STILLWATER — As Bill Self took a stage in Kansas to announce he will stay in Lawrence, questions about Oklahoma State athletic director Mike Holder's whereabouts swirled around Oklahoma.
Was the AD already in Nashville working on Plan B? What about a flight scheduled from Stillwater to Minneapolis?
In reality the AD was in his office, sitting at his desk, nursing a bit of a broken heart.
Holder flew to Kansas on Wednesday evening and met with Self in a hotel south of Kansas City for several hours. Holder and Self both said they did not discuss any dollar figures for the OSU men's basketball coaching job, but Holder left with the hope that Self was coming to Stillwater.
Self called Holder on Thursday afternoon, a couple of hours before his press conference in Lawrence, to tell him he wouldn't be coming.
"I told him he broke my heart, and I'm serious about that,” Holder said. "So I'm gonna have to kind of regroup and get over that, the loss, first. Then figure out where to go from here.”
"I think from my point of view I put a lot of energy and thought into the moment of truth with Bill Self when I sat down with him last night. I think at the end of the day I had myself sold on him coming to Oklahoma State but I couldn't sell Bill Self on coming to Oklahoma State.”
Holder said that because he firmly believes "you don't make any decisions over money,” he and Self discussed other things during the meeting, with Holder trying to appeal to Self to "come home.”
"I thought a lot about Bill Self before, but I think a lot more of him now,” Holder said. "I think he's a lot more than just a basketball coach. He's a leader of men and Kansas University is very lucky to have him and we're very proud he's a Cowboy. He just happens to be coaching at Kansas.”
As for what will come next in his search to replace Sean Sutton, Holder said he hasn't spoken to any other coaches, scheduled any meetings or made any moves.
"There are a lot of good coaches out there,” Holder said. "The real challenge is to pick the one that I think is for us. That's my mission. I failed on my first assignment, so I'm going to try someone else.
"But I think everybody and every Cowboy fan would have been very disappointed, as I would have been with myself, had we not given Bill Self an opportunity to come home. I think out of respect for him and the tradition of our basketball program, we should have done that. We have done that and he has spoken and now it is time to move on to someone else.”
Editor's Note: The story originally contained the sentence: "Holder flew to Kansas on Tuesday evening and met with Self in a hotel south of Kansas City for several hours." That was incorrect. Holder flew to Kansas on Wednesday evening.
