Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - WHAT TO BELIEVE? Did Oklahoma State NEARLY HIRE Bill Self? Could Indiana Pry Self Away from Kansas?

Episode Date: February 22, 2025

Was Bill Self really considering a move from the Kansas Jayhawks to Oklahoma State or upcoming to Indiana Hoosiers? Rumors are swirling around the KU Jayhawks basketball scene, sparking intrigue and speculation. Derek Johnson breaks down the buzz and why he's not buying it, thinking the rumors surrounding Bill Self's potential coaching shifts aren't totally truthful, analyzing reports from Barry Trammel and social media chatter about Indiana's interest. What does the reported past interest for Self mean for his time in Lawrence and future moving forward?Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Turbo TaxReady for stress-free taxes and the most money back, guaranteed? Head over to TurboTax.com today and get matched with your Expert. Only available with TurboTax Live Full Service. Real-time updates only in the iOS mobile app. See guarantee details at TurboTax.com/guarantees. ROYDownload the Roy app now from the App Store and start backing your favorite athletes the way they deserve—with transparency, trust, and a real impact. This is the future of college sports. Join it now by downloading Roy and supporting your favorite players! FanDuelRight now, new FanDuel customers can get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if your first FIVE DOLLAR bet wins!Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

A report came out earlier today that Bill Self almost took the Oklahoma State job last offseason and some scuttlebutt about Indiana going around right now. I'm going to tell you why I think it's all a bunch of hubbub. You are Locked On Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. What's going on? Derek Johnson here. This is Locked On Jayhawks.

Thanks for making it your first listen every day. Thank you to the everydayers catching each and every episode of the show. We've got a bonus episode coming at you for today. Anywhere you get your podcasts are on our YouTube page. So thank you for joining us. We're going to get into a little bit. There were some interesting reporting, rumors, talk, everything with Bill Self going on this morning at a press conference.

So we're going to get to all that today about what's he close to taking the Oklahoma State job, why I don't totally buy into this necessarily, the Indiana opening possibly being a thing and what it could mean for Bill Self, for this team, for his future at KU, all that on this little bonus episode of Locked on Jayhawks. Let's just get started right there. So there was an article that came out earlier on Friday, and it was from Barry Trammell of the Tulsa World. And in the article, this isn't the full thing,

but this is the pertinent part to the KU perspective. Multiple Cowboy sources said OSU took a swing itself, and Cowboy decision-makers grew increasingly confident that Self was impressed with the organization of the plan his alma mater had produced and was intrigued at the package, complete with competitive salary and budget to pay players in this new professional age of college basketball. By far the closest it's ever come to happening, end quote,

one OSU insider said of bringing back self. Again, there's that quote. By far the closest it's ever come to happening. Another Cowboys source said only self could accurately describe how close he came to accepting the OSU offer. Efforts to reach self this week failed, but the source described the courtship as consisting of long and deep conversations. He certainly seemed interested.

Then, okay, the pertinent part. I should probably mention that as well, the rest of the article kind of delves into how far behind Steve Lutz was, who's the current coach for Oklahoma State, in getting to the program and some of the things, the difficulties that was facing him delves into like how far behind Steve Lutz was, who's the current coach for Oklahoma State in getting to the program and some of the things, the difficulties that was facing him in this Oklahoma State program and how it was kind of on the up and up. It kind of read a little bit more to me, the article as like a clickbaity title to get people to go in and turned into an article about the good things Steve Lutz is doing in year one, that they're moving in

the right way as a program. It was kind of that, that it was almost like, you know, you know, the movie like click with Adam Sandler. There was another one, I think it was called like downsizing. It was the one with like Matt Damon or shrinking maybe where you think the movie is this and it gets like this, this clickbait, oh, let's go to the movie. And then you go in and it's like this sad drama. That is kind of how I viewed this article., oh, let's go to the movie. And then you go in and it's like this sad drama. That is kind of how I viewed this article. But anyway, Bill Self did respond to it. This was from earlier today over a tweet from Brett McMurphy.

He said, I spoke to them, answered questions about the job, and offered my opinion about what is needed to win in our league, which I've done every time the job has opened. They got the right guy. I did join Carsten Creek, one of country's top golf courses, as an out-of-area member, but I've never spent a night close to Stillwater in the last 20 years unless my team was playing there because there was something in the article about spending some time at that golf course. Then he mentioned in a press conference, did Bill Self, he said, this was earlier on Friday as well, I guess in Friday afternoon, self said he has spoken to

oklahoma state every time there's been an opening since eddie sutton left in 2006 he said not necessarily about hiring me uh but about could be names or what i thought needed to happen in order for osu to compete in the league at a high level so yeah i did talk to them i did talk to them and my administration knew that i talked to them that's a key part there but it wasn't near the point of what was presented in the article at least the way it was presented to me after other people had read it um he also refuted the the part about the carson creek again he said a couple days last spring self-hold up in the logic carson creek uh which was that was the part in trammell's article and self-responded to that by saying i have hold up in stillwater

before but it's only been the night before that we've actually played a game i haven't been to stillwater and spent a night in the last 20 years maybe i did 15 years ago or something at some point in time at a reunion or something but i haven't been there unless my team is staying there so that is totally inaccurate and uh again he says, I think that they got the right guy and said, I talked to them more seriously in 2008. There's a big difference between talking and then actual interest and considering. Now that's an interesting hypothetical. If he goes to Oklahoma State, he wins the title of Kansas and he's like, okay, now I want to go restore my alma mater where would Kansas be at this point would the streak be happening right that would be a whole different conversation but point being for this one specifically here's my initial thought

when this article came out before we even heard from Bill Self I think the comments from Bill Self certainly refute everything to a very aggressive way that shows to me that yeah I'm not really buying into this to begin with um now is it possible you know coaches sometimes have to lie and they do lie a lot because what is the advantage for bill self coming out here and be like oh yeah i interviewed for the job i wasn't i was interested in leaving kansas like i would understand if he did actually interview for the job if he did have to lie about it for that reason like that would not come across well for the players for future recruits for the fans right so i would understand why you would have to lie in that situation but i don't think he is

lying here and and again going back this was my read before he even made comments about the articles coaches get offered jobs all the time first of all so even if oklahoma state did just say like they owe it to themselves to at least make the phone call and call bill self who's an alma mater of your school and be like hey you want to come coach here in the same way that you know the day comes where bill self retires or i guess since we're talking about today leaves for another school like if you're kansas if you're travis goff you know jay wright probably answers the phone and goes nope not interested i'm happy being retired i got out of this game for a reason but you make the phone call.

It doesn't hurt to see if he's interested, right? And so you can understand that. And sure, maybe you go back to the quote about it was the closest that he'd ever been to taking the job. Okay, well, what if before it was a 0.5% chance and this time it was a 0.7% chance? And beyond that, Bill self-reputed it. He said 2008 was the one that he was kind of looking at there. So I don't know about that i will say there was uh on 810 in kansas city with uh seren petro this afternoon they had a mark rogers of 98.1 in oklahoma city on the show with them and this is not a sourced thing from from that guy mark rogers but he assumed that the source for bar Trammell, the guy who wrote this piece, was coming from a big donor from Oklahoma State.

So, like, was he in on that? I don't know. How much can you trust in that? Maybe, maybe not, right? There's some donors that are big in on the decisions, but I don't know, man. That kind of makes it a little more sketchy for me. And again, Oklahoma State is self's alma mater. Don't you think he, you know, like maybe he would at least like consider it just for them or going back to the idea that, you know, it's not just his alma mater, but you look at what Eddie Sutton, the former Oklahoma State coach, meant to him and means to him. And, of course, there's a certain level for him in the position that he is in and what he has accomplished at the collegiate level that he probably does want to kind of give advice for them.

And that's what he kind of said in the quotes here, and give respect to his alma mater. And then Barry Trammell tries to reach out to him probably this week and again you hear that no quote there because he was probably like this is stupid or he was viewing it from a standpoint of like listen like i was just trying to help out you know with oklahoma state like um and i didn't want to come out and be like oh i would never take that job because i don't want to demean my former alma mater. And so, you know, it's just it doesn't really make sense to me. You look at Bill Self making like eleven, twelve million dollars a year here at Kansas. Steve Lutz got a five year,

thirteen and a half million dollar contract. He's basically and yes, you would expect more money to be had if it was Bill Self than Steve Lutz. But like you're talking about Oklahoma State having this very generous package and nil and all these things you can offer him do we think it would have been better than what kansas has because kansas is like top notch nationally in having those things so i i don't know maybe bill self does view it as like reinvigorating his alma mater would be one final piece of his legacy that he wants to do at the end of his career but like i don't buy this being the case that that he was seriously going to take the job or again like i i do buy his story that yeah this was just him you know basically giving advice and stuff to them when they had

the opening um and here's the other big piece of this to me if you are barry if you are a just put yourself in the shoes you're a reporter you a writer, you're a whatever media position. And you get this scoop about Bill Self nearly taking the job at Oklahoma State, the school you cover. Bill Self, the best coach in college basketball or one of the best coaches in college basketball, who's an alma mater at that school. Don't you think that would be like right away release that get that news out there because that is like a gigantic piece of news and you what you sit on it you wait you hold on to the story until the day before kansas is playing oklahoma state seems a little convenient doesn't it but uh let's talk a little bit too because i i do think there is something

interesting about this be a ploy from bill self's agent. I want to talk about that on the other side. This episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. When the game tips off, the NBA action is just getting started, and there's no better place to get in on it with FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. With FanDuel, you can place live bets throughout the game. So even if you miss the opening tip off or want to bet on a fourth quarter comeback, you can stay in on the action. And if you're looking for a bigger payout, you can even combine your live bets into a same game parlay. You can bet on Kansas against Colorado on Saturday. You can get in on the Mexico Open for your golf action. It's basically golf and baseball season at this point in time. We're

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I continue on. Don't forget to check out our Kansas, Colorado preview. Or excuse me, Oklahoma State preview for Saturday, and then we'll have a Kansas, Colorado preview on Monday here. Okay, one thing I did have the thought of this morning was, would this be a leak, something from Bill Self's party, from his agent to get out to like, OK, there's clearly been some unrest. There's clearly been some, you know, difficult discussions had by people.

Some people thinking that, you know, maybe Self is getting close to retiring. Others who think that maybe it's time to move on. And from that standpoint, if you're his agent maybe kind of dangle this out there and go hey i know you guys are upset about this season but you might want to reconsider this like step back and think for a minute be careful what you wish for because this guy has been the best coach uh you know in program history for kansas right you have multiple national titles all the big 12 championships like be careful what you wish for and maybe that's what a little bit of this is it's like it's a reminder um at the end of the day i don't know that i buy into that because i don't know what the end game would be because um i guess like the danger here

would be pissing off the fan base which is already pretty fired up right now to be completely honest um it would also be possibly upsetting like recruits or current players right um so i don't believe that to be the case necessarily i think this is probably coming from the oklahoma state side of things and again you go back uh to what was the main purpose of that article that kind of tells me the case now hypothetically just in a different world let's say bill self would have left for the oklahoma state job last offseason would that have been that would have been crazier than the roy williams one right because they're like roy was going home to his alma mater which bill self would be too but was that was a blue blood and with bill self it would

have been completely out of the blue that would have been nuts but yeah i i don't think that's going to happen and obviously it didn't and that's the bottom line here that you know people might get i don't know panties in a bunch for lack of a better term over this. But like at the end of the day, regardless of what happened, it doesn't matter because he didn't take the job. And we live in reality.

And that is the reality that Bill Self is still the Kansas basketball coach. But now there's an opening at Indiana. Let's discuss that next. Okay, finishing things up here on this bonus episode of Locked on Jayhawks. So Indiana is obviously another big name school and they have a job opening.

Mike Woodson out with the Hoosiers. There was some stuff from, if you don't know who Trilly Donovan is, he's like a former college basketball like assistant coach who has turned into like uh Twitter burner anonymous like super sourced you know getting all these like transfer play and rumors around college basketball uh pretty plugged in to say the least and with Trilly Donovan he mentioned something about Bill Self in relation to the Indiana job this morning it was more so just kind of floating around like the name with the interest.

It wasn't necessarily he wasn't saying like, oh, Bill Self is visiting Indiana or Bill Self is going to take the. No, he was not saying those things. It was just kind of lighting the fire under that idea, I guess, so to speak. And certainly it's interesting. And who knows? Maybe I saw there was a clip from rick patino earlier this week on pardon my take and that was talking about like they should go for chris beard i don't know maybe any um of the the rumors that basically that's what what trilly was

talking about that there are some rumors coming around from like the grassroots circus circuit hearing some bill self in indiana stuff and um again like that could just be hey i'm talking to indiana because i want to do some favors for my guy chris beard right he he's he and chris are i believe good friends and uh maybe he's trying to help him get the job right and you think about it and okay adidas is indiana and kansas so like they'd be like hey can you help us out we we need some help finding the next coach. And they reach out to him, right? So in the same way, this is obviously a very completely different story

and everything like that. But I guess I would take the Indiana thing, honestly, a little bit more seriously than the Oklahoma State thing is just because of how disgruntled things have been. And Bill Self has called out the KU students. And now you see him giving out water bottles to get students to the game and um I don't want to get all like old man get off my lawn like we never had to have water bottles when I was a student at KU so I'm just not going to I'm not going to get into that but um

I will say when you put both of these stories in tandem today at the same time it definitely created a level of chaos for the KU fans who if you were on social media all day if you weren't on social media at all during the day or something you might be coming home right now and be like what the heck is all this that's been going on right now you're like the uh from community when um he walks in with the pizzas and the whole room's on fire right um so it it definitely is interesting again i'm not buying into it. I don't think he was ever going to take the Oklahoma State job. I don't think he's going to take the Indiana job.

He is KU basketball's best coach in program history. And I know these seasons haven't gone well these past couple seasons, but I think everybody is interested to see what they can do next year when they have a new core. When you have Darren Peterson, when you have a team that is, you know, basically a fresh start a little bit for Bill Self and that we can see is this downturn more about players or is it about, you know, adjusting to the portal era? Like, what exactly is it? At the same point in time, you do have to at least talk about some of this stuff and maybe take it a little seriously, because I would have never thought John Calipari was going to go from Kentucky to Arkansas. And so weird things do happen all the time. But for me, like I'm expecting Bill Self to be the Kansas coach, obviously the rest of this year and obviously next year too, and coach up Darren Peterson and going to move on past the rumors from here. All right.

Don't forget to check out that Kansas and Oklahoma State preview right here with Locked on Jayhawks as well. See you then.