Bill Self to Receive Wayman Tisdale Humanitarian Award

OKLAHOMA CITY — Kansas men’s basketball coach Bill Self, who has guided KU to nine-straight Big 12 regular-season championships and two Final Fours, including the 2008 NCAA title, will be honored at the Devon Energy College Basketball Awards in Oklahoma City, April 14 as the recipient of the Wayman Tisdale Humanitarian Award.

Self, who is one of four coaches in NCAA?Division I?history to have led three different schools – Tulsa, Illinois and Kansas – to the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight, will be honored at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. The College Basketball Awards are produced annually by Access Sports in conjunction with the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA).

“When you look at Bill Self’s record on the court and combine that with what he does off the court in the community and with his players, you see the very essence of what the Wayman Tisdale Humanitarian Award stands for,” said David Gillikin, Chairman of the Devon Energy College Basketball Awards. “We are very pleased to be able to recognize Coach Self and his accomplishments with this prestigious award.”

The Tisdale Humanitarian Award honors an individual involved in college basketball who has had a significant positive impact off the court well as on. Previous honorees include legendary ESPN and hall of fame announcer Dick Vitale, Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski and Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo. The award’s namesake, Wayman Tisdale, died in May 2009 after a two-year battle with cancer.

“I was very proud and honored when I was informed I would be receiving the Wayman Tisdale Humanitarian Award,” Self said. “There have been some very influential recipients who have deservedly received the award in the past and I’m not sure I fit in that category. To win an award that has Wayman Tisdale’s name tied to it is certainly humbling. Knowing Wayman and having played on the same AAU team with him, I was always a great fan of his. He personally had as much to do in popularizing the sport in the state of Oklahoma as anybody and it’s quite an honor for me to receive an award with his name on it.”

Prior to 2013-14, in 10 seasons at Kansas Self has a 300-59 record (83.6 percent), averaging 30 wins per season. Overall, Self has coached 20 seasons with a 507-164 record (75.6 percent). He won his 500th career game at Iowa State (108-96 in OT) on Feb. 25, 2013. The fastest KU coach to reach 300 wins at Kansas, Self’s milestone victory occurred during the 2013 NCAA Tournament against former KU coach Roy Williams’ North Carolina team, 70-58. Kansas’ 300 victories under Self are more wins than any other NCAA Division I school in the last 10 years. He was named just the eighth head coach in Kansas basketball history on April 21, 2003.

Bill and Cindy Self established the Assists Foundation in 2006 to help provide young people access to better lives. The mission of Assists is accomplished by identifying areas of need and working with other community-based institutions to provide creative and lasting solutions. The Assists Foundation supports scholarships and helps community organizations improve their facilities and programs so as to teach young people how to live healthy, productive lives. The foundation works to help young people have access to healthy lifestyle programs, facilitated by components of education, assessments, prevention, leadership, and competition. Self is also actively involved in a variety of other charitable efforts, including Coaches vs. Cancer and the V Foundation for Cancer Research.

Self will share the stage in April with college basketball’s Wayman Tisdale Freshman of the Year, the National Player of the Year, who will receive the Oscar Robertson Trophy, and the Henry Iba National Coach of the Year Award.

The Devon Energy College Basketball Awards are presented by Devon Energy, a leading independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company based in Oklahoma City. The event is produced by Access Sports, an Oklahoma City-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization committed to supporting various charitable causes, including funding prosthetic devices for needy individuals through the Wayman L. Tisdale Foundation, funding of youth basketball programs throughout the state of Oklahoma through the Wayman’s Lightning Basketball League, and other worthy charitable causes.

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