Bill Self apparently has been doing some serious soul searching while wading in the waters off Miami Beach the past few days.

Sources close to Self say the third-year University of Illinois men’s basketball coach has been torn over whether to remain the Illini coach or take over for Roy Williams at Kansas University.

“On Wednesday he thought he was going (to KU),” a source who knows Self said Friday. “On Thursday he thought he was staying. Today he doesn’t know,”

Sounds a lot like Williams, who needed last weekend to decide whether to return to his alma mater, North Carolina, or stay at KU.

Sources in both Illinois and Kansas think that if Self does to come to KU, the decision won’t be reached until Sunday at the earliest. That’s because Self would want to tell his Illinois players of his decision first. The Illini players scattered Friday for Easter weekend and will return Sunday.

Self was expected to return to Champaign, Ill., today, after his short four-day vacation to Florida.

“There’s no news,” Illinois sports information director Kent Brown said Friday. “I’m keeping my toes and fingers crossed. He’s a great guy.”

Some in Illinois think Self already has decided he will take the KU job, but merely is putting the deal on hold until Sunday because of his players.

Other folks in Oklahoma, meanwhile, think Oklahoma State factors in Self’s decision. Sources say the 40-year-old Self realizes that if he takes the KU job, he will not be able to replace OSU coach Eddie Sutton at his alma mater.

And some others insist KU, not Oklahoma State, has been Self’s dream job since the 1985-86 season when he worked on coach Larry Brown’s Jayhawk staff.

Sources at KU remained confident the Illini coach would soon agree to take over at KU.

KU interim athletic director Drue Jennings said he had no comment on the search.