Kansas coach Bill Self will miss the Jayhawks’ Big 12 tournament quarterfinal matchup against West Virginia on Thursday after being hospitalized, the school announced just hours before the 3 p.m. ET tipoff. No further information has been provided about his condition at this time.
“Kansas Men’s Basketball Coach Bill Self will miss today’s Big 12 Tournament game as he recovers from an illness,” KU said in a statement. “Assistant Coach Norm Roberts will serve as the acting head coach. Self is doing well and receiving great care at the University of Kansas Health System.”
Self, 60, appeared before the media Wednesday afternoon in an informal scrum in the bowels of the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri, where he seemed upbeat about his team’s prospects ahead of KU’s tourney-opening game on Wednesday.
Self and Kansas won the Big 12 regular season race for the 17th time in Self’s career earlier this year and secured the No. 1 seed in the Big 12 tournament heading into postseason play after going 13-5 in the conference race and 25-6 overall. The Jayhawks project as a No. 1 seed in CBS Sports’ Bracketology forecast, according to expert Jerry Palm, positioned to potentially repeat as national champions after winning it all last season.
Self is 577-130 in his career coaching at Kansas since taking over the program in 2003. In that time KU has won nine Big 12 tournament championships, most recently in 2022. The Jayhawks entered the week as the betting favorite to repeat and are favored still to beat West Virginia on Thursday, though the line has ticked closer West Virginia’s direction after news of Self’s hospitalization was released.
