Did Bill Self seriously consider leaving Kansas to be Oklahoma State basketball coach?

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STILLWATER — As Oklahoma State and Kansas prepare for their first and only meeting of the season in men’s basketball, differing reports have surfaced regarding Kansas coach Bill Self’s level of interest in the Cowboy coaching job last year.

Self says he spoke to OSU about the job “and offered my opinion about what is needed to win in our league,” he told Brett McMurphy of Action Network on Friday.

His comments came after a Friday morning report from the Tulsa World that Self “holed up in a lodge at Karsten Creek and seriously considered the offer,” Berry Tramel wrote. The report included quotes from unnamed OSU sources describing what was interpreted as a high level of interest from Self in the job after Mike Boynton was fired last March.

OSU instead hired Steve Lutz, who is 13-13 coaching the Cowboys heading into Saturday’s visit to Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kansas, for a 2 p.m. tipoff against the Jayhawks.

Kansas coach Bill Self, about report he seriously considered Oklahoma State job last year: “I spoke to them, answered questions about the job & offered my opinion about what is needed to win in our league,” Self told me. “Which I have done every time the job has opened. They got…

— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) February 21, 2025

Self, who played at OSU and was an assistant under Leonard Hamilton and Eddie Sutton, has been the obvious target every time the OSU job has come open in recent years. He is in his 22nd season at Kansas, where he has won two national championships.

Self painted a picture of the discussions last March as no more serious than previous interactions when OSU was hiring a coach.

“I spoke to them, answered questions about the job (and) offered my opinion about what is needed to win in our league,” Self told McMurphy. “Which I have done every time the job has opened. They got the right guy. I did join Karsten Creek, one of the country’s top golf courses, as an out-of-area member but I’ve never spent a (night) close…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/article/did-bill-self-seriously-consider-202945340.html

Author : The Oklahoman

Publish date : 2025-02-21 20:29:00

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