Kansas will have another Self on its team next season. Coach Bill Self’s son, Tyler, will join the Jayhawks as a non-scholarship, walk-on player, according to KUsports.com on Tuesday.
“It was my mother, (Bill Self) and I eating dinner at a little Mexican restaurant. I said something like, ‘I want to play.’ They were both kind of surprised. I think they both said, ‘Really?’ at the same time. It was pretty funny,” said Tyler Self said, according to the report.
Self averaged 3.9 points and 1.3 rebounds as a senior at Lawrence’s Free State High School. The report said that he chose Kansas over Bill Self’s alma mater, Oklahoma State, where he wouldn’t have played basketball.
But the allure of being a part of the Jayhawks’ storied program was a chance for an “amazing experience,” the younger Self said in the report. And a chance for father and son to spend time together.
“I have never tried to pressure Tyler athletically,” Bill Self said Monday, according to KUsports.com. “In high school, junior high, I always let his coaches coach him. This time, I actually get to do it.
“I am very pleased that he has decided to walk on. It’ll be a lot of work, but it’s a great opportunity for him and even a better opportunity for me to be able to see my son and be around him.”
