KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As March continues and the madness increases, the men’s basketball head coaches for Kansas and Kansas State continue to gain recognition nationally.
Kansas’ Bill Self and K-State’s Jerome Tang are among 10 coaches selected as semifinalists for the 2023 Werner Ladder Naismith Men’s Basketball Coach of the Year.
Self, who won the award back in 2012, has been a finalist seven times, with his last in 2017.
He guided No. 3 Kansas to the 2022-23 Big 12 regular-season title, his 17th in 20 seasons with the program.
Kansas has been ranked in the top 10 of the Associated Press poll for the last 37 weeks, including every 2022-23 season poll. Its 16 Quadrant 1 wins are four more than any other school.
Self has helped Kansas to four Final Fours, capturing two NCAA National Championship titles in 2008 and 2022. Since Self’s first season with the Jayhawks, they have been a No. 1 seed nine times, more than any other school.
Self is tied for third all-time among active coaches in wins with 789, tied with John Calipari and behind Cliff Ellis (828) and Bob Huggins (935).
The Jayhawks are 26-6 overall, with a 13-5 conference record. Their next game will be against Iowa State in the semifinals of the Big 12 Tournament, but Self will not be patrolling the sidelines due to being hospitalized with an illness.
Tang has led the Wildcats to a 23-9 record and a tie for third place with an 11-7 conference record so far this season, despite being picked 10th in the preseason Big 12 poll and armed with just two returning players.
He was selected as the Big 12 Coach of the Year by both league coaches and the AP earlier this week. Tang is the seventh head coach in school history to earn conference Coach of the Year honors, including the third in the Big 12 era, joining Frank Martin and Bruce Weber.
He and Weber are the only coaches chosen for the distinction in their first seasons.
His overall record at K-State is currently one of the best in the nation by a first-year Division I head coach, trailing just Xavier’s Sean Miller (24-8) and Duke’s Jon Scheyer (24-8).
Tang’s 23 wins tie Bob Huggins for the second-most by a first-year head coach in school history. He's also the fifth K-State head coach to win 20 games in his first season.
Tang was selected as the 25th head men’s basketball coach at K-State on March 21, 2022, after 19 seasons at Baylor as an assistant and associate head coach.
K-State will await its postseason seeding in the NCAA Tournament on Selection Sunday after losing to TCU in the quarterfinal round of the Big 12 Tournament on Thursday.
Four finalists for the Coach of the Year award will be announced Monday, March 20, and the winner will be named on Sunday, April 2, during the NCAA Final Four in Houston.
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