Oklahoma City ? The huddle 26 years ago, consisting of a gaggle of teenagers and a wet-behind-the-ears head coach, would have made anyone a believer.
The setting was the Oklahoma Class 5A state boys basketball tournament, and Mike de la Garza had called a timeout prior to an opponent hoisting a one-and-one free-throw attempt.
The fifth-year Edmond Memorial High coach scurried through strategy with his team trailing by a point and just a few precious seconds left. As his players rose from the bench to return to the floor, they sat right back down. It was the idea of Bill Self – who led the team in scoring, rebounding, assists and was its top defensive stopper.
“We’re getting ready to get up off the bench and go, and Bill goes, ‘Take another timeout, coach. Let’s freeze him,'” de la Garza recalled. “So we take another timeout, freeze him, they miss it, we’re down one. Boom, (Self) sticks it, we win.”
That break in the action is just one reason de la Garza will be far from surprised when fourth-year Kansas University men’s basketball coach Self wins his 100th game as the Jayhawk leader, which could happen as soon as Friday’s Big 12 quarterfinals, to be played at 11:30 a.m. in the Ford Center.
Now, sitting on a sun-drenched late morning in the Bricktown district of Oklahoma City, eating lunch and overlooking the downtown ballpark from the left-field restaurant windows, de la Garza sharply recalls such memories for as long as you want to hear them. For example, that was the last of six final-second game-winners Self hit as a senior in 1981.
Now the athletic director at Edmond Memorial High School, de la Garza has watched the suburb 15 miles north of Oklahoma City go from a one-high-school, 35,000-resident town to a 90,000-occupant, three-high school city.
Before assuming his current position following the 1997-98 season, de la Garza spent 22 years as the school’s boys basketball coach, bringing home countless victories and ultimately a state crown in 1993.
He’ll also be in the Ford Center stands to watch the action this weekend, as Self returns to his roots, the No. 2 college basketball team in the land swinging by his belt. Even when Self was in high school, de la Garza knew his star guard’s life 26 years later would involve the game he loved.
“He was all about basketball,” de la Garza said. “For him to have chosen anything else (as a profession) would have surprised me.”
Speaking of Self with conviction is easy for de la Garza, as he was there for years after to see the impact Self had on Edmond, even as his playing career moved to Oklahoma State, and then as his name grew in the coaching ranks.
Self isn’t the only prominent college coach today with Edmond Memorial in his rearview mirror. Oklahoma women’s basketball coach Sherri Coale, one of the top coaches in the women’s game today, and Missouri State coach Barry Hinson both were at the school in the mid-1980s. Coale was a girls assistant, while Hinson held a similar post on the boys side. Hinson later coached with Self at Oral Roberts.
But no name in Edmond is bigger than Self’s, de la Garza contends.
“If we ever did an alumni Hall of Fame, which we’ve never done at Edmond High, Bill would be one of the first guys in,” he said. “He’s one of the most prominent people to ever come out of Edmond. He’s literally big-time.”
Self even formed new traditions in the state of Oklahoma.
Ray Soldan, a legend in Oklahoma as a prep sports writer, used to select the state’s Player of the Year each season, until he hit a wall in 1981. The choice was too tough to make between Self and his future Oklahoma State teammate, Joe Atkinson, who played for tiny Class B Coyle.
Soldan ultimately split the title, awarding a Player of the Year award to each of them, labeling one the small-class POY, and one the large-class winner. It’s been done every year in Oklahoma since.
While Self always had the numbers to prove himself legit, de la Garza recalls his impact as a whole, calling Self the missing ingredient Edmond Memorial needed to become a contender. He started from the beginning of his sophomore year, taking his team to the state finals once and the semis twice. He was the heady type of player who could carry a team so deep year-in and year-out.
“When he was playing for me, we had a good relationship,” de la Garza said. “You get tired of people saying ‘coach on the floor,’ but Bill literally knew what to do the whole time he was out there.
“To me, he invented the phrase ‘thinking two passes ahead.'”
When win No. 100 at KU comes for Self, de la Garza, who still talks to his former player a handful of times a year, won’t need a photo or trophy in the hallway to remind him of how Self got to that point. He’s got plenty more stories ready for the telling.
“He and I were having a conversation when he was about 26, 27, and he was working at Oklahoma State and I had my team up there, and he was in charge of the team camp,” de la Garza recalled. “One afternoon, he and I got about two hours to just sit down and talk, one of the best afternoons of my life. He was doing so well, and he said ‘I’m going to be a head coach by the time I’m 30.’ Well he got that Oral Roberts job when he was 30. And I told him that day, ‘Bill I’m going to tell you something, I believe you’ll do that. And I think by the time you’re 40, you’ll have one of the top 10 jobs in the country. And I think by the time you’re 50, you’ll be the best coach in the country. ‘
“Well he’s in his 40s and he got that Kansas job, and all he needs to do is punch that ticket, and he is on his way.”
