We’ll know soon on Self

I don’t know when OSU will have a basketball coach, but I think we’ll know soon on Bill Self. The hourglass has been turned upside down.

I would guess that Self and Kansas athletic director Lew Perkins will talk today. Depending on what is said, Self and OSU might talk tonight or Thursday, and by Thursday afternoon Self is either a Kansas landmark or the latest Larry Brown.

The Kansas City Star’s Joe Posnanski wrote a very interesting column today about the Self situation, saying this whole thing is in KU’s hands, not Self’s or OSU’s. Kansas, not Self, can tell Boone Pickens “no.”

Posnanski pointed out that Self makes less than Billy Gillispie at Kentucky, Roy Williams at North Carolina, Billy Donovan at Florida and Mike Krzyzewski at Duke. Some of that is due to circumstance — last hired, biggest money — but some of that is due to personality. Self hasn’t demanded big bucks from KU. Here’s the all-time puzzler: Self makes less than KU football coach Mark Mangino, who did an all-time coaching job in 2007 but isn’t nearly as important to his university as is Self. Paying the Kansas football coach more than the Kansas basketball coach is like OU playing its basketball coach more than its football coach. Silly at the core.

So Posnanski says Self isn’t really expecting Boone Pickens-type money from Kansas. Self just wants to know that Kansas feels the way about him that Carolina apparently feels about Williams and Duke apparently feels about Coach K and Florida apparently feels about Donovan.