As happy as he is to take over the head coaching basketball position at Kansas University, Bill Self is sad for the players he has left behind at Illinois.

“They are upset and mad and they’re disappointed, and certainly any emotions they have are warranted,” said Self, who was introduced as coach at KU Monday after serving three years at the U of I.

“I told all the players, ‘How you feel is OK.’ When there’s a split where things were going so well and people were so supportive and you were really beginning to become entrenched not only in the community but the state, a breakup like this is never going to be very easy.”

KU sophomore Wayne Simien, whose heart was broken last week by former Kansas coach Roy Williams, asked Self Sunday night what he told his Illini players about his impending move to KU. The answer?

“I don’t think you can candy-coat it,” Self said. “This was a decision we made for our family for the betterment of time. We didn’t make this decision because we’d rather coach ‘this Kansas player’ more than ‘this Illinois player.’ This was a decision based over time.”

Self is leaving the Illinois program on solid ground. Eight of the Illini’s top 10 players return from a 26-9 team, one that won the Big 10 tournament and reached the NCAA Sweet 16.

“I know that people are upset but we will take pride in that the foundation is set at Illinois. There’s great young players in the program and they are tough and competitive and unselfish, and they sacrifice for the good of others and understand what it takes to win at the highest level,” Self said. “They are going to be good now matter who’s coaching them. Ron Guenther is a fabulous AD and he’ll bring in the very best.”

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Self worked here: Self, a former Oklahoma State player who coached as a graduate assistant on Larry Brown’s 1985-86 KU staff, fell in love with KU during that 35-4 season.

“The year I was here you had Greg (Dreiling) and Calvin (Thompson) and Archie (Marshall) and Ced (Hunter) and Pipes (Chris Piper) and Turg (Mark Turgeon),” Self said. “And some guy named (Danny) Manning and the team was really good. I saw the best that college basketball had to offer.

“We were 35-4 and never ranked lower than fourth in America. I used to talk to coach Brown all the time, and he amazed me because he’s been to a few places. Here is a guy that played and coached at North Carolina and here is a guy that coached and went to the national championship game at UCLA. He used to tell me that those places are great, but there is no place like Kansas. That has always stuck with me.”

Self took a drive down memory lane Monday morning while heading to his office.

“On purpose I drove up Naismith Drive,” he said. “I always thought, ‘How cool would it be to office on Naismith Drive?’ Now it actually gets to happen.”

Self said he’s humbled by his new surroundings.

“The program is bigger than one player, and it is bigger than one coach,” he said. “You have been spoiled. You have had a coach here for the past 15 years that has done a remarkably good job.

“He has done it with class and dignity and his performance on the court certainly equals the performance off the court. It is a tough act to follow. But you know something, Larry Brown was a tough act to follow. Ted Owens, who went to two Final Fours, was a tough act to follow. Phog Allen was a tough act to follow. The guys who started it all, James Naismith, was a tough act to follow. I see this as a great opportunity to sit, in my opinion, in the most prestigious chair in all of college basketball.”

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How it began: Self told the story of how he was hired by Brown in 1985.

That year at KU made Self think of “how cool,” it would be to be head coach at KU someday.

“One of my dearest friends in life, and to this day probably has as much to do with me being here and the success in my coaching career as anybody, is R.C. Buford,” Self said of the San Antonio Spurs general manager and former Brown aide. “He was a volunteer assistant at Kansas. He hired me to be a camp worker.

“I came up here that summer, going into my senior year to work camp with coach Brown. I hurt my knee to the point where the KU team physician back then told coach Brown and myself that I needed to have surgery when I went back (to OSU).

“Coach Brown is an unbelievable person. He really cared about me and liked me for whatever reason. I hung around him and as bad as it hurt, I limped worse than it hurt.

“I tried to get as much pity, love from him as I possibly could. At the end of the camp I walked up to him and said, ‘Coach I just want to thank you for everything, this has been a remarkable week for me even though I was not an athlete here.’ I caught him at a weak moment and he said, ‘Bill, if there is ever anything that I can do for you don’t hesitate to ask.’ An opportunity knocked right there and I said, ‘Coach, there is one thing. You can hire me next year to be your graduate assistant.’

“On the spot, I caught him off guard and he said, ‘You’re hired.’ That is how I got into coaching. I was a business major and 30 seconds later I was going to be an assistant at Kansas. I wrote coach Brown once every month to remind him that he had hired me. He never responded,” Self added with a laugh.

Yet Self showed up in August, and Brown did indeed keep Self on staff.

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Traveling to see signees: Self said he would meet with parents of KU signees Omar Wilkes, David Padgett, Jeremy Case and J.R. Giddens in coming days and also do some recruiting in the final nine days of this current recruiting period.

“My stance to them is, ‘Just because we’ve named a coach and put closure to that, the bottom line is you need to get to know me and me know you. I’m looking forward to meeting you and your family,”’ he said.

Self said he will fly out to meet parents of KU’s current out-of-state players after May 1, unless they really want to see him immediately. In that case he’d go to their homes now.

He said all of the current players had indicated they would return to KU next season.

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Policies: Yes, Self will have a “Late Night With Bill Self” to open the 2003-04 season. Also, he plans on playing a difficult schedule and, though he will have no 12-minute back to school run, he’ll hold what he calls, “Boot Camp,” which is arduous conditioning for players the first few weeks of school.

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No pen to paper yet: Self has not yet signed his five-year contract worth $1.1 million a year.

“As long as I at least get paid a little bit now,” Self quipped. “It will not be a drawn out process at all.”

He has no agent.

“I guess I’m not smart,” he joked, noting his attorney completes his contract deals.

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Private plane: The airplane that flew Self and his family to Lawrence from Champaign, Ill., and back is owned by Sutherland Lumber Co. and Home Centers. The Sutherland family, including Todd Sutherland of Lawrence and Dwight Sutherland of Kansas City, are longtime Kansas boosters.

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Team meeting enjoyable: Self’s opinion of his new players was positive after meeting with them Sunday.

“It seems it is a team that really likes each other, a team that hurt because of a situation just like my guys (at Illinois). They like to win and help each other out and do what it takes to win.”

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Nash surgery a success: Junior forward Bryant Nash’s right wrist and thumb surgery on Monday was successful, trainer Mark Cairns said. Nash, who was operated on by Neal Lintecum at Lawrence Surgery Center, had surgery to stabilize a torn ligament in his thumb and also repair torn cartilage in the wrist. He’ll be in a cast six weeks and be back on the court in three months, Cairns said.