Longtime Kansas head men’s basketball coach Bill Self was briefly hospitalized “out of an abundance of caution” on Monday after feeling ill earlier in the day. Self received IV fluids and “is feeling better” but isn’t expected to join the 19th-ranked Jayhawks for tonight’s 11 pm ET tip at Colorado, according to a statement released by the program on Monday night.
Later that night, Tejay Cleland of KWCH-12 in Wichita released audio of the EMS call to Allen Fieldhouse, home of the Jayhawks basketball team, in a since-deleted tweet. In his post, Cleland revealed the 911 call was received just before 4 pm CT Monday and included: “Unit in route. Chest pain at Allen Fieldhouse.”
This isn’t the first health scare for the 63-year-old Self, who missed the entire Big 12 Tournament and part of the NCAA Tournament in 2023 after being hospitalized for chest tightness and balance concerns, according to ESPN. At that time, Self underwent a heart catheterization and had two stents placed to treat blocked arteries, per ESPN.
Self was also hospitalized last July after experiencing “some concerning symptoms” during a summer practice, the team announced July 24, 2025. He underwent an additional heart procedure and had two stents inserted before being released two days later.
The coach called that experience a big wake-up call this offseason and spoke on the lifestyle changes that it has led to for him. That included altering his diet.
“I would say I’ve had a couple of wake-up calls but this was probably a bigger knot on my head than even the first one,” Self said at the time. “But, the way that it’s probably changed, as much as anything, is I’ve never been one of healthy habits so to speak. But I’ve gotten a lot better. I haven’t had any fried food or fast food or red meat or yellow cheese or anything in three months almost.
“…I think I have to wake up a little bit and maybe do some things from a lifestyle standpoint, a personal habit standpoint that I’ve been very, very, very inconsistent with my entire adult life. … I’m taking (the doctor’s advice) serious for the first time that I probably have in my life. All this did, from a job standpoint, was reconfirm how much I love doing what I do.”
No further explanation for Self’s latest health scare has been released as of Tuesday morning, but it was serious enough that it requires him to miss his first games since 2023. While no official announcement has been made, it is likely associate head coach Jeremy Case would take the lead role on the bench Tuesday night against the Buffaloes.
No. 19 Kansas (13-5, 3-2 Big 12) is in the midst of a difficult 2025-26 season due in large part to availability issues with star freshman guard Darryn Peterson, the projected top pick in the upcoming 2026 NBA Draft in June. Peterson has already missed nine games — roughly half of the season so far — with a lingering hamstring injury, but has started the last five straight, including last week’s 84-63 upset of No. 2 Iowa State in Lawrence.
— On3’s Chandler Vessels contributed to this report.