Chicago ? Less than an hour before Illinois was to tip off Sunday, a fellow popped out of his locker room. He waved at a familiar face. Glanced up at a TV monitor in the hallway showing some game. Stuck his hands in his pockets and, well, kind of hung out for a moment or two watching TV with some sentry seated there.

“I like to keep it as loose as possible,” the fellow explained.

The fellow was Bill Self, the Illinois coach. His composure won’t win him a cameo in one of those deodorant commercials. But it is probably a reason he wins so many games this time of year.

After all, it isn’t as if Self has coached as many fast-food All-Americas as the guy he will face later this week in Madison, Wis., Kansas coach Roy Williams, who won’t likely be hanging in the hallway with strangers before the game.

This is just Self’s second season at Illinois. The three previous seasons, Self was running the show at Tulsa, maybe the best small-school basketball program in the country.

Nonetheless, with a 72-60 win over Creighton on Sunday, Self pushed his NCAA Tournament record to 9-3. He advanced to the second weekend for a third straight March.

Last year,Self became the first coach in college history to lead different schools into the Elite Eight in successive seasons. He went 4-2 in the NCAA Tournament during his Tulsa stay, despite that his teams there were awarded lower seeds than his teams at Illinois, a major-conference school, have received.

The only constant where Self has coached has been, obviously, himself. And the constant with him appears to be the keel he’s found in his coaching approach. It looks to be even all the time.

“He just keeps reminding us about … being relaxed and being patient,” senior guard Corey Bradford said.

Whether he’s hanging out with strangers moments before tip-off, or on the sidelines during games, he just looks relaxed.

Even when he’s berating a ref he seems to do so with some restraint.

“I take the approach that it’s a reward to be playing in the tournament and we ought to enjoy the moment,” Self said. “The season is a long enough grind.”

After his guys beat San Diego State on Friday, he took them to Chicago’s ESPN Zone restaurant for a little fun. This is the coach who, during a conditioning workout for his new troops before last season, sported camouflage to lighten the mood.

“The situation of the (tournament) game tenses you up enough,” Self explained. “That’s why I think it’s important to have a relaxed camp.”

There was a moment of apparent trepidation for Self’s team against the little regarded Bluejays. Late in the first half, Creighton cut the Illinois lead to two. And for the first eight minutes of the second half, the Bluejays hung within a bucket or two of Illinois. But Illinois never appeared to panic.

There is little wonder why: a guy who doesn’t suffer stage fright is teaching them.