LAWRENCE, Kan. — The tape recorder turns off, and Bill Self keeps talking for another 30 minutes. About what’s going on elsewhere in the sport. How to build a roster in this era. What excites him about the team he just built.
I asked Self to sit down to talk about his decision to return for a 24th season at Kansas after publicly acknowledging at the end of the season that he had a decision to make. Retirement was a real possibility.
It’s clearly not his favorite topic. Self is careful with his words. But it’s in those 30 minutes after the recorder is turned off that he gives the real answer to why he’s back. He still loves this stuff. Loves being around the players and coaches. Loves putting together the puzzle.
But the end of the season brought uncertainty. Self, who had two stents inserted last July after a heart scare that put him in the hospital, didn’t feel like himself. He was tired most days. He hadn’t felt great in a while. He even missed a game at Colorado in January, when he was briefly hospitalized again.
By the NCAA Tournament, when Self and Kansas exited with a second-round loss to St. John’s, “it was probably the worst I had felt in a while,” he said.
Self, 63, gave himself a week to make a decision on his future. It took 10 days.
He wanted to know two things from his doctors: Was this his new normal? And was the stress of coaching going to impact his health?
He got the answers he needed and even sought a second opinion to make sure.
“Basically, it reinforced what other doctors had told me, that, ‘Bill, we’ll get the medicines figured out. You’re actually in better shape, health-wise, than what you were this past summer. You just don’t feel it yet.’ And they convinced me that it was more short term than it was long term on how I felt.
“I wanted to certainly continue to do what I love. And if I do make a decision not to do this, it will not be because of my health.”
Self is already feeling better. Last week, he walked 3 miles in a weighted vest. There are no second thoughts about his decision, he said.
Still, the public can’t help but wonder: Is this next season the end?
He’ll probably never answer that question. He doesn’t want a send-off. But his view on the future has evolved.
“I don’t look at it as year-to-year, but I may not look at it in five-year increments anymore either,” Self said. “I probably look at it more as, hey, as long as I’m feeling good and enjoying it, I want to keep doing this. And so that’s where I’m at. I don’t see anything that says it’s imminent. And I don’t see anything to say it’s 10 years from now. I’m just gonna keep doing it as long as I feel good and feel like I’m still effective.”
Self says his family is supportive. They want him to be happy and healthy.
“And if that means coaching for 10 more years, fantastic,” Self said. “If that means not coaching anymore, fantastic. That’s what they want. But they also know that when I go out, I want it to be on my own terms, not on medical terms.”
Self believes that will be the case. But he has indicated more time with family is also a pull at this stage of his life. On “Made for March,” a Paramount+ documentary that followed Kansas behind the scenes this past season, Self said he felt he had short-changed his family because of his career, and he was looking forward to not making that mistake with his grandchildren.
“I don’t know that it will influence how long I go,” Self said. “But I know, like so many people out there that chase their careers, the people that usually sacrifice the most when you’re doing that are the ones that are closest to you — i.e., family. And I was around my kids, but not in a way that I will look back on and say I was around my kids, more so because the job allowed my kids to be around me as opposed to me being around them. And I want to be there more for my grandkids, which I think everybody would want, more so than probably what I was for Lauren and Tyler.”
I asked Self whether he has thought about what he wants the end to look like, and whether the way this past season ended impacted his decision. Kansas lost in the second round on a buzzer-beater to St. John’s, which was the fourth straight season the Jayhawks failed to advance past the first weekend of the tournament.
It’s not as much which round it ended, but how. Self always asks his players, if the game is on the line, last possession, would they rather be on defense with a chance to win or have the ball last? He gives off the feeling he prefers the answer to be defense, which is how the Jayhawks won his last national championship in 2022. It cannot sit right that there was little resistance on the final possession of KU’s season, which led to Self kicking the scorer’s table right after Dylan Darling’s layup went through the net.
“I can handle not winning, to an extent, but I felt like the way we played down the stretch is something that I would not want to go out on,” he said. “I thought we tried hard. I thought there were a lot of good things that happened from a coach’s vantage point. But the way that it ended out in San Diego is something that I wouldn’t want that to be my last memory of my tenure here. And I know it’s more likely your career is gonna end on a loss. I mean, I know that. But it didn’t feel right to me.
“So, did that have anything to do with it? No. I would have made the decision regardless of how it ended. But it certainly gives me some extra motivation.”
Self added that whenever the end comes, he hopes to go out “knowing that we gave it our very best shot.” He didn’t feel like that happened this past season and mostly felt like it was out of KU’s control.
With star freshman Darryn Peterson battling injury all season, Kansas wasn’t able to reach the peaks it believed were possible in the preseason. (Ed Zurga / Getty Images)
The team was built around star freshman Darryn Peterson, who had a full-body cramping episode in the preseason that put him in the hospital and it impacted most of his year.
Kansas never “got whole,” as Self put it. The Jayhawks went 5-6 in their final 11 games, and Peterson struggled to get back to his old self.
Self felt like he got there in the NCAA Tournament — Peterson scored 49 points in two tourney games — but the “Is he in or out?” dance throughout the season took its toll. The Jayhawks never really found a rhythm. Self, meanwhile, was so focused on his team that he waited until after the season to evaluate his own standing.
KU’s administration urged Self to take his time. But from his vantage point, Kansas couldn’t wait — whether he was in charge or someone else.
One reason was Tyran Stokes, the No. 1 recruit in the 2026 class. Stokes was still undecided, choosing between Kansas and Kentucky, but Self was excited about the chase.
“Let’s just call it like it is: There wasn’t much runway if we were gonna get Tyran Stokes,” Self said. “So I wanted to coach Tyran Stokes, period. And I knew we had a great chance to get him, but we couldn’t delay what we were doing.
“Now, would I have come back still (without Stokes in the picture)? Yes, but the excitement level to come back, I think, was in large part because we didn’t have him but we had a great chance to get Tyran.”
The work is mostly done now. Self landed Stokes on April 28. After graduating six players and losing another six to the transfer portal, Self signed six others this spring in addition to Stokes: four from the portal and two more high school players. Now comes the fun part.
In a few weeks, the players will arrive, and Self will get his whistle back out and start preparing to push his program back toward the top of the sport after three down seasons, by his standards.
He’s excited about coaching Stokes, whom he speaks of similarly to how he spoke about Peterson a year ago. He likes the team he put together and is excited about the potential. He’s eager to start going from paper to the floor to figure out how to make the puzzle fit.
Self is not ready for the end yet. He has accomplished a lot, yes. But he still has more to say.