Kansas head coach Bill Self talks about the Jayhawks’ seeding during a press conference following the NCAA Tournament selection show on Sunday, March 16, 2025 at Allen Fieldhouse. Kansas will face Arkansas in the first round in Providence, Rhode Island. Photo by Nick Krug

Kansas men’s basketball coach Bill Self said on Friday that he did not consider stepping away for health reasons due to his hospitalization in July.

But as he recalled, he did ask his surgeon at one point, “What do you think? Is this something that should change my way of thinking on stuff?

“He said, ‘Do you love what you do?'” Self said. “And I said yes, and he said, ‘Well, keep doing it.'”

He is indeed continuing to do it, and three weeks after he spent two days at Lawrence Memorial Hospital and had a pair of stents inserted, Self told reporters at Allen Fieldhouse on Friday that he was “feeling pretty good” and “probably doing about as well as you can do.”

“They’ve asked me and told me that I probably could have some improvements in my lifestyle and life choices, primarily with food and exercise,” he said.

He also said he is doing better, in terms of rehab, than when he previously underwent a heart procedure in the spring of 2023 and had to miss the Big 12 and NCAA tournaments.

“The similarities are that I had stents back then and I had stents this time, and there’s some other things around it that’s obviously different,” Self said. “But from a rehab standpoint and from where I am post (compared to) where I was before, I actually think I’m better today than I was then. Like I could coach a game tomorrow, I can have practice tomorrow, and back then because of some complications I had, they didn’t want me doing anything for a while.”

The longtime KU coach is entering his 23rd season at the helm and his 33rd overall as a head coach, and he will indeed be hosting practices soon enough, as his players return to campus in time for the start of the fall semester.

Self said he was told he’ll feel better when he gets back in a routine.

“When they tell you at a young age that you should be doing this, this and that,” he said, “that’s probably pretty good advice, because there’s a lot of things that you can do as you get older that doesn’t 100% compensate (for) some of the poor choices you made when you were younger.”

Less than three months remain before the Jayhawks begin their 2025-26 season. After early practices and September’s conditioning boot camp, their first unofficial action will be an exhibition at Louisville on Oct. 24.