Bill Self

Bill Self is the head coach of the University of Kansas men's basketball team and guided his Jayhawk team to the NCAA national championship in 2008. A 1985 graduate of Oklahoma State (where he was a four-year letter winner in basketball) , Self has served as head coach at four schools, and led both Tulsa and Illinois to the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament before joining Kansas in 2003. Named national coach of the year by the Associated Press and ESPN.com in 2009, Self has recorded more than 400 wins in his coaching career and his Kansas teams have won eight consecutive Big 12 regular-season titles through the 2011-12 season.

Born in Okmulgee, Oklahoma on December 27, 1962, Bill Self was the Oklahoma high school basketball player of the year in 1981, following his senior season at Edmond Memorial High School. He played four years of college basketball at Oklahoma State University, graduating with a business degree in 1985.

After one season as an assistant basketball coach at the University of Kansas, Self accepted an assistant coaching position at his alma mater and served under Oklahoma State head coaches Leonard Hamilton and Eddie Sutton from 1986 to 1993.

Self was given his first head coaching job by Oral Roberts University in 1993, and helped improve a struggling basketball program during four years at the helm. In 1996-97, his Oral Roberts team won 21 games and earned a place in the National Invitational Tournament (NIT), the school's first postseason appearance in more than a decade.

Following that campaign, Self accepted the coaching position at the University of Tulsa. He guided the Golden Hurricane program for three seasons, compiling more than 70 wins and leading Tulsa to the NCAA Tournament in his final two years. After his team reached the NCAA Elite Eight in 2000, Self was honored as Sporting News' Coach of the Year.

Self then moved on to the University of Illinois for the 2000-2001 season, when the Illini shared the Big Ten regular-season title and advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. Illinois also reached the postseason the following two years under Self, who left the school in 2003 to become the eighth head coach in the history of Kansas' basketball program.

Like his first year at Illinois, Self's initial season at Kansas resulted in his squad reaching the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament, but his team again failed to reach the Final Four, falling to Georgia Tech in overtime. The Jayhawks started strong the following season by winning 20 of their first 21 games but faltered late to settle for a share of the Big 12 regular-season title and a first-round upset loss to Bucknell in the 2005 NCAA Tournament.

Self's Kansas team in 2005-06 was dominated by younger players, but the team responded from a slow start with a late-season winning streak to again share the conference's regular season title, before claiming its first Big 12 tournament championship under Self with an impressive victory over Texas. Kansas could not carry that momentum into the NCAA Tournament, as the fourth-seeded Jayhawks lost to Bradley in the first round.

The Oklahoma native won his 300th game as a head coach the following season, when Kansas repeated as Big 12 tournament champion and made it to the Elite Eight of the 2007 NCA As. Self's 2007-08 Kansas team claimed a third straight Big 12 tournament title on its way to winning the school's third NCAA national championship, defeating Memphis in overtime in the title game to earn the crown. The Jayhawks won a school-record 37 games for the season, after which five players from the team were selected in the 2008 NBA Draft.

Despite losing players to the NBA, his 2008-09 team finished with the best regular-season record in the Big 12 and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA tournament. Following that season, he was named national Coach of the Year by the Associated Press and ESPN.com. Self's Jayhawks earned No. 1 seeds heading into the NCAA tournament the following two years -- and were again Big 12 tourney champs -- but were upset by Northern Iowa in the second round of the 2010 tournament and fell to VCU in Southwest Region final in 2011.

Self and Kansas added another Big 12 regular season title in 2012, and followed that up with a return trip to the Final Four. Kansas beat Ohio State in the national semifinals before falling to Kentucky in the national title game.