“How are you doing? Bill Self,” Self said, extending his right hand toward Clinton.

“I know exactly who you are. I watched all your games in the (NCAA) Tournament,” Clinton said while shaking Self’s hand.

“All of ’em, huh?” Self deadpanned.

“I was writing my book, so I had the tournament on all the time,” Clinton added. “You guys did well in the tournament — really, really well.”

Earl Richardson/Special to the Journal-World

“Yes, we played better than what we did during the regular season,” Self noted.

“I thought you were gonna win it all,” Clinton added of the Jayhawks, who reached the Elite Eight.

Clinton, who was introduced to the Kansas players who still were on campus — several already had headed home after final exams — spoke briefly with former Jayhawk Danny Manning, who had a long NBA career.

“Who do you think will win it? Detroit?” Clinton asked Manning, ostensibly referring to the NBA playoffs.

“I hope so,” replied Manning, who finished his career with the Pistons.

Clinton also shook hands with Aaron Miles and Keith Langford, who held KU jerseys with both former Kansas Senator Bob Dole’s and Clinton’s names on the back.

Dole also was on hand to meet the Jayhawks and show Clinton around before the his speech at Allen Fieldhouse.

“Yes, I was surprised,” Self said, asked if he was shocked Clinton knew of him. “I always knew he was big basketball fan. When I was an assistant at Oklahoma State, he and coach (Eddie) Sutton were good friends. Coach Sutton coached at Arkansas when President Clinton was governor there.

“He knew our team and who we played and of course he knew Danny,” Self added. “He went right to Danny and wanted to talk about players (in NBA). Most importantly, he knew Kansas.”

KU fan Dole told Clinton that Self had “signed a whole team” this past week.

Clinton presented with Jayhawks jersey Clinton calls for civility

Dole was referring to Self landing high school players C.J. Giles, Micah Downs, Mario Chalmers and Alex Galindo all in one week.

“I said, ‘We’ve got a couple (of signees),” Self recalled with a laugh. “He showed he has followed it (recruiting) a little bit.”

Self said, “the only negative was several of our players had already finished finals and left town. There were only six, seven guys there. It would have been great if we could have had the entire team, but it was exciting.”