Here Comes No. 1
By John Helsley
jhelsley@opbuco.com
Bill Self readies for another return to Stillwater. Yet in a stark departure from the past, that’s not the prominent story line for Saturday’s KU-Cowboys clash.
You’ve got OSU in search of securing an NCAA Tournament bid, something a win over the Jayhawks would all but clinch.
“It’s a great opportunity,” Cowboys true combo guard Keiton Page said.
You’ve got the Jayhawks lugging the nation’s No. 1 ranking, making them the first top-ranked team to invade Gallagher-Iba since 1989. For perspective on that rarity, consider this:
“I was born in 1989,” OSU star James Anderson said.
And you’ve got Anderson and KU’s Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich all in the thick of the Big 12 Player of the Year race, with Saturday perhaps serving as a separator.
Then you’ve got self, who played at OSU and graduated at OSU and depending on who you believe, was all set to coach at OSU before working out a massive extension to remain in Lawrence, spurring Cowboys athletic director Mike Holder to openly admit being broken hearted nearly two years ago.
Of course, OSU ultimately went another direction, hiring Travis Ford, who’s job of reshaping and recasting the Cowboys is ongoing.
And now, as Self returns to his alma mater for the first time since that 2008 courting, the emotional connection seems to have subsided — for now — on both sides.
Both have more pressing matters; a Big 12 championship for Self; a big win for the Cowboys.
Time, we know, changes everything.
Self’s take:
“When I was head coach at Oral Roberts, we played there every year. It wasn’t as emotional when were down 41 (points), but it was still an emotional deal. And then when we come back here (to KU), people made a big deal about going back. And that was emotional to me.
“It’s not emotional any more. It’s a business trip. We will not mix personal on this business trip.”
That’s not to say Self doesn’t still harbor love for OSU. He does. As he said this week, “That’s my school. That’s my wife’s school.”
But KU is his profession.
“There will be some people that I will love to see, but that will be when we’re coming out of the locker room after the game. That’s not a negative toward OSU, but I can’t do both.
“I would think that anybody going back and playing their alma mater, it’s probably a little different the first few times you do it. But once you do it a while… I think when (Michael) Jordan was playing for the Wizards and every time he went back to Chicago to play, it probably lessened a little bit as far as being emotional. I could be wrong. Of course I’m not comparing that to Jordan, gaw, that’s a bad comparison.
“I don’t think it’s going to be that big a deal.”
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