Here’s a sampling of what national media outlets were saying Sunday night about Bill Self accepting the head coaching position at Kansas University:
Gary Reinmuth
Chicago Tribune
Have a Happy Easter. See ya.
That was the painful gist of the quick goodbye phone calls Illinois basketball players received Saturday night from Bill Self, who was about to become their former coach.
Self and assistant coach Norm Roberts hopped on a jet Sunday morning bound for Lawrence, Kan., where Self will be introduced at 1 p.m. CDT news conference Monday as Kansas’ new head coach.
It has only been a week since former Jayhawks coach Roy Williams’ decision to take the North Carolina job set in motion a domino effect that led directly to Self. For anxious Illini fans and for athletic director Ron Guenther, faced with finding his second basketball coach in the last three years, it has seemed much longer than that. Exactly what they feared would happen did happen.
Andy Katz
ESPN.com
Illinois coach Bill Self has accepted the head-coaching job at Kansas and traveled to Lawrence, Kan., to meet with school officials, a source close to the coach said Sunday.
The source said Self made the decision Saturday and informed his Illinois players that night, adding that the decision to take the job was a “gut-wrenching” one for Self, but one “he knew he had to make.”
Brett Dawson
Champaign (Ill.) News-Gazette
Bill Self has accepted the head basketball coaching position at Kansas, multiple sources close to the University of Illinois program said Sunday afternoon.
Self accepted the position Saturday and informed his players, most of whom are off campus for the Easter holiday, by telephone Saturday night.
Mike DeCourcy
Sporting News
Working at KU has been a dream for Self since he began his career there as a graduate assistant under Larry Brown. Self will inherit a team with three returning starters from the 2003 NCAA finalists: point guard Aaron Miles, wing Keith Langford and power forward Jeff Graves. Star forward Wayne Simien also should be returning from a shoulder injury that knocked him out of the lineup for most of the season’s second half.
The Jayhawks picked up a top recruiting class, including wing J.R. Giddens of Oklahoma, center David Padgett of Nevada and shooting guard Omar Wilkes of California. Self will have to convince all three not to seek releases from their letters of intent.
Self plans to bring his entire Illinois staff to Kansas, including ace recruiter Norm Roberts, who was with Self at Tulsa and Illinois. Roberts was the key contact in the recruitment of 6-10 forward Charlie Villanueva, a McDonald’s All-American from Blair Academy in New Jersey. Villanueva committed to Illinois but did not sign a letter of intent. He could possibly be re-recruited by Self and his staff to join the Jayhawks.
