Self Presented with Rupp Award

March 29, 2012

NEW ORLEANS – Kansas Men’s Basketball Head Coach Bill Self was presented with the 2012 Adolph Rupp Cup by the Commonwealth Athletic Club of Kentucky on Thursday at the New Orleans Marriott. Kansas Associate Athletics Director Jim Marchiony accepted the award on behalf of the Jayhawks’ leader due to the team’s NCAA Tournament Final Four practice schedule.

In his ninth season as head coach at Kansas, Self led the Jayhawks to the Final Four with a 31-6 record and a Big 12 regular season championship, adding to his 268-52 overall record at Kansas and eighth-straight Big 12 regular season title. In addition to being Self’s 14th consecutive 20+ win team, the Jayhawks went undefeated at Allen Fieldhouse and earned the No. 2 seed in the Midwest division for the NCAA tournament. Self has also been named as one of four Finalists for the Naismith Coach of the Year award, which will also be awarded in New Orleans.

“As a former player of Coach Rupp’s, I can tell you that Bill Self is the kind of coach that Rupp would have respected, and the kind he would have loved to play against. He’s one of only four coaches in NCAA Division I history to have led three different teams to the Elite Eight. Success at multiple programs, and against the odds, is the mark of a great coach,” said Gerry Calvert, Club spokesperson.

The Rupp Awards awarded by the Commonwealth Athletic Club of Kentucky, a non-profit organization established in 1972 by players and associates of former UK head coach Adolph Rupp – a graduate and former coach of the University of Kansas. The awards are determined by a select national voting panel consisting of over 80 sportswriters, coaches and athletic directors representing every major Division I conference and all geographic regions of the country.

Self and the Jayhawks match-up with Ohio State in a Final Four showdown Saturday at approximately 7:30 p.m. inside the Mercedes-Benz Louisiana Superdome. The game will be televised nationally on CBS.