SAN DIEGO — Kansas coach Bill Self left open the possibility Sunday that the Jayhawks’ season-ending loss to St. John’s was not just the close of a turbulent year, but also potentially the start of a larger conversation about how much longer the Hall of Famer will remain in college basketball.
After the No. 4 seed Jayhawks were eliminated 67-65 in the Round of 32 on No. 5 seed St. John’s buzzer-beating layup, Self said he planned to return home, meet with family and evaluate what comes next.
“I haven’t really gone through much on the court,” Self said. “I’ve gone through some stuff off the court. So I’ll get back and get with family and visit and see what’s going on.
“I love what I do. I need to be able to do it where I’m feeling good and healthy to do it fairly well. I’ll get back home, and it will all be discussed.”
Self, 63, did not announce any decision on his future, but his postgame remarks were an indication his future in Lawrence is not something he is treating as automatic.
Kansas finished the season 24-11 after Red Storm point guard Dylan Darling’s gut-punching layup at the buzzer, capping a season that had been marked by flashes of elite upside and constant instability around freshman phenom Darryn Peterson’s availability.
Peterson scored 21 points Sunday and tied the score with 13.1 seconds left, but the Jayhawks still fell short of reaching the tournament’s second weekend. Though Self has dominated in the Round of 64 since he took the reins in Lawrence, advancing to the second round or deeper in every tournament from 2007 to 2024, Kansas hasn’t made it out of the first weekend since 2022.
Self’s comments came amid a string of recent health issues. He missed the Big 12 and NCAA tournaments in 2023 after being hospitalized with chest tightness and later undergoing a heart catheterization procedure in which two stents were inserted to treat blocked arteries. He then had two more stents inserted in July 2025 after Self “felt unwell and experienced some concerning symptoms,” per the school.
There was another scare this season, Self being taken to Lawrence Memorial Hospital in mid-January after he felt unwell. There, he received IV fluids and did not travel with Kansas for its game at Colorado, with former Kansas standout Jacque Vaughn serving as the Jayhawks’ interim coach.
That recent medical history is part of why speculation about Self’s retirement has persisted, even without any formal indication from Kansas that a change is looming. On Sunday, Self himself framed the issue less around wins or losses than around whether he feels healthy enough to keep doing the job at the standard he expects.
“I don’t know about completely,” Self said, “but I’m feeling — I feel as good as I’ve felt in a long time. I’m not making any statements whatsoever.
“When you get to be doing it as long as I’ve done it, I look at it in five-year increments. Now I’m probably looking at it in more two-year increments, so to speak. So I try to focus on this season and try to get us to a second weekend, which we failed at. So I’ll go back now and break it down and see where that leads.”
If this was in fact the beginning of an exit, it would close one of the most decorated coaching tenures in college basketball. Self has helmed Kansas since 2003, won national titles in 2008 and 2022, entered the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017 and became the winningest coach in program history in November 2024.
As of Sunday evening, Self was not ready to say whether this loss to St. John’s would be his last on the Jayhawks’ sideline.