SAN ANTONIO — Kansas coach Bill Self just can’t get rid of Roy Williams. First, Self reaches his first Final Four and faces the coach who bolted Kansas for his alma mater at North Carolina five years ago. Then Self disposes of him Saturday night, 84-66, in an electrifying performance that Phog Allen, Larry Brown or Williams himself never experienced at Kansas on this stage.
Now Self is one win from a national championship tonight and faces the same dilemma Williams did five years ago. Self’s alma mater has an opening and is waiting to call. Reporters are asking him questions. People are talking. He’s saying the same things Williams said five years ago before his Jayhawks lost to Syracuse for the title and spat out an expletive on CBS as he was asked about it walking off the floor.
Then again, everyone remembers what happened next. Williams left for North Carolina.
Self has done his best to diffuse the situation. He answered the only Oklahoma State question during Sunday’s news conference with, “I haven’t been concerned about it being a distraction. It doesn’t register with our players. To be real candid, it hasn’t registered with me.”
Well, it has registered with Kansas fans. There’s a definite buzz around San Antonio, and it’s not just about how the Jayhawks will stop Memphis point guard Derrick Rose. It’s about Self and will he take a reported offer that would blow the national coaches’ salary structure to the four winds.
According to numerous media reports, Oklahoma State is prepared to offer Self, win or lose tonight, a salary of $4 million a year, plus a $6 million signing bonus. That would not only nearly triple the $1.375 million he makes at Kansas but would fly past the $3.5 million paid the current highest-paid coach, Florida’s Billy Donovan.
Oklahoma $tate
The impetus behind it is one T. Boone Pickens, Oklahoma State’s $3 billion “booster.” He donated $165 million to his beloved school’s athletic department, which, in turn, gave it back to him to invest. That lump donation has grown to $300 million. Oklahoma State, in kind, renamed its expanded football stadium Boone Pickens Stadium.
Pickens is also a caretaker of the school’s image. He turned on legendary basketball coach Eddie Sutton after his drunken driving charge in 2006. That led to his resignation, and Pickens never warmed to Sutton’s successor, son Sean, who was forced to resign after a 17-16 season.
Above all else, Pickens, channeling Bo Schembechler, wants an Oklahoma State man to coach Oklahoma State. That’s what leads to Self. He played at Oklahoma State from 1982-85, assisted Leonard Hamilton and Eddie Sutton at OSU for seven years and was raised in the Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond. His father, Bill Sr., was director of Oklahoma’s state high school activities association.
Self is weaved into the fabric of Oklahoma life like a waving wheat field on a parched summer day.
When Sean Sutton’s resignation surfaced, Self tried hard to curb the rumors, saying: “If they were to ask me what they should do, I would suggest they go a different direction.”
But his attorney, Stuart Campbell, told the Tulsa World on Friday, “I am completely in wait-and- see mode. I never say never. They would have to be eye-popping numbers.”
Storied history a key?
Kansas has said it can’t match the reported numbers. It’s certain Self will talk money with Kansas athletic director Lew Perkins after tonight. Self’s annual salary still is below football coach Mark Mangino’s $1.5 million.
Kansas fans’ key question: How big of a threat is Oklahoma State? It’s believed North Carolina meant more to Williams, a native of Asheville, N.C., than Oklahoma State means to Self. Then again, North Carolina is one of the nation’s top-five programs.
Oklahoma State is not. Yet. Could Self make it one? Gallagher-Iba Arena’s 2000 expansion to 13,611 seats made it a top-class facility, and if he wins tonight, what bigger challenge would there be in taking his alma mater to the same level — at a salary he never dreamed of making?
Self, 45, hinted Sunday about the frustration of dealing with a tradition-rich school with such high expectations. He has won four straight Big 12 titles and is 141-32 at Kansas, but he lost in the first round of the NCAAs in 2005 and 2006 and was expected to make the Final Four this year.
“If you follow us closely, we’ve won just about as much as any coach won at Kansas,” Self said. “But those two first-round losses definitely put a negative stigma to us.”
He loses seniors Darnell Jackson and Russell Robinson, and junior Brandon Rush will likely go pro. Oklahoma State loses only swingman Marcus Dove. Still, how many Brandon Rushes and Darnell Jacksons could Self recruit to Stillwater, Okla., where basketball is enjoyed but not worshipped?
The nervous feeling Kansas fans have may not end after tonight’s outcome.
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com
