Kansas' Bill Self Receives Wooden Award Legends of Coaching Honor

April 13, 2013

LOS ANGELES – Kansas men’s basketball coach Bill Self received the John R. Wooden Award Legends of Coaching honor at the annual John R. Wooden Award Gala, Friday in Los Angeles.

Self was officially named the recipient of the accolade in Oct. 2012 and received the trophy at Friday’s John R. Wooden Gala honoring men’s and women’s college and high school 2013 John R. Wooden Award winners.

One of the nation’s most successful coaches, Self has won nine-straight Big 12 regular season titles and six league tournament championships in his 10 seasons with the Jayhawks. His KU record stands at 300-59 and his 83.6 winning percentage at Kansas is the highest in the legendary program. Kansas’ 300 wins under Self are the most of any NCAA Division I school over the last 10 years.

Overall, Self is in his 20th season as a head coach with a 507-164 record. Self’s NCAA Tournament success includes a run to the 2012 national title game and an NCAA title in 2008. His Kansas teams have reached at least the Sweet 16 seven times in his 10 years at KU.

Prior to taking the helm at Kansas, Self served as the head coach at Illinois and Tulsa, where he led both schools to the Elite Eight. Self began his career as an assistant coach for Larry Brown at Kansas and he also served under Leonard Hamilton and Eddie Sutton at Oklahoma State. His first head coaching job was at Oral Roberts, where he took a team that won six games his first year and transformed it into a 20-win team by his third season; Self then rejuvenated the Tulsa program in the same fashion, taking the Hurricane to back-to-back NCAA appearances in 1999 and 2000.

Away from the court, Self devotes substantial time to his “Assists Foundation,” which directs funds to help children in a variety of ways, including scholarships and grants to school-based, private and public agencies. In the classroom, Kansas has achieved an Academic Progress Rate (APR) score of a perfect 1,000 in each of the last six years under Self. In the Bill Self era, Kansas has had 25 Academic All-Big 12 selections, which is best in the conference, and 27 of 28 four-year players at KU have earned their degrees.

The “Legends of Coaching” award was adopted by the Wooden Award Committee in 1999. The first recipient was Dean Smith of North Carolina. The honorees are selected based on character, success on the court, graduation rates of student-athletes in their basketball program, coaching philosophy, and identification with the goals of the John R. Wooden Award.

John R. Wooden Award “Legends of Coaching” Recipients

1999 – Dean Smith, University of North Carolina

2000 – Mike Krzyzewski, Duke University

2001 – Lute Olson, University of Arizona

2002 – Denny Crum, University of Louisville

2003 – Roy Williams, University of Kansas

2004 – Mike Montgomery, Stanford University

2005 – Jim Calhoun, University of Connecticut

2006 – Jim Boeheim, Syracuse University

2007 – Gene Keady, Purdue University

2008 – Pat Summitt, University of Tennessee

2009 – Rick Barnes, University of Texas

2010 – Billy Donovan, University of Florida

2011 – Tom Izzo, Michigan State University

2012 – Geno Auriemma, University of Connecticut

2013 – Bill Self, University of Kansas

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