KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas men's basketball coach Bill Self never has been one to sulk. That would be "soft," after all, a concept he holds in contempt.
But before he coaxed the Jayhawks to the 2008 national title, there were times he felt sensations ranging from simply deficient to "I can't catch a break at the right time."
In the most compelling of fashions with an overtime win over Memphis in that championship game, though, Self purged the two first-round knockouts his teams had suffered early in his KU tenure and doused any lingering stigma of four Elite Eight losses at three different schools. Outside the Kansas locker room late that night, Self projected a certain serenity to a few of us gathered speaking with him.
