Kansas coach Bill Self will not coach against Howard in NCAA Tournament first round
Kansas men’s basketball coach Bill Self will not coach in KU’s first-round NCAA Tournament game against Howard, KU Athletics announced Thursday.
Self continues to recover from a heart catheterization in which he had two stents placed for blocked arteries.
“He arrived at the emergency department Wednesday evening March 8, complaining of chest tightness and balance concerns,” said the University of Kansas Health System in a statement. “ He was discharged from the hospital on Sunday.”
Self arrived in Des Moines on Tuesday with his family after traveling separately from the team.
Assistant coach Norm Roberts will serve as acting head coach for the game.
“He’s doing well today. He was at practice today,” Roberts said of Self on Wednesday. “He was at practice last night and all of our meetings. ... He’s getting better all the time. We’re hopeful and everything is day-to-day with him, but if you ask our guys he got after them pretty good (Wednesday), so he was doing really well.”
On Wednesday, multiple KU players expressed confidence Self would coach in the NCAA Tournament’s first round, including star Jalen Wilson.
“We know coach’s role. He will be coaching. He’s doing everything he’s been doing,” Wilson said. “He was down for a while for the Big 12 (Tournament), but he’s back, he’s energized and excited and ready to get this going again. We’re super excited to have him back, so we know we will have him,”
Still, Roberts remained steadfast that KU would monitor Self’s health on a day-by-day basis.
“We haven’t decided that yet,” Roberts said on Tuesday. “We’ll see how it goes day-to-day-to-day.”
Roberts also coached KU at the Big 12 Tournament — with wins over West Virginia and Iowa State, plus a loss to Texas — as well as to start the year while Self served a four-game program-imposed suspension. Entering Thursday, he was 6-1 as acting coach this season.
This story was originally published March 16, 2023 at 10:03 AM with the headline "Kansas coach Bill Self will not coach against Howard in NCAA Tournament first round."
