“He was one of those young coaches destined for stardom,” said Johnson, who was KU’s athletic director in 1986 when Self was a graduate assistant to coach Larry Brown. “He’s proven that since he’s left here. He’s worked with excellent coaches. Larry and Eddie Sutton are the kind of people you’d like to have as mentors along the way.”

Count Johnson among the KU fans praising the hiring of Self as the eighth head basketball coach in Kansas history. The former Illinois coach, who is 207-105 with five NCAA Tournament appearances at Oral Roberts, Tulsa and Illinois, is expected to be introduced at a 1 p.m. news conference today.

“The people I’ve talked to the last couple of days have been unanimously excited,” said Johnson, who was a member of KU’s 1957 Final Four squad and later served his alma mater as athletic director from 1982 to 1987. “There’s been nothing but positive comments about Bill.”

Self played at Oklahoma State from 1982 to 1985 and spent one year as a graduate assistant to Brown in 1986 when the Jayhawks went 35-4 and reached the Final Four.

Wichita State coach Mark Turgeon, who was a candidate for the KU job before removing himself from consideration Thursday, was a guard on the Jayhawks’ 1986 squad.

“I think it’s great,” Turgeon said of Self’s hiring. “I think he’s the guy they wanted from the beginning. He’s extremely competitive, and you put that with KU’s tradition and things will be great.”

Turgeon never has coached against Self, but he has competed against the former Cowboy.

“Yeah, I played against him,” Turgeon said. “I know that, but we’re so old we can’t remember.”

Self, 40, returned to OSU for the 1986-87 season and spent seven years at his alma mater working for coaches Leonard Hamilton and Sutton. The Oklahoma native then turned a poor Oral Roberts program into a winner (55-54 in four seasons) before three-year stints at Tulsa (74-27) and Illinois (78-24).

His introduction today will come one week after longtime Kansas coach Roy Williams resigned to take the head coaching job at North Carolina. KU boosters praised the search committee of Chancellor Robert Hemenway, interim athletic director Drue Jennings and associate athletic directors Richard Konzem and Doug Vance for hiring Self and expediting the process.

“I think that’s very important,” Los Angeles benefactor Dana Anderson said of the quick search. “I understand he’s already meeting with the players and plans to contact each of the four recruits in the very near future. I’m very pleased. I think he’ll be great. The search committee did a great job.”

Boosters also were pleased with the fact their new coach had Kansas ties.

“I think that helps,” said Laird Noller, a Williams Fund member and former member of the Kansas University Athletic Corporation board. “He went to the Final Four with us in 1986. He’s got Midwestern values. I have to commend the committee on an outstanding job.”

Self will face the challenge of replacing a legend at Kansas. Williams won 418 games and nine conference titles in 15 seasons and guided the Jayhawks to four Final Fours.

In his last job, Self took over for Lon Kruger in the summer of 2000 at Illinois after Kruger had led the Illini to an 81-48 record, three NCAA Tournaments and a Big Ten title in four seasons.

“It’s going to be hard to replace Roy Williams,” Noller said. “But with the players we have coming back and our recruits, he’ll be very successful. When he took over at Illinois, Lon Kruger had a great year the season before. Bill stepped in and did a great job. I expect him to do the same thing at Kansas.”

Many Kansas fans were disappointed — and even hurt — when Williams returned to his alma mater last week. The hiring of Self could help the Jayhawk faithful move on.

“It’s a good, positive step for Kansas,” Noller said. “We lost a good coach — and a good friend of mine — but we have to go forward. We lost a class coach, but we gained a class coach. On and off the court, they’re two class gentlemen.”