Bill Self had hoped he would never have to face Oklahoma State again.

Now he has no choice.

The former OSU guard and aide was introduced as the eighth basketball coach in Kansas University history Monday. Self will have to coach against mentor Eddie Sutton at least once a year in the Big 12 Conference.

Sutton and Self met four times between 1993 and 1997 when Self was the head coach at Tulsa. Sutton’s Cowboys won the first three meetings by an average of 32.6 points before ORU won, 70-61, in 1997.

“We got him the fourth time, and I told him I’d never play him again so I’ve got bragging rights,” said Self, whose teams never played OSU during his stints at Tulsa and Illinois.

Self, an Oklahoma native, played at OSU for Paul Hansen from 1981-85 before spending one year as a graduate assistant to Larry Brown at Kansas. He returned to OSU and spent four years on the staff of coach Leonard Hamilton and was retained by Sutton when Sutton took over the Cowboy program before the 1990-91 season.

“I’m excited for Bill to be joining the Big 12 basketball family,” said Sutton, a Kansas native. “He will certainly be a welcome addition, as he has proven to be one of the outstanding young coaches there is. I am always thrilled when one of my former assistants has an opportunity to coach at one of the elite programs in all of college basketball.”

Self once had been viewed as a possible replacement should the veteran Sutton decide to hang up his clipboard.

Self said that opportunity would not exist.

“My future is not in Stillwater,” Self said. “My future is in Lawrence.”