Kansas coach Bill Self shoots down rumors of retirement after 2024-25 season: 'Not true at all'

Big-named college basketball coaches retiring has been a trend of late. Mainly in the ACC where the conference has lost a ton of legends. Looking at the Big 12, no head coach has accomplished more than Bill Self, and with the sport evolving, people have speculated he could be next.

Well, Self put any kind of rumors to bed on Wednesday. When speaking to Jeff Goodman of The Field of 68, he said discussions about a potential retirement are false.

“That’s not true at all,” Self said.

Kansas has long been the class of the Big 12 but struggled the past two years since winning a national title. Conference regular season championships were won in 2022 and 2023 but those are normal in Lawrence. The program is measured by NCAA Tournament success and the last two have not been great.

Exits in the second round have taken place despite being a one and four-seed. Kansas is not projected to be slated to high in this year’s postseason and they currently sit at 19-9 overall and 10-7 in Big 12 play. Combining from last season, that’s 15 Big 12 losses with three games — all against ranked opponents — remaining. For reference, Kansas lost 15 conference games over the previous three campaigns.

Even so, there are no signs of a slowdown from Self. Kansas has shown to be dedicated to spending in the NCAA transfer portal. Investments have not reached full return but the willingness is not expected to go away. A big recruiting haul is expected to enter the program too with Five-Star Plus+ SG Darryn Peterson will be on the 2025-2026 squad.

Based on these comments from Self, he will be the one coaching Peterson. And no matter how Kanas fares in the upcoming NCAA Tournament, the drive to find success appears to be there. Getting back to winning ways will certainly take a priority, both inside the Big 12 and on a national level.

“I’d say there’s more parity, and I would say there’s a bigger chance for what is perceived to be an upset in today’s game than what is actually an upset just because of everybody’s gonna have guys that are good enough to pay,” Self recently said when discussing parity in college basketball. “And you don’t pay guys unless they’re good enough to beat teams that also [have] real guys. So yeah. I’d say there’s more parity.”