A lot happened during Mitch Germann’s four decades … uh, make that four years as the main publicist for Kansas University men’s basketball.

“Two Final Fours, two NABC Players of the Year, three NBA lottery picks, coach (Roy) Williams staying, coach Williams leaving, coach (Bill) Self taking over, working for two of the best coaches in college basketball and all the players, coaches and media,” Germann said, summarizing his tenure with the never-a-dull-moment program.

Today is Germann’s last day on Mount Oread, relinquishing what he calls a “dream job” to experience life in the corporate world with Fleishman-Hillard, a public-relations agency in Kansas City, Mo.

“Mitch is awesome. We hate to see him go,” Self said. “I loved working with Mitch this past year. He’s highly competent at his job. He certainly left his mark here.”

Germann has enough material to write a KU basketball book if he wanted to. He worked for a father-figure type in Williams three years and a younger, more relaxed Self the past campaign.

“Coach Williams just wants to coach the team and take care of the players. After 15, 16 years at a place like Kansas, the peripheral stuff may not be as enjoyable. At the same time, he was accessible, and the media liked coach a lot. He did a lot for me personally,” Germann said.

Of first-year KU coach Self, he said: “Coach is an absolutely genuine, sincere, down-to-earth, caring Midwestern guy who remembers everybody’s name. There are friendly coaches, but he takes it to another level.”

Germann learned during Self’s first day on the job why the coach is regarded as a media favorite.

“I had so many media requests it filled a page,” Germann said. “I sat down and asked coach Self what he wanted to do and not do. He said, ‘You are in charge. You tell me what to do.’ He was that way all year.

“Some days I’d have just a few media requests, I’d take them to him and spend an hour watching SportsCenter on TV in his office, him telling me how great a player Barry Bonds is for a half hour.”

While Williams pretty much had every minute of every day scripted, Self went more by the seat of his pants.

“Coach Self likes to talk. He’ll take care of everybody. He just might be 30 minutes behind schedule,” Germann said with a laugh.

“You watch the first Bill Self practice … there are no refs, there’s no out of bounds … watching his first practice I knew things would be different.

“I couldn’t have worked with two better guys — both ultra-successful but who do things in opposite ways.”

Germann had a wild first month on the job in the summer of 2000 when former KU coach Williams turned down an offer to coach at North Carolina after pondering the decision for a week.

“I’d just gotten back from a convention in St. Louis and was exhausted.

“The producer from an ABC affiliate called with the rumor that Bill Guthridge was stepping down at North Carolina and coach Williams would take over. I called Dean (Buchan, Germann’s predecessor, now at Wake Forest) and said, ‘What do I do?'” Germann explained.

“He said, ‘You better hope it’s not true or God help you.'”

The part about Guthridge stepping down was true, and Germann spent the week working with media from all over the country, some who camped out in Lawrence until the day Williams announced his decision to stay at KU.

“It was a week of constant calls all day and night for a week,” said Germann, who brought in pizza for the media horde each day.

Williams left for North Carolina after an equally crazy week of deliberations after consecutive runs to the Final Four. Self was introduced as KU coach the day after Easter, 2003.

“I realize it’s a dream job, and I couldn’t have been luckier to have it,” Germann said, “but at the same time there are few jobs you are guaranteed to work every weekend between August to April. College athletics in general … the hours are as demanding as any. It will be fun to go to a game and cheer as a fan.”

• Miller a candidate at SMSU: There’s a good chance KU director of basketball operations Ben Miller will be back in coaching next season.

Miller, who has filled a variety of roles for KU basketball the past nine years, is believed to be leading candidate to fill an assistant coaching position on Barry Hinson’s staff at Southwest Missouri State.

Two of Hinson’s assistants landed head-coaching jobs this past offseason. Miller was unavailable for comment.