Adam Zagoria covers basketball at all levels. He is the author of two books and an award-winning journalist whose articles have appeared in ESPN The Magazine, SLAM, Sheridan Hoops, Sports Illustrated, Basketball Times and in newspapers nationwide.
Kansas coach Bill Self hospitalized, out for Big 12 Tournament
By ROB ROSE
Kansas head coach Bill Self will not coach the Jayhawks during their run at a Big 12 Tournament title.
The university announced the decision on Thursday and provided a limited update on Self’s health status via a press release. The release also corrected reports that Self had a heart attack.
“KU Men’s Basketball Coach Bill Self is a patient at The University of Kansas Health System,” the release said. “Chief Medical Officer Dr. Steve Stites wants to clarify that Coach Self did not suffer a heart attack as reported by some media. He arrived at the emergency department last night and underwent a standard procedure that went well. He is expected to make a full recovery. There will be no further medical details released for now.”
Self added a quote himself in the statement and thanked fans for support during a difficult time away from the team. It’s unclear if Self will be cleared to coach during the NCAA Tournament at this time.
“I am very grateful for the overwhelming number of well wishes my family and I have received. I’m excited to get back with my team in the very near future,” Self said.
Kansas finished the regular season at 26-6 and won the Big 12 regular season title. As the conference’s No. 1 seed, the Jayhawks received a bye then beat West Virginia, 78-61, in the quarterfinals on Thursday.
Assistant coach Norm Roberts will serve as interim head coach during the Big 12 Tournament. After the game Roberts told reporters he talked to Self postgame and Self is doing well and ready to watch film.
“Coach is always preaching to us, ‘Hey get the job done, focus on what you can control,'” Roberts told reporters. “There’s other things you can’t control so what we could control was getting the team ready, and getting them ready to play and locking in and playing the way we needed to win the game and I thought our guys did a great job of being very, very focused.”
Redshirt junior forward Jalen Wilson, who had 22 points and 11 rebounds in the win, told reporters:
“It brought us together even more. Throughout all the adversity we’ve been through throughout the entire season, that just makes us come together even more and play as a team. It’s bigger than us. We play for our entire family across Lawrence, across Kansas, and it was just another moment to prove how tight this group is.”
Redshirt junior point guard Dajuan Harris Jr., who had 13 points, 8 assists and 4 rebounds, said: “Our coaching staff, coach Rob, they told us about what happened, but they told us he was going to be alright, so that kind of got that stuff off our mind. But really we just wanted to come in and play hard for him on the defensive end and we came out with the ‘W.'”
On Friday Kansas will face No. 5 seed Iowa State, which beat Baylor to set up a meeting with the Jayhawks in the semifinal.
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