Self's New Book Will Be a Hit

Phog.net sneaks an early peek at KU head coach Bill Self’s book, “Bill Self: At Home In The Phog”. It is scheduled to be released October 1st and we spoke with the reigning National Championship coach about his first literary work.

After winning the national title I joked with Bill Self’s wife Cindy about all the things that would follow a stop at the top of the college basketball world – even more demands on Self’s time, getting invites to places they hadn’t been, doing the talk show circuit, and writing a book.

It was on that night in April I learned the KU head coach was working on a way to chronicle the story of his rather quick rise to the top. With author John Rohde’s help the book has finally come to fruition.

“John Rohde and myself we’ve been talking about doing one for a long time and actually almost started a couple of times before. We thought the time was right to do something.”

The next obstacle Rohde, who is a sportswriter for the Daily Oklahoman, and Self faced was to pick a starting and ending point for the book.

“We really didn’t know what direction we would take - just a seasonal deal, or a KU deal. We decided to go ahead and make it more of a post graduate story at the different stops and the things that go along with being at a place, leaving a place, and starting from scratch at a new place,” said Self.

Every coach has a story to tell but Self’s is intriguing because the Oklahoma native rose to the top of the profession so quickly and did it in the national spotlight along the way.

“John and I have spent a lot of time together and compiled a lot of thoughts, stories. It basically starts with how I became a (graduate assistant) coach at Kansas,” Self told Phog.net. “So it will go from that time to going back to Oklahoma Sate as an assistant, to ORU, to Tulsa, to Illinois, to Kansas and basically the things that happened at each of those stops.”

So after months of work, I met with Self this summer and was anxious to hear what was included in his autobiography. He spoke proudly of the work he and Rohde had done and was convinced that it was a book fans would like to read. He also fired off a couple of juicy tidbits I shared with our readers back in July but now KU fans have a chance to read it for themselves.

What was it like to follow Roy Williams after a legendary career in Lawrence? And what does Self think about Roy’s appearance at the national championship game? Self is amazingly candid in this book and admits he “shared some things he hasn’t talked about before.” He also speaks about Bruce Weber’s comments after following Self at Illinois, plus he takes you inside KU’s first title run in 20 years. If you’ve ever wanted to get inside the mind of one of the game’s most successful coaches this is the way to do it. It’s open. It’s honest. It takes you step-by-step through the highs and lows of Self’s career and what turned KU into the team they were on that historic night in April.

Self will do his part to promote the book after its release and also during the holiday break but as you might know, this is a busy time for the 6th year head coach. Self is extremely pleased that they found a way to get the book to stores before the start of the 2008-2009 season and before the holiday rush.

“He (John Rohde) basically wrote the book - with my help. It was a good experience, it was one that I can say wasn’t that time consuming. But it still took a lot of hours to put the thing together and for John to be able to turn it in the time he has is pretty remarkable to get it out before the season and before the holiday season,” Self marveled.

Self’s book, “Bill Self: At Home In The Phog” hits the shelves on October 1st and will give Kansas fans yet another way to relive the title run. Proceeds will go to Self’s Assists Foundation. If you would like to purchase the book go to https://custombooks.ascendmedia.com/Details.aspx?id=4

- to visit Self’s foundation website go to www.assistyouth.org . You can also purchase the book there and check out upcoming events to benefit the foundation.