of those occasions, reaching college basketball's promised land in 2008, 2012, 2018 and 2022.
• Elite Eight appearances: 11
Nine of the 11 came during his time at Kansas, but Self also took Tulsa to the Elite Eight in 2000 and Illinois the very next year. Interestingly enough, Self's first seasons at both Illinois and KU ended in the Elite Eight, where Self owns a 4-7 record all-time. His best stretch came from 2006-07 to 2011-12, when he reached the Elite Eight or better four times in six seasons.
• NCAA Tournament wins: 54
Self owns an all-time NCAA Tournament record of 54-25, with a mark of 44-20 during his time with the Jayhawks.
• No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament: 11
Ten of those 11 have come at Kansas, and there would've been a 12th had the 2020 NCAA Tournament not been canceled. Beyond those remarkable facts, Self's teams have been a top-3 seed in the NCAA Tournament six more times, underscoring the incredible consistency Self's teams have had throughout his time with the Jayhawks.
• Big 12 regular season titles: 17
We all know that the Big 12 streak of 14 straight, which set an NCAA record, was regarded as one of the absolute monster accomplishments in the history of KU basketball, and there were some pretty memorable runs during that streak. KU had more than its share of seasons when it was projected to win the conference and did it running away, but there were also some late-season heroics and wild comebacks that kept the streak alive. The streak was a big part of the reason Self was inducted into the Hall of Fame as early as he was.
• Big 12 tournament titles: 8
Other than Final Fours and winning it all, I'm not sure Self has enjoyed anything much more than winning the regular season conference title and then validating it by winning the conference tourney, as well. Not all eight of these followed that path, but a lot of them did.
• Milestone victories
- No. 1 - Self's first win as a head coach came on Friday, Nov. 26, 1993, when he led Oral Roberts to a 78-66 win over Sam Houston State in his head coaching debut. That was about it for highlights that season. After hanging around at .500 through 12 games, Self's first team closed the season with 15 consecutive losses.
- No. 100 - Self reached triple digits while at Tulsa, with a 100-73 victory over Georgia State on Nov. 29, 1999.
- No. 300 - Wins over Missouri have always been sweet — none sweeter than that win over the Tigers at Allen Filedhouse back in 2012 before Mizzou bolted the Big 12 for the SEC, putting a halt to the Border War for more than a decade — but the Jayhawks' 92-74 win over Missouri on Feb. 10, 2007, in Columbia, was a little extra sweet because it delivered Self his 300th victory as a head coach.
- No. 500 - A rare in-conference milestone, Self reached career win No. 500 with a 108-96 road victory at Iowa State's Hilton Coliseum back on Feb. 25, 2013.
- No. 591 at Kansas - This win — 77-69 over Michigan State at the Champions Classic in November of 2024 — moved Self past the legendary Phog Allen for most wins all-time by a Kansas coach. There's now a banner that hangs on the west side of Allen Fieldhouse that recognizes Self as KU's all-time winningest coach, with a banner next to it that celebrates his late father's famous phrase, "Don't worry about the mules, son, just load the wagon." Said Self on the ESPN broadcast after securing win No. 591 at KU, "It means I’m old and it means I’ve had a lot of really good players."
- No. 700 - The Jayhawks' 60-46 win at TCU in February of 2020 gave Self win No. 700 for his career and made him the second-fastest coach to reach that mark in Division I men's basketball history. Self reached 700 at 57 years, 1 month and 12 days old, only behind former Indiana legend Bob Knight, who got there at age 56 years, 4 months and 12 days.
- No. 800 - Self became the fourth fastest coach in NCAA men's basketball history to reach the 800-win mark with an 84-66 victory over UNC-Wilmington on Nov. 19, 2024. This win came in the very next game after Self passed Phog Allen on KU's all-time wins chart, marking a heck of a time for milestones for the Hall of Famer.
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