Kansas basketball: Could new-look Big 12 entice Bill Self to coach longer?

Bill Self is the greatest head coach in Kansas basketball history.

That fact was cemented after he led the Kansas Jayhawks to the 2022 national championship – giving him two NCAA titles in his career and placing him in elite company among college basketball’s coaching legends.

In his 20 years as head coach at Kansas, Self has amassed a record of 584-132 – giving him a winning percentage of 81.6% and an average of 29.2 wins per season. He needs just 7 wins to pass Phog Allen and become KU’s all-time winningest head coach.

Self has led the Jayhawks to 17 Big 12 Conference titles and nine Big 12 Tournament titles. The team has also never missed the NCAA Tournament under his watch and has never been lower than a No. 4 seed heading into the tournament.

Under Self, KU has appeared in four Final Fours and three NCAA championship games. He’s a five-time Big 12 Coach of the Year and two-time AP Coach of the Year.

For all these accomplishments and more, Self was named to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017.

Self has accomplished everything and more than Kansas fans and the university could have hoped for when he took over for Roy Williams in 2003.

He could retire tomorrow and no one would question his accomplishments or if he left anything on the table in his career.

To be clear, Self has given no indication that he plans to retire anytime soon. In fact, he said the opposite after suffering his medical scare earlier this year.

"“The last several weeks, I’ve been able to reflect on a lot of things,” Self told reporters following the incident. “The one thing I can tell you without question (is) I missed my job, I love my job and I want to do my job for a long time.”"

Self would be the last one to tell you that he’s accomplished all that he wanted to. That’s part of what makes him a great coach. He’s never satisfied, never complacent, and always seeking excellence year after year – which is also part of the job when you coach at a school like Kansas. Expectations are always sky high.

But the truth is, once Self passes Phog on the all-time wins list at KU, there will be little left for him to accomplish besides further building upon the Hall of Fame career he’s already built.

However, what could potentially keep him motivated to coach at KU longer is the new structure of the Big 12 Conference following the latest moves in conference realignment.

Starting next fall, Arizona, Arizona State, Utah, and Colorado will be members of the Big 12 – making it without a doubt the country’s most powerful basketball conference. There’s even talk of potentially adding UCONN and Gonzaga to the conference as basketball-only members.

Self is the type of competitor who would thrive at a chance to claim the top spot of the country’s strongest hoops conference.

Instead of owning a league of 10-12 teams like he’s done for the majority of the past two decades, he has the chance to own 16 (or maybe more if realignment continues) and beat some fresh faces – some of whom are the best programs in college basketball – along the way.

No Jayhawk fan wants Self to step away anytime soon, and he’s given no indication that he will. But there’s a chance this new-look Big 12 could provide a new challenge for the Hall of Famer and keep him on the Kansas basketball bench just a little bit longer.