Illinois coach Bill Self is a member of the Kansas University men’s basketball family.
He assisted Larry Brown during the Jayhawks’ 1986 run to the Final Four.
“It’s one of my favorite programs and one of my favorite places,” Self, a former Oklahoma State player, said of KU hoops and Lawrence, where he lived during the 1985-86 school year as a graduate assistant.
“It was one of the best years of my life. I just loved it there,” noted the 38-year-old Self, who along with R.C. Buford coached KU’s junior varsity team to a 12-7 record.
“I didn’t deserve to get that Kansas job,” the modest coach added.
Self says he received a job offer from Brown in a round-about way. Self drove to Lawrence to work Brown’s KU basketball camp the summer of 1984 between Self’s junior and senior year at OSU.
He hurt his knee while playing ball at the camp.
“I hurt my knee and coach Brown felt really bad,” Self said. “He felt sorry for me and said to give him a call if there was anything he could do for me.”
Self took up Brown on his offer, phoning KU’s coach and asking him for a grad assistant job.
“He said, ‘You got it,”‘ Self said. “I never heard from him again, so I just moved up there.”
Brown was a man of his word and added the Edmond, Okla., native to his KU staff after Self moved into a Lawrence apartment and wandered up to the Jayhawk basketball offices to say he’d arrived.
That season, KU reached the Final Four.
“He’s the best,” Self said of Brown. “KU goes 35-4, I get to go to the Final Four, sit on the bench and enjoy it. I owe so much to him.”
The Jayhawks fell to Duke that year in the national semifinals in Dallas.
Self is as big a fan of current KU coach Roy Williams.
“He is class. His program is class,” said Self, who has had an up-close and personal view of the Jayhawk program the past several years. He worked as an assistant coach to both Leonard Hamilton and Eddie Sutton at Okie State from 1986 to ’93.
After that, he recorded a 56-53 record in four years as head coach at Oral Roberts and 74-27 mark in three years at Tulsa before replacing Lon Kruger at U of I last summer.
“It’s great playing Kansas. I don’t like playing Kansas with three guys over 6-10 and the great perimeter game they have,” Self said.
Illinois is led by sophomore guard Frank Williams, who averages 14.9 points and 4.3 assists.
Soph forward Brian Cook, whose dad is ex-Jayhawk Norm Cook, averages 11.3 points and 6.1 boards.
Senior center Marcus Griffin averages 12.0 points and 6.3 boards. Senior forward Sergio McClain 7.5 points, 5.5 boards and 2.9 assists and junior Cory Bradford 9.6 points and 2.7 boards.
