More from The Q&A: Mike de la Garza
When it comes to Bill Self, everyone wants to look ahead.
Will he and his Jayhawks win the national championship?
Will he be the next coach at Oklahoma State?
Instead of looking ahead, I wanted to look back a bit this week in “The Q&A.” No one better to help with that than former Edmond High boys basketball coach Mike de la Garza. Now the athletic director at Edmond Memorial, de la Garza coached Self as a prepster.
Here is The Q&A with de la Garza in its entirety:
Jenni Carlson: Admit it — you taught Bill everything he knows.
Mike de la Garza: No, the honest truth is Bill Self has done a whole lot more for me than I ever did for him.
JC: That’s not true, is it?
MD: That’s the truth. I was a brand new coach here in 1976. One of the first kids I met was Bill Self. He was in the eighth grade. People forget what a good player Bill was. We won 66 games while he played for us in high school. They went to the state tournament every year. Those three years, we got rolling, and his play was a really big part of that.
JC: What kind of player was he then?
MD: He had a sixth sense about where to pass the ball. He didn’t turn it over. He made timely free throws. Senior year, he led us in scoring, rebounding, assists and guarded everybody’s best player. And his senior year, he made six game-winners, you know where you go, “Three, two, one” to win the game? He did it six times in one year. We won 20, and six of ‘em were at the buzzer.
JC: So, that’s what you mean when you say he did more for you than you did for him.
MD: Oh, yeah.
JC: What’s your favorite memory of him as a player?
MD: That’s really easy. We were in the state tournament in the state semifinals playing Altus. We were down one and had the ball. We were going to run this play for Kelly Jobe. They doubled Kelly up, so Bill just took it, penetrated straight to the basket, dished the ball off to this guy named Eric Ford, who laid it up at the buzzer to win to go to the state finals. It was just the most unbelievable basketball play, and this heady sophomore goes in there and dishes it off. We were all so excited. I remember we were walking off the court, and Bill … he’s just trying to catch his breath. He’s just gasping because he’s so jacked about it.
JC: You’ve maintained a close relationship with Bill. Are headed to San Antonio for the games?
MD: I really want to go. I may not get down there Saturday, but if they get past that Saturday game, there’s no way I won’t be there Monday.
JC: That would mean Bill’s playing for a national title. What has watching all of this been like for you?
MD: It’s a tremendous amount of satisfaction for a high school basketball coach to watch their players play. But then, you get to chance to see them mature and develop not only as individuals but professionally. For Bill to choose coaching and to take his coaching to the level he has taken it is just an unbelievable sense of pride in him and what he does. He’s a big part of our family. My son and his son … we just live Kansas basketball. Sometimes you have to pinch yourself — is this really real? For us to watch him on television in these high-powered games with these high-powered teams, it’s just really fun.
JC: Is it nerve wracking, or do you just sit back and enjoy?
MD: Oh, I couldn’t watch the UNLV game. I’m not kidding. I don’t know why I was so worried about that game. And then Sunday when we’re watching … we’re all just on edge. When the referee makes a bad call, my son Scott — he’s a doctor now — he’s yellin’ at the TV. Yeah, we live and die with it.
JC: Any neighbors called the cops with all that screamin’ coming from the house?
MD: I don’t think so. It’s really been fun watching this. Of course, I love the Final Four, and I love basketball, and I’m always depressed when the season’s over, but having Bill in the mix of all this just makes it even better.
JC: Most important question of the day — how much have you won off Bill on the golf course?
MD: Uh, I’ve only gotten to play golf with Bill a couple times.
JC: Really?
MD: He doesn’t get to play golf much. He has a really busy job, but when he was coaching at OSU, that’s when we used to get out there and play some golf. Maybe a little bit when he was at ORU. Since he has gone to Tulsa, Illinois and
Kansas, he is just busy all the time.
JC: Do you ever miss coaching at all?
MD: Once you’re a basketball coach, you’re always a basketball coach. There’s just times in your life when you don’t have a team. I do miss coaching in the playoffs. But I was fortunate enough to coach basketball for 30 years, and that’s a long time to coach. At the end of it, my blood pressure resembled the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It was about time for me to quit. I haven’t missed it as much as I thought I would because I really think coaching for me ran its course.
JC: Since you don’t have your own team, have Bill’s teams become your surrogate team?
MD: I still live and die with the Edmond Bulldogs, but Bill’s teams … I root for them really, really hard. In fact, on my desk I have the picture of Bill Self in a baseball cap and a suit and tie and a net in his hand that he cut down last Sunday. I’ve already got it framed and on the back of my desk.
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Boy those 6 buzzer beaters were something too! I wish we had some video of some of those bulldog games. I am trying to remember if Bill was already gone when we lost to Midwest City and Mark Price right after beating Tulsa Washington and Wayman Tisdale(RIP).