Coach Bill Self of Kansas, the reigning Division I men’s basketball champion and a top team this season, will miss the remainder of the Big 12 Conference’s tournament for health reasons, the university announced Thursday.
Self, 60, arrived at the emergency department of the University of Kansas Health System on Wednesday night and underwent a “standard procedure,” the school said Thursday evening. The university did not specify the type of treatment, but in its statement, Dr. Steven Stites, the chief medical officer at the health system, said Self did not have a heart attack, which had been speculated on social media.
Kansas had said Thursday morning that Self was recovering from an illness. The school said in the evening that it would not release any further medical details for now.
“I am very grateful for the overwhelming number of well wishes my family and I have received,” Self said in a statement. “I’m excited to get back with my team in the very near future.”
Norm Roberts, a Kansas assistant who is a former head coach at St. John’s, led the Jayhawks in Thursday’s 78-61 win over West Virginia. He also coached the team for the first four games this season when Self served a school-imposed four-game punishment as Kansas looked to soften potential N.C.A.A. punishment following a federal investigation into corruption in the sport. The N.C.A.A. hasn’t yet made a ruling in Kansas’ case.
Roberts will coach Kansas for the rest of the conference tournament. The Jayhawks are set to face Iowa State in the semifinals on Friday evening in Kansas City, Mo.
“Coach is always preaching to us, ‘Hey get the job done, focus on what you can control,’” Roberts said after Thursday’s game. “There’s other things you can’t control so what we could control was getting the team ready, and getting them ready to play and locking in and playing the way we needed to win the game, and I thought our guys did a great job of being very, very focused.”
Kansas went 13-5 in the Big 12 to win a regular-season title for the 17th time during Self’s 20-year tenure. After winning last year’s N.C.A.A. tournament — the second title at Kansas for the Hall of Fame coach Self — the Jayhawks are in the mix to be the No. 1 overall seed this postseason despite having two players, Ochai Agbaji and Christian Braun, selected in the first round of last year’s N.B.A. draft.
The bracket for this year’s tournament will be announced on Sunday, and the first round begins March 16.
