After health scare, Kansas basketball coach Bill Self is more focused on his health than ever
Bill Self has no doubts that he will be Kansas men’s basketball’s head coach next season, and envisions being around for many more.
A health scare last month did lead to him missing the Big 12 tournament and the team's two games in the NCAA tournament . He was under the care of the University of Kansas Health System starting March 8, before he was discharged March 12, and according to a team release while there “underwent a standard heart catheterization and had two stents placed for the treatment of blocked arteries.” But he’s more resolved than ever to be a part of the Jayhawks’ future.
However, while recognizing that, Self acknowledged as well that he’ll go about focusing on his health in a way he hasn’t before, too. For so long, he’s been told how he needs to lose weight, eat right and exercise. For the first time, he’s taking that advice seriously.
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“I think the last several weeks I’ve been able to reflect on a lot of things,” said Self, who felt fortunate there was a chain of events that led him to getting checked out. “The one thing I can tell you without question, I miss my job, I love my job and I want to do my job for a long time. That’s what is positive. Now, for me to be as effective doing that, I think I have to wake up a little bit and maybe do some things from a lifestyle standpoint, a personal habit standpoint, that I have been very, very, very inconsistent with my entire adult life.”
Self made his fair share of jokes Wednesday, as he spoke publicly for the first time in a while. But he always came back to the seriousness of what happened. He didn’t shy away from the implications of it all, regardless of how much confidence he had in the care he received.
Initially, Self thought he could coach in the March 9 game of the Big 12 tournament against West Virginia. He also thought he could coach in the March 10 game of the Big 12 tournament against Iowa State. Both times, he revealed, he was laughed at for thinking that.
There was talk about Self potentially coaching in the team’s first game of the NCAA tournament on March 16 against Howard. But he noted that if he did that, there was a good chance he wouldn’t be able to coach in the next round. Then lingering concerns about an elevated heart rate, of high blood pressure, led him to missing the March 18 game against Arkansas that Kansas lost.
Self would only have been able to coach in the NCAA tournament if the Jayhawks got by the Razorbacks, he explained. But he didn’t express any dismay about the season ending there other than saying he wishes he was a part of it. Missing all those games, he said, was the right thing to do.
“Now, do I think, ‘Could I have helped or done this or done that?’” said Self, who praised the team for winning the Big 12 regular-season championship. “Well, I think everybody would think that. I think the 13th man on the bench would think, ‘Well, if you give me a chance I could have helped. I could have made a play to help us win.’ I think everybody would think that. But … I’m OK with how the closure aspect of it, of how it ended, because I knew this, that those kids, whatever their ceiling was, they got about as close to it as they possibly could this year.”
Energy-wise, Self said he’s probably back to where he was before the health scare occurred. So, now he’s looking to truly feel well again. In that way, there’s still some ways to go even though he said he isn’t limited physically at all anymore.
Self wants to continue to have an effect on the college basketball landscape. He wants to do that at a place in Kansas where he considers basketball to be a way of life. And he knows he won’t have the effect he could have if he’s not feeling well.
“My goal is to take this place to a whole different level that we’ve never been to before, and we’ve been to a really high level,” said Self, who’s now preparing for his 21st season leading Kansas’ program. “And I know I need to have my energy and I need to be healthy and feeling good in order for us to do that. And I'm believing this spring is the first step to us getting to that level.”