LAWRENCE, Kan. (KCTV) – With his alma mater set to visit Lawrence this weekend and his basketball team in flux, Kansas head basketball coach Bill Self discussed a report Friday that claimed he “seriously considered” leaving for the Oklahoma State job.
Speaking to reporters a day before Kansas’ matchup with Oklahoma State, Self said he spoke with Oklahoma State administrators in 2024, just as he has in previous years when the Cowboys’ job has come open.
“I did talk to them,” Self said Friday, confirming that portion of the report from Tulsa World sports columnist Berry Tramel before refuting other portions of it. “And I spoke to OSU every time there’s been an opening in that position since Coach (Eddie) Sutton left (in 2006).
“Not necessarily about hiring me but about names or what I thought needed to happen in order for OSU to compete in this league.”
Tramel’s report claimed Oklahoma State officials put “a hard sell” on Self in the final week of March 2024, shortly before the University announced the hiring of head coach Steve Lutz on April 1. Self played at Oklahoma State from the 1981-82 season to the 1984-85 season.
He also coached as an assistant for the Cowboys under Leonard Hamilton and Eddie Sutton before departing to take his first head coaching gig at Oral Roberts in 1993.
“By far the closest it’s ever come to happening,” one OSU insider is quoted by Tramel as saying.
That portion of the report Self pushed back on.
“I also read in that article that I stayed ‘holed up’ at Karsten Creek,” Self said of a golf club in Stillwater, Oklahoma, that he said he has an out-of-town membership to. “I have holed up in Stillwater before but it’s only been the night before we’ve actually played a game. I haven’t been to Stillwater… unless my team is staying there.
“That was totally inaccurate.”
Self complimented Lutz — who is 13-13 in his first season with Oklahoma State after arriving from Western Kentucky — as he is in the midst of one of the worst seasons in his 22 years at KU.
“I think that they got the right guy,” Self said, “but I did talk to them and my administration knew that I talked to them. It wasn’t to the point of what was presented in the article.”
One of the times the Oklahoma State job has come open since Sutton left was in 2008, the offseason after Self won his first national championship at Kansas.
“I talked to them more seriously in 2008,” Self said Friday. “There’s a big difference between talking and having interest and considering.”
In his career, Self is 28-11 against the Cowboys as the head coach of the Jayhawks.
“Good people there, love the place, wish them the best,” Self said, “just not at our expense and tomorrow could be at our expense if we don’t play better.”
The No. 23 Jayhawks play Oklahoma State at 3 p.m. CT on Saturday. The game will air live on KCTV.
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