Self-Centered

Are we really supposed to believe that Bill Self would leave Kansas, for a job at Oklahoma State? That's one of the rumors floating around, after the Jayhawks National Championship win over Memphis. Self says he wants to talk to KU officials about an extension, and he says he's looking for some security. Translated--OSU is throwing megabucks at me, and it's time for KU to step up. That's the way it works in big time college basketball these days. Self just got a five year contract extension from Kansas last year, worth more than $1.3 million a year, with a chance to make another $350,000 in incentives. But Oklahoma State just got a $165-million endowment from billionaire alumnus Boone Pickens, and Self is a graduate of OSU, so anything is possible. On some level, however, Self has to know that he's already coaching at one of the top 2-3 basketball programs of all time, a program that lists Phog Allen, Dean Smith, Larry Brown, and even James Naismith as contributors. His flirtation with OSU smacks of opportunism, quite frankly, and it adds a little tarnish to the Jayhawks championship season.