It is the best night of the early non-conference season because it is Champions Classic night. It never disappoints watching Kansas, Michigan State, Kentucky, and Duke battle it out. Kansas just beat Michigan State in game 1, and even though the Jayhawks played nowhere near their potential, they were still able to pull out the win. That win was number 591 for head coach Bill Self at Kansas.
That win puts him at the top of the Kansas wins list. There is no other coach in Jayhawk history who has won more than Self. After the game, the legendary coach told ESPN that he is “proud about it, but Phog Allen is still going to be the all-time best coach at Kansas.” Allen is the coach with the second most wins in Lawrence, and he is the namesake of the fieldhouse.
James Naismith, the inventor of the great game, has his name on the court. So even though Self may not have his name on any of the Kansas buildings he is the undisputed best coach in Kansas history and no one can take that away from him. Kansas has only had eight coaches in their program and has done a ton of winning, but Self has won on an entirely different level than the rest of them.
Those 591 wins include 17 conference titles, including an NCAA record 14 in a row, four Final Four Appearances, and two National Championships. He has won a lot and has won a lot of big games. This year, the Jayhawks are the number one team in the country and, through the transfer portal, have built a roster that looks to be unstoppable. They will be number one for a long time and are the overwhelming favorite to cut down the nets in April.
Coach Self is only 61 years old and still has a lot of coaching left in him. He is going to win a lot more games at Kansas, and who knows, maybe one day it will be the Bill Self Memorial Fieldhouse.