Kansas men's basketball coach Bill Self will miss his team's NCAA Tournament first-round game against Howard on Thursday (March 16) as he continues to recover from a recent heart procedure, the Associated Press reports.
Self's status for a potential second-round matchup for Saturday (March 18) has not yet been confirmed publicly as of Thursday. The 60-year-old missed the entire Big 12 Conference Tournament last weekend, which concluded with Kansas losing to Texas, 76-56, during the final last Saturday (March 11).
Assistant coach Norm Roberts went 4-0 when he filled the role of acting head coach earlier in the 2022-23 season while Self served a school-imposed suspension, as well as 2-1 during last week's tournament amid the coach's medical absence. The Jayhawks are looking to win their second consecutive NCAA championship, having defeated North Carolina, 72-69, in the 2022 tournament final last April.
Kansas is the No. 1 seed in the West Region after finishing the regular season with a 25-6 (13-5 Big 12) record. Self and assistant Kurtis Townsend were both suspended for the first four games of the 2022-23 season in relation to an FBI investigation into college basketball corruption launched in 2017, which named both as having committed five Level I violations stemming from its relationship with Adidas.
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