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Christopher Boan is a lead writer at BetKansas.com specializing in covering state issues. He covered sports and sports betting in Arizona for more than seven years.
Bill Self Career Wins List: Where Will Kansas Coach Rank At Season’s End?
After a bit of a rough weekend, it’s worth remembering that Bill Self and the Kansas Jayhawks are still 14-5 for the season. The Jayhawks fell to No. 7 Houston on the hallowed hardwood of Allen Fieldhouse on Saturday night.
Kansas enters a week where they play two games against unranked foes, as Kansas sports betting interest in college hoops keeps going. With clashes against UCF and Baylor on Tuesday and Saturday, Self seeks to his gaudy win total, with the longtime KU head coach sitting on 806 victories at four colleges in his 1,077-game coaching career.
With that in mind, here’s a look at what Self must do to climb his way up the NCAA’s men’s basketball coaching leaderboard. Self – the coach at KU since the 2003-04 season – sits 396 victories behind the sport’s all-time victory maestro.
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NCAA Men’s Basketball Division I Coaching Wins Leaders
Coach | School(s) (Division I only) | Years | DI Wins |
Mike Krzyzewski | Army, Duke | 47 | 1,202 |
Jim Boeheim | Syracuse | 47 | 1,015 |
Bob Huggins | Akron, Cincinnati, Kansas State, West Virginia | 41 | 935 |
Jim Calhoun | Northeastern, Connecticut | 44 | 920 |
Roy Williams | Kansas, North Carolina | 33 | 903 |
Bob Knight | Army, Indiana, Texas Tech | 42 | 902 |
Dean Smith | North Carolina | 36 | 879 |
Adolph Rupp | Kentucky | 41 | 876 |
Cliff Ellis | S. Alabama, Clemson, Auburn, Coastal Carolina | 46 | 831 |
Jim Phelan | Mount St. Mary’s | 49 | 830 |
John Calipari | UMass, Memphis, Kentucky, Arkansas | 33 | 825 |
Rick Barnes | G. Mason, Providence, Clemson, Texas, Tennessee | 38 | 823 |
Rollie Massimino | Stony Brook, Villanova, UNLV, Cleveland State | 41 | 816 |
Bill Self | Oral Roberts, Tulsa, Illinois, Kansas | 32 | 809 |
Eddie Sutton | Arkansas, Creighton, Kentucky, Okla. St., San Francisco | 37 | 806 |
According to ncaa.org coaching records, Self is No. 24 on the all-time victories list in all divisions and 14 all-time among coaches in Division I.
Despite the Jayhawks’ strong start to the season, it appears that oddsmakers aren’t riding high on Self’s team, with DraftKings Kansas Sportsbook giving KU +6000 odds of winning the Big 12 title in 2025. That’s behind those same Cougars (-210), Iowa State (+210), Arizona (+1300) and Texas Tech (+2200).
With no fewer than 12 games left in KU’s season, BetKansas.com wanted to look at how far Self might climb up the NCAA’s wins list.
How Far Can Self Climb?
This analysis is from BetKansas.com, where the best Kansas sportsbook promo codes live.
Given Self’s current wins per season average of 28, we can assume that the 62-year-old Oklahoma native will climb his way up the NCAA wins list, though his current total of 809 victories is almost 400 behind the all-time men’s college hoops record holder.
That would be Mike Krzyzewski, who won 1,202 games at Army and Duke from 1975 to 2022. Coach K was at the helm for 15 more seasons that Self has been so far, meaning the KU head coach has plenty of time to try to catch his former coaching rival from the Durham powerhouse.
Using that same timeline, Self would add 420 victories to his total of 806 wins if he continued apace in Lawrence for a decade and a half. That would put him at 1,226 wins in total, 24 ahead of Coach K and atop the NCAA basketball wins list for good.
The main stipulation on that total is that Self would have to coach until he’s 77 to hit that figure, which might be more than he’s bargaining for. But we can assume he’ll find his way farther up into the top echelon of coaching victories given his longstanding success with the Jayhawks.
While Coach K is a long way in front of Self and somewhat safe from being lapped by the KU legend, the same can’t be said of names such as Rollie Massimino (816 victories), and Jim Phelan (830). The Jayhawks coach likely won’t catch Phelan until next season.
One caveat to this: There are two active Division I coaches ahead of Self on the list – John Calipari at Arkansas (825 wins) and Rick Barnes at Tennessee (823).
For now, Self and the Jayhawks are occupied with winning a third national championship in their 22-year partnership. Caesars Kansas Sportsbook lists KU at +1800 to do so, as of Jan. 27, tied for seventh nationally on the operator’s board.
USA Today photo by Chris Jones
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