Bill Self Named National Coach of the Year
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Kansas men’s basketball coach Bill Self garnered his second national accolade of 2015-16 when USA Today named him the coach of the year Tuesday.
On March 6, Bleacher Report also named Self national coach of the year and the following day he was named the Associated Press Big 12 Coach of the Year for the fifth time by AP in his 13 seasons at Kansas.
This is the fifth season Self has been named national coach of the year by multiple entities. He first earned the accolade in 2000 while at Illinois. Since he has been at Kansas, in 2008 he received the Winged Foot Award for winning the NCAA National Championship. In 2009 he garnered the honor by eight different outlets and in 2012 three different organizations named him national coach of the year.
No. 1 Kansas (27-4, 15-3) won its 12th-straight, 16th Big 12 and NCAA-leading 59th overall conference regular-season title in 2015-16. The 12-straight titles rank second all-time in NCAA history. Playing in the toughest conference, Kansas clinched the title with two games in the regular season and won it outright the following contest. KU’s current 11-game winning streak is the third active longest nationally heading into the Big 12 Championship, March 9-12 at Sprint Center in Kansas City.
Kansas is No. 1 in both Associated Press and USA Today Coaches’ polls released March 7. Kansas has ranked seventh or higher in every poll this season, including No. 1 four weeks.
In addition to the Big 12 regular-season title, KU was 2015 Maui Jim Maui Invitational champions and has posted two winning streaks of 11 games or more in 2015-16. Additionally, Kansas is 9-3 against nationally-ranked teams in 2015-16, including 3-0 versus top-10 teams, and has won six straight versus ranked opponents. According to the NCAA, Kansas holds the No. 1 RPI and the No. 6 toughest schedule while the Big 12 has the No. 1 RPI among all conferences in 2015-16.
This season KU went 16-0 in Allen Fieldhouse this season to mark its second straight and 20th undefeated home record, sixth under Bill Self.
In 13 seasons at Kansas, Self is 379-82 (82.2 percent) for an average of 29.2 wins per year. Overall, Self is in his 23rd season with a 586-187 record.
Bill Self Career Honors
• National Coach of the Year – 2000 (Sporting News; Wooden), 2009 (Yahoo! Sports; Sporting News; Athlon Sports; CBSSports.com; USBWA; AP; CBS/Chevrolet; ESPN.com), 2012 (Sporting News; Adolph Rupp; Naismith), 2016 (Bleacher Report, USA Today)
• Conference Coach of the Year – 2000 (WAC), 2006 (Big 12), 2009 (Big 12), 2011 (Big 12), 2012 (co-Big 12), 2015 (Big 12 by AP), 2016 (Big 12 by AP)
• Wooden Award “Legends of Coaching” – 2013
• Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame – 2013 induction
• Wayman Tisdale Humanitarian Award (USBWA) – 2014
• Mannie Jackson – Basketball’s Human Spirit Award (Naismith Hall of Fame) – 2015
• Winged Foot Award (for national champion coach) – 2008
• Naismith Coach of the Year Finalist (Atlanta Tipoff Club) – 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2009
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