Ahead of UNC game, KU’s Bill Self had this to say about Phog Allen’s wins record

Bill Self’s next victory at Kansas will be his 590th, tying him with Phog Allen as the tradition-rich school’s all-time winningest men’s basketball coach.

Though the 61-year-old Self, who is in his 22nd season at KU, would obviously love for the milestone win to come as soon as Friday night — when the No. 1-ranked Jayhawks play host to No. 9 North Carolina at Allen Fieldhouse (6 p.m., ESPN2) — he’s definitely not focusing on the impending achievement.

“It’s a significant number,” Self said, “because It means I’m damn old, and it also means that we play a lot more games now per year than what they did back in (Allen’s 39 seasons as KU coach). If Phog had played 30 games a year back when he was coaching for 39 years — that’s 1,200 games — that record wouldn’t ever be touched.

“I’m sure it is significant to some, and I’m sure past players play a role in that (win total), without question, but I’ve been the beneficiary of a lot of good players and good staff and being at a place you can recruit good guys. But I don’t think I will read into it any more than that.”

Self is 589-143 in 22 seasons at KU. Allen went 590-219 in 39 seasons. Overall, Self is 796-248 in 32 seasons as a head coach, counting stops at Oral Roberts, Tulsa and Illinois. Allen — he coached at KU in five different decades — had a career record of 746-264 including stops at Baker, Haskell and Warrensburg Teachers College.

Allen’s years at KU were 1907-09 and 1919-56. For many years during Allen’s tenure, KU played between 18 and 21 games.

Self said he holds Allen “in such high regard,” that he believes the Hall of Famer “deserves to be thought of as always the most innovative and best coach to ever coach here. Nothing that will happen from this point forward will convince me otherwise.

“He just did it in a different time when we have a lot of advantages now that he had to build and we didn’t have to do that. So I give him all the credit and I think other coaches that have coached here, if they really thought about it and understood history, they would feel the exact same way I do.”

It might be fitting if KU ties Allen’s record against fellow basketball blueblood North Carolina.

“Our history is so intertwined that you can’t help but respect the other, because we’re not what we are, either one of us, without the other,” Self said of KU and UNC. “So it just makes it a special, special series, one that I know Sean (Lester, KU schedule maker) got set up for us to play home-and-home. ...

“I would say (it’s a big game) any time you play Carolina ... just like Kentucky or Duke or whatever. And certainly we’re happy to host them, and then we’ll see how tomorrow (the game) goes and then we’ll decide if we want to return the game next year.”

He was joking about the matchup next season. The Jayhawks are contractually obligated to return the game on Nov. 14, 2025. The game at UNC will be played in the Dean E. Smith Center in Chapel Hill, N.C.

As far as connections between the schools ...

• Hall of Fame coach/North Carolina legend Dean Smith is a KU graduate who was a member of KU’s 1952 NCAA national title team. Smith, who hails from Emporia, Kansas, coached 36 seasons at UNC with two national titles and an 879-254 career record.

• Hall of Fame coach Roy Williams’ first head coaching stop was at Kansas from 1988-89 to 2002-03. While at KU, Williams was 418-101 with four Final Fours, nine league regular-season championships and four conference tournament titles. After Kansas, Williams coached 18 seasons at UNC, his alma mater, where he guided the Tar Heels to three NCAA titles and concluded with a 903-264 all-time record.

• Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown was head coach at Kansas for five seasons (1983-84 to 1987-88) and guided KU to the 1988 NCAA title. Brown played guard at UNC.

Current UNC head coach Hubert Davis scored 25 points against KU in the 1991 NCAA Tournament national semifinals in Indianapolis. The Jayhawks won, 79-73.

“I think it’s an awesome game this early in the season. I know our guys will be jacked, their guys will be jacked. It’s going to be fun,” Self said.

The all-time series is tied 6-6 with KU winning the last meeting, 72-69, in the 2022 NCAA title game.

“I’m going to look at it as a positive,” Self said of playing blueblood UNC so early in the season. Both teams are 1-1. “I mean you can learn more about your group probably playing a team like Carolina than you can playing a guarantee game in many ways. Although sometimes the lessons taught through these type of games may not end as happily as what some of the other lessons that can be taught, but certainly a game to get both teams attention,” Self added.