KU Basketball: Ranking Jayhawks Eight Head Coaches All-Time

Kansas Jayhawks head coach Bill Self – Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

KU Basketball Head Coach Rankings Number Two: Bill Self

The things Bill Self has accomplished in just over fourteen seasons with the Kansas Jayhawks is truly amazing. He built up from the foundation that was constructed by his seven predecessors and has made the program even stronger.

His crowning achievement, of course, was winning the National Championship in 2008. He has an additional Final Four appearance to his credit at Kansas, but one of the most amazing accomplishments in modern sports is The Streak.

Self and Kansas have won thirteen consecutive Big 12 Conference championships. This is an incredible feat when you consider this is power conference in which for several years now, as to play every league opponent on the road every season.

Add in six conference tournament championships, and the Jayhawks have just ruled the Big 12 under Self.

His other numbers are staggering. At the time of this writing, he was 419-88 at Kansas. In fact, in Allen Fieldhouse, the Jayhawks are all but unbeatable under Self. The Jayhawks have only ten losses in 14 plus seasons at home.

He’s also won six National Coach of the Year awards in his time at the helm of the KU basketball. He’s never won less than 23 games at Kansas, and he’s won thirty or more eight times.

His 82.6 winning percentage is even better than Williams’, and he has already coached eight Consensus All-Americans in his 14 full seasons for the Jayhawks.

Self’s teams have been ousted from the NCAA Tournament in the round of 32  or sooner in five of his 14 seasons at Kansas, and that is too high of a rate for the kind of program Kansas is. That may be the only blemish on his record, and considering how hard it is to reach the Sweet Sixteen, it is a minor one, because Self has made it to seven Elite Eights.

According to Chris Chase of USA Today, Self is arguably the best coach in the nation over the past ten years.

Currently, Self has 626 total wins at Oral Roberts, Tulsa, Illinois, and Kansas, which ranks him 30th all-time. If he coaches ten more seasons and averages 24 wins a year, he could finish with over 800 career wins.

The KU basketball program found a worthy man to be an integral part of prestigious history.

Next: The Legend