Challenges presented by the NCAA transfer portal and name, image and likeness payments to players have not driven Kansas men’s basketball coach Bill Self to early retirement.
He enters year No. 22 as head coach at KU and year No. 32 overall (including stops at Illinois, Tulsa and Oral Roberts) as fired up as ever about molding a team into a contender for both Big 12 Conference and NCAA titles.
“I took the approach after last year if I can’t adjust it’s time to get out basically,” Self said Wednesday, speaking on the Field of 68 podcast on the first day of the 2024-25 preseason.
“I’m not saying we’ve adjusted great,” added Self, who has embraced the portal, with seven transfers (Shakeel Moore, David Coit, AJ Storr, Zeke Mayo, Rylan Griffen, Noah Shelby, Hunter Dickinson) on this year’s roster and a batch of players making money off NIL.
“I’m not going to change how we coach them from 2 to 4:30 (p.m.) every day. I told our guys (assistants) … they asked me what do I hope to get out of this? How do I hope players view me? The only thing I could come up with is I think I know what wins. I think I know values that win, but how can I keep those same values, how can I still be old school and be hip and cool?
“My mindset has changed a little bit. I’m not looking at it just as how screwed our business is. I’m looking at it: ‘This is the way it is. Every business that anybody is involved with, over a course of time there will be drastic change and you have to adjust in regard to that business.’ It is the Wild, Wild West now. It is what other coaches say now. I’ll say the same thing, but I do think it’ll level out. I do think the guardrails at some point in time will get back on to the point we all know what we are operating with. I don’t know if any coach out there actually knows what they are operating with,” Self added.
Questions about the game abound
There are uncertainties involving players being able to make money off their name, image and likeness, and the likelihood of schools in the near future being able to pay players.
“Is revenue share going into effect or not?” Self said.
There are rulings in courts still to be made regarding payment of players.
“Is NIL going to be true NIL or is there still going to be donor involvement?” Self added. “Whatever it is it is. It’d be nice to know just kind of what they anticipate it being. What the NCAA has said they anticipate it being I’m not saying it can’t be that potentially but I don’t know if it can be in the time frame in which they initially stated.”
The NCAA, along with five conferences (Big 12, Big Ten, ACC, Pac-12 and SEC) and plaintiffs in three antitrust lawsuits related to athlete compensation, agreed to a settlement in May .
The settlement will pay $2.8 billion in damages to current college athletes as well as ones from the past 10 years who did not have NIL during their careers. There also is a proposed revenue-sharing system that will let schools provide more than $20 million per year (which will increase over time) to their student-athletes.
U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken, who had some concerns about the settlement , is currently reviewing some revisions presented by attorneys. She had expressed concern that under terms of the settlement some players who are making large sums of money in third-party NIL deals now would no longer be able to get them. Athletes also soon figure to receive billions to be split in a revenue-sharing plan.
Will he have to change coaching tactics?
Now 61, Self was asked if he’ll be able to coach the same as he did 10 years ago with players set to make significant money now and years to come.
“In all honesty I think that kids still want to be coached. I still think great players want to get better. I still think that there’s a hunger that exists that kids still yearn for accountability and for discipline,” Self said on the Field of 68 podcast. “I do think that is expected within your team if you have a good team and if you have good leadership.
“I might coach them just as hard, the same ways we always have, but do it in a way maybe it doesn’t feel the same way. As a young coach, I think that we want more control, like I want to run a play to score. As an older coach, I want players that can go score.
I think there’s a thing where the older you get you trust your players more to go out and play within the way you taught them to play as opposed to running plays to designate how they play. I think your teams have a far better chance being successful when you do that. We’ve done that over time.”
Self said he’s allowed players more freedom during games the past several seasons.
“I’d never believe some of the shots we take now we’d have taken back in 2005 or ’06 and having me not even say a word,” Self said. “I am more worried more about the 3, 4, 5 men that don’t go to the glass than I am whether the shot goes in or not or how we get back.
“I trust my players more. I do think players enjoy playing for us more than they did when it was a little bit more regimented. I still don’t think players at all will ever want to sacrifice the process, the day-to-day grind, because those are badges of honor you wear your whole life. You may not know it while you are going through it but as soon as you finish it you are are like, ‘Man, I’m glad we went through that.’’’
He kept his challenging Boot Camp
Self recently put his KU players through a challenging two-week conditioning program he calls “Boot Camp.” He’s held the camp at all stops in his head coaching career.
“I don’t think I’m going to coach the guys different. I think I may interact with em differently where maybe it’s their idea of what we do,” Self said. “That’s been the thing with me, is I love what I do. I love being in the gym. I love coming up with new things.
“The other thing about our sport that I think is great, is just when you think you’ve figured out how to do something, that’s when you’re really going to get burned, because there’s always somebody out there that’s got an idea that’s probably better than yours. So you got to always be evolving, and people are going to catch up. Even if you think you’re ahead, you’ll be ahead for a week, and people will catch up so so big thing is recruit, good players, teach them philosophies and how what you think wins, and then let them be good players.”
The Jayhawks, who started preseason practice on Wednesday after taking four days off after Boot Camp, will continue to work out with the first public viewing of the team at the Oct. 18 Late Night in the Phog. The Jayhawks will play an exhibition game for charity on Oct. 25 at Arkansas. KU will meet Washburn in another exhibition on Oct. 29 prior to the Howard opener on Nov. 4.
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