Bill Self

Life and work

The story behind the role.

American basketball player and coach.

Billy Eugene Self Jr. (born December 27, 1962) is an American basketball coach who is the head coach of the Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball team. Self has held various coaching roles at the collegiate level and has been the coach of the Jayhawks since 2003. At Kansas, Self has led the team to 16 Big 12 regular season championships (including an NCAA record-tying 13 consecutive Big 12 regular season championships), three NCAA Final Four appearances (2008, 2012, 2018*, 2022; *the 2018 appearance was vacated due to recruiting violations), and to the NCAA Championship in 2008 and 2022. Through February 7, 2026, Self has a record of 342-22 (.940 win percentage) at Allen Fieldhouse, and he has had three home winning streaks of more than 30 wins (including a school-record and 11th-best all-time 69 game streak). During his tenure at Kansas, he has recruited several McDonald's All-Americans and coached many players who went onto the NBA. Self was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017. At the end of the 2021–22 season, Self had the 18th most wins among Division I coaches in NCAA history and 4th among active head coaches. He is the winningest coach in Kansas history, having passed Hall of Famer Phog Allen on November 12, 2024, and is the only coach in Kansas history to lead Kansas to multiple NCAA Tournament National Championships. Self was the highest paid NCAA basketball coach for the 2021–22 season earning $10,184,282. He signed a lifetime contract extension with the Jayhawks in 2021. In 2022, Self became the seventh coach to win multiple NCAA tournament championships since the tournament field expanded to 64 teams in 1985.

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