Kansas Basketball Head Coach Bill Self Shares Thoughts on His Coaching Future

Kansas basketball head coach Bill Self recently joined the Inside College Basketball Now podcast hosted by Jon Rothstein to discuss the current state of the KU program.

Self touched on a variety of topics, including how he feels about this year’s team, his thoughts on freshman Darryn Peterson, recruiting in the Name, Image, and Likeness era, and more. (Note: The conversation took place before Self was recently hospitalized with heart issues.)

Self was also asked during the interview about his succession plans and if it’s important to him that the next head coach has previous ties to Kansas whenever Self decides to retire.

After pausing for a few moments to respond, Self said “I hope we hire the best guy that gives Kansas the best chance to have the best basketball future moving forward. Would I love for that guy to be one of my guys? Absolutely. In a perfect world, yes. The answer is an emphatic yes.”

Self emphasized that while he would love for someone with ties to the program to take over when he’s done, it needs to be right for the program in terms of timing and long-term success.

“I can certainly see ‘keep it in the family’ so to speak, but the reality of it is you don’t do that at the expense of taking a step backwards,” Self said. “And right now, I think I got a guy or two on my staff that would be fantastic, but timing is everything.”

Self mentioned assistant coaches Jacque Vaughn and Jeremy Case as two who could be good potential college head coaches one day. But if they are to be head coaching candidates at KU, they may have to bide their time because Self has no plans of hanging it up anytime soon.

“The bottom line is I plan on doing this. I feel good and I plan on doing this awhile, so we’ll see how that all plays out.”

The video recording of the podcast is available on YouTube, and the audio version can be streamed on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major podcast platforms.