Bob McCarty Writes

Wow, was I surprised to see this! I was watching ESPN at 11:25 p.m. Central after the Kansas Jayhawks defeated the Memphis Tigers to win the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship and saw an ESPN Bottom Line message crawl from right to left across the bottom of my television:

“TULSA WORLD REPORTS OKLAHOMA STATE PREPARING OFFER TO BILL SELF.”

Image details: Kansas v Memphis served by picapp.com
As an Oklahoma State University graduate, I’ve been hoping to see Sean “Little Eddie” Sutton replaced soon. After all, the program has done nothing but go down hill since he took the reigns of a strong program from his dad, Eddie Sutton. In researching the crawler message above, I found the Tulsa World article ESPN must have been citing and learned that the younger of the two Sutton coaches had indeed resigned after two years at the helm.

So, will the powers that be in Stillwater be able to lure Self away from Lawrence, Kan? If the money is good enough, they will — and T. Boone Pickens has money. If you don’t believe it, look at the record-setting gift (something in excess of $100 million) he gave to the OSU Athletic Department for renovation of the football stadium and other projects on campus.

Unfortunately, the last 12 words of the aforementioned Tulsa World article (below) are probably accurate:

Bill Self, Kansas: The former OSU player and assistant coach makes about $1.3 million per year with the Jayhawks. While it is expected that OSU athletic director Mike Holder may attempt to hire the Kansas coach, Self said Tuesday that he wasn’t a candidate for the OSU job.

Who knows, if Self says, “No thank you,” maybe the Pokes will bring the now-unemployed Kelvin Sampson back to the Sooner State. He ought to come cheap.