Final Four a family affair
Selfs can bask in the glow after 15 years
Final Four a family affair

Published: April 5, 2008

SAN ANTONIO — The Self clan sat at a restaurant table outside their hotel along the Riverwalk late Friday afternoon, basking in the glow of their first Final Four.

Bill Self has been a major-college basketball coach for 15 seasons, but never have his father, his mother and his sister gotten to smile this much in early April.

After coaching three different schools to four losses in the regional finals, Self finally has advanced to the Final Four.

The 45-year-old Okmulgee native and his Kansas Jayhawks will face North Carolina today around 7:45 p.m. inside the Alamodome.

No longer is he the purported "best coach never to get the Final Four.”

Inquiring minds want to know if this weekend truly is as big a relief for Self as what's been written and implied.

"I can't answer that question,” said Bill Self Sr., who resides in south Edmond. "But I know the immediate family has been very stressed out about getting to the Final Four. His friends also have been stressed out. And I've grown tired of traveling all over the country, watching my granddaughters cry, my daughter cry and my wife cry.”

Has Self Sr. ever cried?

"No. I have to be strong because of my surroundings,” Self Sr. deadpanned.

This comment draws a curious look from his wife, Margaret, and an "Oh, whatever,” response from daughter Shelly.

Self Sr., the former czar of the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association, and numerous family members have roamed the country the past decade, waiting for Self to survive until the final weekend.

And even when that moment came last Sunday night in Detroit with a 59-57 victory over Davidson, mother, father and son went through a bit of denial.

Davidson inbounded the ball with 16.8 seconds left. Sharp-shooting phenom Stephen Curry failed to get an open look, passed off to teammate Jason Richards, whose potential game-winning 30-footer looked good and had the right distance, but was wide left.

The Self family had prime seats inside cavernous Ford Field, but they were still probably 30 yards away from the action.

"We couldn't really see that well, and I thought the shot went in,” Margaret said. "It looked like it had gone through the net. Then everybody started screaming and hollering and Bill turned to me and said, ‘Is it over?' ”

Self Sr. said: "From my angle, I thought it was going in. At that moment, I was thinking about praying. Then I decided it doesn't do you any good to pray in a situation like this. Then I re-thought it and said, ‘God, don't let the ball go in.' ”

Squatting at courtside, Bill Self heard the finally buzzer and admitted to wondering, "Why's the horn going off? The game's not over.”

Self Sr. still shakes his head at the sequence of events.

"That's the fastest 16½ seconds I've ever seen in my life,” Self Sr. said. "That's the most pressure I've ever been in concerning an athletic event.”

More pressure than coaching the Morris girls team to the 1966 Class B state tile?

"Oh, yeah,” Self Sr. said.

Self Sr. coached the Morris team for four years before becoming the district's superintendent of schools at age 25.

He took that coaching prowess and transferred it to his only son with various basketball drills performed in the driveway.

"I was a very good fundamentalist, a very good disciplinarian,” Self Sr. said. "But by Bill's second year at Oral Roberts (1994-95), suddenly to him I didn't know the fundamentals of basketball anymore.”

With his son now among the elite college coaches, do Self and Self Sr. bounce coaching ideas off each another?

"I might bounce some ideas at him, but they ricochet back,” Self Sr. said with a smile. "I used to get to ask him six (coaching) questions a year, then it was four, then it was two. Now we're at zero.”

Self Sr. speaks kiddingly, of course. There aren't two more proud parents on the entire Riverwalk this weekend. And now, finally, they can bask in the glow.

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