Kansas coach Bill Self says he was an 'armchair quarterback' watching game on TV

Gary Bedore, The Kansas City Star on Jan 22, 2026

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Bill Self watched with great interest from his west Lawrence, Kan., home late Tuesday night as his Kansas Jayhawks men’s basketball team beat Colorado, 75-69, in a highly competitive Big 12 battle.

Self, KU’s 23rd-year head coach, played the role of ESPN viewer after awarding acting-coaching duties to assistant Jacque Vaughn. Self didn’t make the trip to Boulder following a Monday health scare involving dehydration and an irregular-heartbeat condition.

He received intravenous fluids during a precautionary stay at LMH Health before being released.

“’Sitting back’ would probably be a little bit of a stretch,” Self said of his demeanor during Tuesday’s game. “Yelling may be a little bit of a stretch, too, considering I didn’t need to be doing that at the time. I know now what it means to be an armchair quarterback, because I sat there and watched and I had all the answers.”

Self, who said that last part with a smile, returned to work Wednesday and assured he’d be back as head coach when KU takes on Kansas State on Saturday evening in Manhattan. He said he learned from his TV-viewing experience that he “can actually agree with many fans when they are doing the same thing” — being so-called armchair quarterbacks.

“Just so they know, there are times where I probably agree 100% with them. This is the fact of the matter, getting people (players) to actually do it in real time isn’t quite as easy as what it seems to be like.

“I watched the game and I’m going, ‘They (Buffs) are playing zone. The middle is wide open. Why don’t we get to the middle?’ Well, that was something that was emphasized the whole time, and it just didn’t quite happen the way we wanted to. So there are times where obviously you think it, but sometimes just because you think it doesn’t mean that everyone actually reacts and does it.”

Asked how it’s been getting “re-acclimated” to the job after missing a game, Self said: “It hasn’t been six months — it’s been 24 hours — so I’m fine. What I had is very similar to what many people have. Mine (atrial fibrillation, or AFib) got me pretty good for a short snippet of time and then was under control. But that won’t have any impact at all moving forward in any way, shape or form. I was at the office yesterday, so it won’t impact me moving forward.”

Self explained his health episode in detail on Wednesday’s weekly Hawk Talk radio show.

“Right before our team was taking off (for the flight to Boulder on Monday), I started feeling some very abnormal chest issues,” he recounted. “And I’m thinking, based on what I’ve had before, ‘This can’t be good.’ So I go down (to LMH Health) and get looked at and everything.

“And of course, they’re getting ready to get on a plane. And so I said, ‘Can I go?’ And they’re going, ‘No, you can’t go,’ because I was experiencing some stuff. I come to find out I was not severely, but very, dehydrated, and I’ve got AFib, so that was pretty significant in a very small snippet of time, but it was enough that I couldn’t get on a plane.

“So that’s where that was and is, and I’ve been checked out thoroughly and actually feel good.”

Self said he “was kind of relieved to know that it was what it was, to be honest with you. So I’m good to go. No limitations. I could have coached today. I could have coached last night. They just didn’t want me flying and being at altitude there. I’ll be back on the practice court without question.”

Self on Thursday explained why former KU guard/NBA player and head coach Vaughn was his choice to call the plays and make strategic decisions in the game against the Buffs.

“Well, Jeremy (Case) is our associate head coach. There’s no doubt,” Self said. “But we were trying to win a game over a two-hour period of time. It wasn’t an extended period of time, it was two hours.

“Jacque had the most head coaching experience of anybody to do that, so that was the reason why. But it wasn’t for an extended period of time, it was for two hours. How do we give ourselves the best chance to have the best voice for two hours?”