Kansas Basketball Recruiting: KU’s Bill Self Is College Hoops Wizard of Oz
The Jayhawk Nation has much to be excited about regarding the upcoming college basketball season. Of course, Kansas hoops fans have not had much reason to despair in recent years. Bill Self, the Jayhawks head coach, has been the model of consistency in recruiting top-level talent, and by winning big.
Self and his staff have shown the ability to recruit top talent to lend their services to Kansas basketball. The Jayhawks seemingly lose three, four and five players every season, yet there has not been a drop in production or the incoming talent level. It may sound cliche’, but Kansas truly does appear to “reload” on talented players.
The 2013 recruiting class for Kansas ranks second in the nation behind Kentucky. Self must replace all five starters, four seniors and one second-year freshman. Coach Self has managed a serious haul of blue-chip talent again, and just yesterday gained a pledge from bruising power forward/center, Tarik Black, a transfer from Memphis.
Black’s addition comes on the heels of the announcement last week by highly touted recruit Andrew Wiggins that he was coming to Kansas as well.
The 6’9″ transfer, Black, according to NCAA rules, is eligible to play immediately because he has already completed his degree and has a year of eligibility remaining. The Jayhawks recruiting haul includes No. 1-rated Andrew Wiggins, a 6’7″ guard from Huntington (W.Va.) Prep, No. 12 Wayne Selden (G, 6’5″, 205, Tilton (N.H.) School), No. 25 Joel Embiid (C, 7-foot, 220, Rock School, Gainesville, Fla.), No. 29 Brannen Greene (F, 6’7″, 200, Tift County High, Tifton, Ga.), No. 34 Conner Frankamp (G, 6-foot, 160, Wichita North) and No. 76 Frank Mason (G, 5’11″, 180, Massanutten Military Academy, Petersburg, Va.).
Coach Self and his staff have excelled at preparing players to play as a team, leaving behind the me-first attitude generally attributed to most top recruits. Because his mastery of the recruiting process helps to restock the pantry, it gives Self the flexibility to implement his system and style of play, with no fear of not having the players to pull it off.
Since his arrival at Kansas (2003), Bill Self has amassed a coaching record of 300 wins and 59 losses, which is a winning percentage of .836. The Jayhawks have won nine consecutive regular season Big XII conference titles and six conference tournament titles.
The span of 10 years since Self came to KU also includes 10 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances, with two Final Four visits and one national championship (2008).
Further, Kansas has had seven consensus All-American (college) players since 2005. The NBA is also littered with former Jayhawks. There are 15 players that have played for Self since he came to KU that have matriculated to the NBA, 10 of whom are on current NBA rosters. That number will swell by two, when recently departed sensation Ben McLemore and shot-blocking ace Jeff Withey are drafted in this year’s draft as expected.
Jayhawk fans have many reasons to bask in the glow of Bill Self’s success. It appears that KU hoops is following the yellow brick road of success, and has discovered their own “Wizard” in the process…
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Who’s Winning the John Calipari vs. Bill Self Recruiting Battle?
Losing out on Andrew Wiggins wasn’t exactly Derrick Rose bricking some free throws and Mario Chalmers offering one of the best stomach-punch shots in the history of the tournament, but it was one of the few moments in recent memory when John Calipari didn’t get what he wanted.
Once again, on the other end was Bill Self.
No one is crying for Calipari. Both he and Self got to puff their chests on Tuesday. Self landed Wiggins, one of the most prized prospects of all time, and his class is the best he’s ever had at Kansas. Calipari’s class, which includes a few players Self coveted, is still perceived as better.
This is not the first time that Self and Calipari have gone head-to-head for a recruit, and it certainly will not be the last.
It’s obvious why it happens. Self and Calipari are the two best recruiters in the game right now. They coach at two of the most storied programs in the history of college basketball, and high-profile recruits want to play at prestigious basketball schools.
But there’s more to it than that. Both coaches seem to like the same kind of players, and there’s a history of some high-profile battles.
From a strictly basketball perspective, history will look back at them as connected in this era. Self won his first national championship over Calipari. Calipari won his first over Self. They both were grad assistants at Kansas under Larry Brown.
From a recruiting perspective, the insiders who follow that side of the sport will be telling stories down the road of the battles between the two men.
If you’re keeping score at home, Self is making a strong comeback with his latest victory.
These are the players who have seriously considered playing for Calipari or Self and then ended up signing with one of the two coaches.
| Bill Self Recruits | John Calipari Recruits |
|---|---|
| Andrew Wiggins | Julius Randle |
| Perry Ellis | James Young |
| Josh Selby | *Archie Goodwin |
| Thomas Robinson | Kyle Wiltjer |
| Xavier Henry | Doron Lamb |
| Marcus Morris | Brandon Knight |
| Markieff Morris | Terrence Jones |
| Daniel Orton | |
| John Wall |
*Goodwin is the only player Calipari recruited on this list who did not have Kansas as a finalist, but he eliminated Kansas late, according to this ESPN.com story.
Self and Calipari have not expressed any friction publicly, but it would be understandable if there’s some there, which could have started with the Morris twins.
The twins committed to Calipari at Memphis, then decommitted, then committed again and then decommitted again. Or something like that. It was like a teenage relationship. It is all explained here in this story in The Commercial Appeal. Eventually, the twins signed with Kansas in October of 2008.
Xavier Henry was also Memphis-bound at one time. This was a loss that had to sting for Self. Henry’s parents both played basketball at Kansas.
Then Calipari left for Kentucky, and unlike DeMarcus Cousins, Henry choose not to follow Calipari and wound up signing at Kansas, where his brother transferred after spending one year at Memphis. Calipari won most of the battles that followed.
For Self, it had to sting to lose out on Daniel Orton, Terrence Jones, Kyle Wiltjer and Julius Randle. Kansas has done well developing big men, and all four would have fit well in KU’s system.
Calipari has won the numbers game, but it’s not really fair to strictly stop there. Since both will continue to go against each other regularly—they’re both in the mix for the top three recruits in Rivals.com’s 2014 class—they should be keeping another kind of scorecard: How the players who wound up at their schools have performed.
I came up with a system for how to score player performance in this battle. This is the scoring system.
| Achievement | Points |
|---|---|
| All-League (2nd or 3rd team) | 1 |
| First-team All-League | 2 |
| Conference POY | 3 |
| All-American (2nd or 3rd team) | 4 |
| First-team All-American | 5 |
Here’s the scorecard:
| Bill Self | John Calipari |
|---|---|
| 21 | 16 |
Self benefited the most from both Marcus Morris and Thomas Robinson staying school for three years. Perry Ellis could be the next player in Self’s system to thrive his sophomore and junior year.
Usually when a big-time prospect has stuck around for Calipari past his sophomore year, such as Wiltjer, the reward has not been as great.
Calipari has had more success with the one-and-done or two-and-done players. Both Doron Lamb and Jones were major contributors on Kentucky’s championship team. John Wall was a first-team All-American and the SEC player of the year in his one season at Kentucky. Brandon Knight helped lead the Wildcats to the Final Four.
Self has not had as much luck with the one-and-done crew. Selby never really had much of an impact in his one year at Kansas. Henry was an honorable mention All-Big 12 player, but he’s been a bust in the league. Ben McLemore, who wasn’t recruited by UK, will be viewed as Self’s first great one-and-done success.
It’s not as though Calipari’s one-and-dones have always thrived, as Daniel Orton and Archie Goodwin came and went without accomplishing much in their one year in Lexington.
The battle continues next season, which could give both coaches plenty of ammo in the recruiting battles in the 2014 class. Calipari could even the score with Randle, who Kansas really wanted, or Wiggins could give Self a feather in his cap.
The real winner will be whichever coach gets his second national title first. And you know what would be great? KU and UK in the 2013-14 final with Wiggins and Randle squaring off in the final seconds for the win. Bragging rights to the winner.
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Andrew Wiggins to Meet with Jayhawks’ Bill Self Next Week
As the entire college hoops world awaits the decision of the consensus No. 1 recruit in the 2013 class, Kansas’ Bill Self might have one last chance to make a good impression.
According to SNY.tv, Self will travel to Huntington to meet with Andrew Wiggins and his family on Tuesday, April 22, with UNC’s Roy Williams scheduled to visit a day before.
Wiggins, the 6’8″ dynamic small forward from Huntington Prep (Huntington, WV), is still considering the Jayhawks along with Kentucky, Florida State and North Carolina.
Florida State and Kentucky have been considered by many to be front-runners, with his older brother, Wichita State’s Nick Wiggins, giving a slight indication their parents are pushing for the Seminoles, their alma mater.
“I think both my parents would like him to go to Florida State University,” Nick Wiggins told SNY.tv two weeks ago. “I believe they would be happy with that decision.”
Self has already signed a deep five-member recruiting class for 2013, headlined by two five-star players (via Rivals.com) in Wayne Selden and Joel Embiid. Four-star guards Conner Frankamp, Brannen Greene and Frank Mason round out the group.
With Ben McLemore’s departure for the NBA, the Jayhawks will lose their entire starting five from a team that won the program’s ninth-straight Big 12 regular-season title before falling to Michigan in the Sweet 16.
As National Signing Day approaches on Wednesday, April 17, Wiggins has not announced a date for his college decision.
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Pops usual self during Craig Sager interview
As it have been previously posted on this fair website, San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich isn’t really a fan of these between-quarter interviews.During Thursday night’s Thunder/Spurs game, TNT’s Craig Sager attempted to get Pop to answer some simple questions.However, Gregg decided to keep his responses rather brief….
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Championship coaches round table: Calipari, Boeheim, Self on cheating in NCAA
12 active national title-winning coaches in college basketball have seen seismic changes.
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Iowa State students apologize to Kansas coach Self (Yahoo! Sports)
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Kansas coach Bill Self said the student government at Iowa State sent him a letter this week apologizing for a pair of incidents that occurred in the aftermath of the Jayhawks’ overtime win over the Cyclones on Monday night.
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Disgruntled Bill Self compares ‘worst Kansas team ever’ to Northern Illinois
The Jayhawks’ coach rips the team’s performance
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Kansas Coach Bill Self on His Team: “Acted Like Little Babies”
No. 2-ranked Kansas suffered a stunning loss Saturday afternoon against Oklahoma State. Kansas trailed by as much as 14 in Saturday’s 85-80 loss. Although Kansas did take the lead in the second half, Oklahoma State was too much for it to handle.
The loss brought an end to Kansas’ 33-game home winning streak. The Jayhawks were blindsided by the Cowboys over the weekend, and Bill Self didn’t hold back during his postgame press conference.
Self admitted that Oklahoma State played the better basketball game, especially in the second half.
They were tougher than us, they beat us to loose balls and they just kicked our (butt) on the glass in the second half.
Kansas had a chance to tie the game with a couple of ticks to go in the game. However, Kansas guard Elijah Johnson lost control of the ball. Oklahoma State picked up the loose ball and added two more points to the scoreboard to conclude the game.
Self was asked about the final play and was not very high on Johnson.
Later in the press conference, Self continued to share how he really felt over the loss.
We didn’t compete for loose balls and felt sorry for ourselves and acted like little babies.
Self went on to praise one of his bench players, Andrew White III, for getting six points in the final minute when the Jayhawks needed it the most.
Last week, fans were hoping that their team would earn the top spot in the rankings last week after Duke fell to Miami. But Self knew his team had yet to be worthy of that top spot. He obviously knew something that the fans didn’t know. That is no surprise because Self has always been a realist and will say the truth.
Although some of his comments may come off as harsh, that isn’t his intent with his team. Kansas has always been a powerhouse basketball team under Self. He will work with his players and motivate them before they take the floor against TCU on the road this Wednesday.
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Prok may punish self with marriage
Since becoming owner of the Brooklyn Nets, Mikhail Prokhorov has become somewhat of a quotable entity.Recently, he was interviewed by Steve Serby over at New York Post and provided an interesting to question about marriage:Q: Is marriage something you would consider some day?A: I have said that if the Nets don’t win the NBA championship within five years, I will punish myself by getting married. We are in year three. So no one is more interested in winning a championship than yours truly.Another interesting answer that Mikhail provided was about the person he hadn’t met but would like to meet:Q: People you haven’t met and would like to meet?A: This person called Honey Boo Boo is at the top of my list at the moment. From Moscow it looks as though the US has lost its collective mind on that.
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Catching Krzyzewski: Bill Self Has the Best Chance to Become Winningest Coach
Kansas head coach Bill Self has cemented his name amongst the legends displayed throughout Allen Fieldhouse, and two Final Four trips in the last five seasons have finally bumped him into the elite group of coaches in all of college basketball.
However, he still sits behind names like Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Boeheim, Roy Williams and even Tom Izzo at times. Coach K is in a class by himself as men’s college basketball’s all-time winningest coach in Division I as he sits at 927 entering the 2012 -13 season, but Self’s accolades match up equally with the others in nearly every category and top them all in another: Potential.
At 49 years young, Bill Self has accumulated 476 wins as head coach at Oral Roberts, Tulsa, Illinois and Kansas. He may not sniff the top 10 winningest coaches currently, but easily has the highest potential to surpass Krzyzewski someday. The top 10 currently sits at:
1. Mike Krzyzewski – 927
2. Bobby Knight – 902
3. Jim Boeheim – 890
Over the last five seasons, Coach K has averaged 2.4 more wins than Boeheim. Even if Boeheim wins one more game on average over a minimum of the next five seasons that Krzyzewski could be potentially be coaching, Boeheim would have to produce an undefeated season in Year 6 when Coach K is retired, just to tie him.
4. Dean Smith – 879
5. Adolph Rupp – 876
6. Jim Calhoun – 873
See Jim Boeheim. Even if a program somehow lures Calhoun out of a much-needed retirement, it is nearly impossible for him to take the top spot.
7. Jim Phelan – 830
8. Eddie Sutton – 804
9. Lefty Driesell – 786
10. Lute Olson - 780
It is impossible to predict what number Self must reach in order to have a chance to own the top honor, but the projections below give us a better idea.
Assuming the 65-year-old Coach K can produce five to 10 more successful seasons at the helm in Durham at his current career pace of 26.69 wins per season (854 wins over 32 years), he would retire with the following numbers:
Five more seasons: 1,062 wins
10: 1,197 wins
In order to further protect potential career figures, adding 31 wins to each of his future seasons (as he has averaged 30.4 over the last five years at Duke) would leave him with the following:
Five more seasons: 1,082 wins
10: 1,237 wins
With eight straight conference titles, two Final Four appearances and one national championship on his Kansas resume, Bill Self has quickly helped critics dismiss two early tourney losses as they now focus on his potential to become one of the all-time greats.
He has averaged 25.05 wins over 19 seasons with four different programs, including nearly 30 (29.89) victories per season in his nine years in Lawrence. Exactly like Mike Krzyzewski, it is impossible to predict the length of his coaching career. We can predict the Oklahoma State grad will see success for a minimum of 15 more seasons, but it is highly unlikely he will remain as the head coach for more than 25 additional years.
Again, the 49-year-old Self has 476 career wins and the following numbers show how close he can come to surpassing Coach K in the next couple decades:
15 more seasons: 926 wins
20: 1,076 wins
25: 1,126 wins
It is reasonable to believe that Bill Self could surpass the Duke legend if he is able to sustain success over the next 15-20 seasons.
Only two other active coaches have a remotely realistic chance of not only topping Self, but just catching a glimpse of Krzyzewski: John Calipari and Billy Donovan.
John Calipari
Age: 53
Wins: 505*
*Four wins vacated from 1996 NCAA tournament appearance with UMass due to Marcus Camby’s contact with a sports agent and 38 wins vacated from his Memphis Tigers’ 2007-08 national runner-up season following the Derrick Rose debacle.
Averaging 25.25 wins over 20 seasons
Averaging 34 wins over three seasons at Kentucky
Billy Donovan
Age: 47
Wins: 421
Averaging 23.39 wins over 18 seasons
Averaging 24.13 wins over 16 seasons at Florida
What about the so-called next generation of elite college basketball coaches such as VCU’s Shaka Smart or Butler’s Brad Stevens? A trio of 35-year-olds that includes those two and Memphis head coach Josh Pastner have recorded 84, 139 and 75 wins respectively.
Stevens has a reasonably significant leg up on the other two hot commodities, as he began his tenure at Butler two seasons earlier than both Smart and Pastner, but still must average 27.45 wins for the next 35 years to reach 1,100 for his career. The other two must win over 29 games per season for those 35 years to hit the same figure.
Impossible? No, but with the intense media scrutiny, athletic department turnover and ever-growing impatience of college basketball fans, nothing can be assumed.
Mike Krzyzewski will most likely reach 1,100 wins by the 2018-19 season, if not sooner, and wherever his final win mark ends will remain the top spot for at least a few more presidential administrations.
Kansas’ Bill Self has a significantly better chance to challenge his all-time win record than any other active head coach in the country.
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