Coach Bill Self and his Kansas Jayhawks ready for another trip to face West Virginia

Bill Self did a favor for fellow Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Bob Huggins in serving as guest speaker at the veteran West Virginia coach’s 10th annual Fish Fry fundraiser last Feb. 18 in Morgantown, West Virginia.

The event, which took place the night before Kansas’ Big 12 basketball battle against the WVU Mountaineers, raised an event record $2.65 million in support of the Norma Mae Huggins Cancer Endowment Fund at the WVU Cancer Institute and the Remember the Miners Flagship Scholars program.

“First of all, I didn’t help him. They did that all on their own,” Self, Kansas’ 20th-year coach, said modestly, referring to raising money for the fund named after Huggins’ mom.

“I was able to provide entertainment by being a punching bag when I was there, which I’m sure he was very grateful for that,” added Self, who has joked that the event — which also included host Dave Portnoy of Barstool Sports — at the time seemed like a “roast” of Self.

“The price was very cheap for me to offer to do that,” Self stated with a smile. He volunteered his services at the fundraiser free of charge in support of his good buddy, Huggins.

All’s well that ended well on the 2022 trip to Morgantown. After surviving jokes told at his expense at the fish fry, Self’s Jayhawks defeated Huggins’ Mountaineers 71-58 the following day at WVU Coliseum.

“I think he has Charles coming back this year,” Self said, referring to Charles Barkley, who indeed will be this year’s guest speaker at the Jan. 21 fish-fry fundraiser. “He (Huggins) told me that the other day. Whatever was raised last year, he’ll kill it this year.”

Self, minus any banquet responsibilities, will bring his Jayhawks back to Morgantown to face Huggins’ Mountaineers on Saturday. Tipoff for the battle between No. 3-ranked KU (13-1, 2-0) and unranked West Virginia (10-4, 0-2) is set for 5 p.m. Central at WVU Coliseum in Morgantown.

“I think we are 4-6 at their place the years ‘Huggs’ has been in the league,” Self said, correctly reporting KU’s record in Morgantown.

“That’s not good, but not awful. You like to win 50% of games in every building you go to, but they’ve given us problems there. We’ve struggled there. Last year we actually performed pretty well start to finish.”

The Jayhawks led by six points at halftime en route to a 71-58 victory over WVU on Feb. 19, 2022.

The Mountaineers, who were recently ranked No. 24 in The AP Top 25 for the week of Dec. 26, have dropped out after starting 0-2 in the league. WVU lost to Kansas State 82-76 in overtime on New Year’s Eve in Manhattan, then fell at Oklahoma State 67-60 on Tuesday.

“The same thing (as always): ... They are plus-10.5 in rebounding in two games in the league. They always rebound the ball,” Self said. Former Saint Louis Billiken Jimmy Bell, a 6-10 senior out of Saginaw, Michigan, and former Texas Longhorn Tre Mitchell, 6-9 from Pittsburgh, average 6.1 and 5.4 rebounds a game respectively for West Virginia. Mitchell is second on the team in scoring behind 6-4 former South Carolina guard Erik Stevenson (13.3 points per game to 14.1) while Bell contributes 6.3 points per game.

“If they don’t press, they always put pressure on you defensively to go make a play. They are great rotating and taking charges,” Self said, adding, “They’ll be thirsty, they’ll be hungry. They could be 2-0 in the league; instead they are 0-2. We won two games. We could be 0-2. That’s how good our league is now.”

KU junior forward Jalen Wilson has been to West Virginia three times for games, including his redshirt season of 2019-20. The Jayhawks won last year’s game in Morgantown 71-58 and lost 91-79 two seasons ago. KU won 58-49 with Wilson watching from the bench in 2019.

“It’s always been a battle every single time we go to West Virginia no matter who is there or how many people are there,” Wilson said. “You can never count them out. They have such a great coach. They will always have tough guys who play hard, physical, have guys who can make shots. We’ll just have to play and bring physicality to them.

“It’s by far probably the most physical place as far as on the road. ... (The fans) never seem to count them out. It’s almost like there’s a foul every single play. Obviously you can’t call a foul every single play. The Big 12 is already physical enough. When you’ve got a team that is bringing the physicality we’ve got to match them. Coach emphasizes the last four minutes. It usually comes down to that at West Virginia.”

Self by the way had a scheduling conflict and couldn’t attend Huggins’ Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony on Sept. 10 in Springfield, Massachusetts. Self was enshrined back in September of 2017.

“I’ve talked to Huggs too many times since he was inducted,” Self joked. “That (induction) was back in September. Anybody who has won that many games like Huggs has ... he’s won over 900 games (926-402 in 41 seasons as head coach) and that’s with taking a year off and some other stuff. He’s been absolutely great for our sport. You guys (media) know how I feel about him. I don’t want to give him too much credit. He’s certainly been a huge addition to our league both when at K-State (one season, 2006-07) and obviously at West Virginia (last 16 seasons).”