Bill Self joined elite company as the ninth-fastest coach in NCAA Division I history to reach 600 career wins after No. 3 Kansas defeated UMKC, 105-65, on Tuesday night inside Allen Fieldhouse.
After the game, Self was presented with his commemorative 600th-win game ball. The 24th-year head coach was also surprised by special video messages from his former players at Oral Roberts, Tulsa, Illinois and Kansas on the Allen Fieldhouse jumbotron following his monumental victory.
“It’s a significant number. To have that number in our 24th season is special,” Self said after the game. ” But what’s more significant to me is to see those guys up on the video board. So many of those guys have gone on to do good things, not just on the basketball court, but with their lives. Of course the basketball court has played a big role in a lot of their lives, but that was really nice. I certainly didn’t anticipate that, but I was pretty moved watching those kids.”
While at Kansas, Self has won one national championship, a KU-record 12-straight regular-season Big 12 Conference titles and seven league tournament championships. He is 206-9 all-time in Allen Fieldhouse and has won more league titles (12) than has home losses (nine). In his first trip to the Final Four in 2008, Self’s team won the title. Self is one of 11 active coaches in NCAA Division I to have won a national title. Kansas’ 12-straight conference titles (2005-14) rank second all-time in NCAA Division I history.
In Self’s 13 seasons at Kansas, he has coached 10 NBA Lottery selections including Andrew Wiggins and Joel Embiid, the No. 1 and No. 3 overall selections in the 2014 NBA Draft. Wiggins was the second-ever Jayhawk to go No. 1 with the other being Danny Manning in 1988.
A seven-time conference coach of the year, six of which came at Kansas (2006, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2016), Self has guided his teams to 18-straight 23-win seasons dating back to 1998-99. Self’s teams have won 16 league crowns in the last 18 years, including the 2015 title. The other two seasons resulted in runner-up conference finishes.
Kansas’ four-straight 30-win seasons from 2009-10 to 2012-13 are the most consecutive 30-win seasons in NCAA history (note: Memphis did it from 2006-09 yet later vacated the 2008 season). Self has guided Kansas to seven of its 13 overall 30-win seasons. In his first 700 games coached for his career, Self’s 529 victories rank eighth most all-time in NCAA Division I history.
The 8-1 Jayhawks will return to the court on Saturday when they host Nebraska (5-3).
