North Carolina win puts Bill Self on verge of making Kansas basketball history
The No. 1-ranked Kansas basketball team picked up its first marquee win of the 2024-25 campaign on Friday. North Carolina nearly orchestrated a second-half comeback, but the Jayhawks pulled away to steal an early-season top-10 victory.
It was the first game of the blue blood home-and-home series and should bode well on the schedule with the selection committee in March. However, the outcome didn’t mean more to anyone than head coach Bill Self. The Hall of Famer tied the legendary Phog Allen with 590 wins at the university.:
Head Coach Bill Self is now tied for the most wins as a Head Coach in Kansas Basketball history 🙌 pic.twitter.com/dHnIPKXTFq
— Kansas Men’s Basketball (@KUHoops) November 9, 2024
Bill Self could become Kansas basketball’s all-time win leader tonight
"I’m proud, but he’s still the greatest coach and the best innovator that this school will ever know. So, we don’t need to get carried away. We play more games. If he’d had played that many games and coached 39 years, he would have won 2,000 games. But it’s great. "
- Bill Self
The win over the Tar Heels vaulted Coach Self to a two-way tie for the most wins as Kansas basketball head coach. With the Jayhawks preparing to face Michigan State in the Champions Classic tonight, he could very well etch his name into the history books with a victory.
Self obviously has the utmost respect for Allen and spoke about it candidly during his postgame press conference. He has coached 14 more games than Allen did despite being at the helm for 14 fewer seasons. Had seasons been longer during his time, Self would be nowhere close to his win total right now.
There is still an asterisk on the 590 number due to the 15 wins the NCAA vacated in the 2017-18 season. Since Silvio de Sousa was deemed ineligible, Self and KU had to forfeit nearly half of the team's wins that year. If you want to get technical, he may already be the all-time wins leader in your eyes.
Regardless of what happens against MSU, Self will easily reach 600+ wins by the end of 2025. He also has a handful of years left in him before discussions about retirement will arise. Kansas is lucky to have such an incredible coach leading the program.
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