“If the worst thing that happens to you as a basketball coach is that you win your league, you win your league tournament and you get upset in the first round of the tournament every now and then, from my vantage point, that stinks,” Self said. “There’s a lot of guys out there fighting and clawing every day that wish they had it that good.

“It’s a tough emotion, especially when there’s so many people around you that remind you — whether it be fans or whatever, how that’s not acceptable. But hey, that’s life. Sometimes bad things happen.

“I don’t know exactly how my emotions are right now. I know that I’m not a better coach today than I was yesterday. You know, maybe I just got a little luckier today.”

He might be a better coach than he was at the beginning of the season. This Kansas team overcame a lot of personal adversity and the players credit Self for seeing them through. Rush came back from his ACL injury last summer, an injury that cost him a shot at entering the NBA.

“It feels good right now, just coming back from what I had, coming back and giving my teammates a Final Four — I mean a national championship,” Rush said.

Darnell Jackson and Roderick Stewart both endured tragedy in February when a friend and a relative were murdered. Jackson and Sasha Kaun both lost loved ones under tragic circumstances earlier in their lives.

Evidently it made these Jayhawks tough because they showed a great deal of grit in wins over North Carolina and Memphis at this memorable Final Four.

“One thing coach always told us, winning can cure a lot of things,” senior guard Russell Robinson said. “Not only for yourself, but for your families. Winning big in a game like this, I couldn’t even imagine what the fans in Kansas are going through right now.”

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They’ll have an idea soon enough. A celebration is planned at Memorial Stadium in Lawrence Tuesday afternoon. There might be a few people on hand to show the Jayhawks how much they appreciate being in the winner’s circle again.

By then, it might start to sink in.

“I thought this would be great,” Self told the crowd of Jayhawk worshippers who stuck around for the trophy presentation. “But it’s a lot better than I thought it would be.

“I don’t know if a coach really deserves what happened to me tonight because I can’t imagine it being any better, any time.”

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