Illinois Appears to Have Self-Assurance This Year

Nearly every NCAA tournament produces its share of up-and-coming coaches who lead underdogs into the late rounds and become targeted by schools looking for a change on the sideline.

Repeating that success at a new school usually takes time. Often, it never happens.

Then there’s Illinois and its first-season coach Bill Self.

Self guided No. 7-seeded Tulsa within five points of the Final Four last season and is back in the regional finals this year with top-seeded Illinois (27-7).

The Fighting Illini, which hasn’t advanced this far in the tournament since reaching the Final Four in 1989, put Self in the Midwest Regional final for the second year in a row with a 80-64 victory over No. 4-seeded Kansas (26-7) on Friday night at San Antonio.

“He did a great job with Tulsa, taking them to the elite eight, so he kind of knows what to expect,” Illinois guard Sean Harrington said. “He’s guiding us through this whole process. He coaches with a lot of intensity and a lot of energy, and I think that rubs off on us.”

Illinois missed the tournament two season ago, then was knocked out in the second round last year by Florida, which went to the national final.

The challenge Self faced was inheriting a roster of talented players recruited by someone else to play another style. However, the transition couldn’t have been smoother as the guys clicked with his personality and ended up preferring his up-tempo system to former coach Lon Kruger’s more methodical approach.

“The adjustment we made wasn’t easy, but at the same time it wasn’t hard because I think everyone on the team in high school wanted to run and gun, wanted that kind of game,” said Frank Williams, the Big 10 player of the year. “He just lets us play that way.”

Williams credits Self for helping him blossom as a sophomore after an inconsistent freshman year under Kruger.

“I think he’s brought a little more leeway to the game,” Williams said. “He lets us make mistakes out there and he lets us correct them. If we don’t correct them soon enough, we’ll be sitting beside him on the bench.”

Self said the trick with Williams was setting strict parameters while letting him do whatever he wants within those margins.

“I don’t want to take away his imagination. He’s got the best imagination of any player I’ve ever coached or been around,” Self said. “Last year, in a structured situation, maybe he felt like he was tied up too much. Whether that’s right or wrong, now I feel like he’s playing with a free mind. But he’s not abusing the freedom.”

Self, 37, also won over the Illini by being one of the boys.

“We obviously respect him a great deal for his knowledge of the game, Xs and Os, stuff like that,” forward Lucas Johnson said. “But to be able to balance that with being able to kind of bring himself down to our level and be buddy-buddy with us off the court -- it just made the transition period that much easier.”