In most ways, a coach would be crazy if he didn’t want to be mentioned in the same breath as John Chaney and Gene Keady. Chaney, a former Temple coach, and Keady, who used to be in charge at Purdue, won more than 1,200 games combined.

Coach Bill Self can’t wait until no one associates him with those two men. Chaney and Keady, for all their accomplishments, are regarded as the best coaches to never make a Final Four. Self hasn’t made one yet either.

He’s come close plenty of times. Self has been to the Elite Eight with Tulsa and Illinois and twice with Kansas. In three out of four of those trips, his team was the higher seed and failed to move on.

“I hate to say it,” graduate assistant Michael Lee said about making the Final Four, “but it is a big deal for him.”

If the Jayhawks win against Villanova at 8:40 p.m. tonight in Detroit, Self will be in the Elite Eight for the fifth time. Kansas will be favored to win, and you can bet that fans will blame him if the Jayhawks lose. They’ll say Roy is better. They’ll call the season a waste. Some may call for his job.

He’s won more than 80 percent of his games in four plus years as coach and directed the team to four Big 12 regular season titles and three Big 12 Tournament championships. But Self hasn’t made the Final Four.

“Our fans may not agree with this,” Self said, “but we’re 33 and 3. We’ve won the league. We’ve won the league tournament. We’re in the Sweet 16. We’ve had a good year.”

He paused for a second.

“But in order to make it a special year,” he said, “we need to play well this weekend.”

Self’s been in search of that magical weekend for years.

March 26, 2000

Tulsa’s Eric Coley was the typical Self player: He cared about toughness and defense. That season, his senior year, he became the Western Athletic Conference’s all-time leader in steals.

“He was a cowboy,” then-Tulsa assistant coach John Phillips said. “He took pride in the defensive end - similar to Brandon Rush, minus the shot.”

In the tournament, Coley helped shut down the guards of UNLV, Cincinnati and Miami. The Golden Hurricane, a seven seed, had to beat eighth-seeded North Carolina to make the Final Four. To do that, it would need another strong defensive performance from Coley against the Tar Heels’ star freshman, Joseph Forte.

Fouls prevented it from happening. Coley sat 10 minutes in the first half because of foul trouble. He picked up his fourth foul seven minutes into the second half. Forte scored 28 points, his career high. Tulsa lost 59-55.

“If our guys hadn’t gotten into foul trouble,” Phillips said, “it probably would’ve gone the other way.”

March 25, 2001

One year later, Self got another attempt at the Final Four. This time, he was coaching Illinois.

Self, who’d taken over for Lon Kruger, molded an already rugged bunch into a group of warriors who wouldn’t be out-toughed by anybody. Frank Williams, a gritty point guard, teamed with a frontline of Sergio McClain, Brian Cook and Marcus Griffin. Lucas Johnson, who was so aggressive that he often got accused of dirty play, came off the bench.

Sean Harrington was a sophomore guard that season who led the Big 10 in three-point field goal percentage. He remembers how Self taught the Illinois players that the season was broken down into four parts: the nonconference, conference, conference tournament and NCAA Tournament. Self wanted to win a “championship” in all of those areas. Illinois did well in nonconference play then won the Big 10. The Illini also secured a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and rolled to the Elite Eight.

There, it met Arizona, a team on a mission. Arizona won 87-81.

“It was just two great teams,” Harrington said, “and Arizona was just a little better.”

March 28, 2004

Michael Lee, a junior guard at the time, doesn’t remember much about the Georgia Tech Elite Eight game. He just remembers that Self prepared for it like any other game.

It didn’t matter that it was the third time Self had been there in five years, he didn’t feel like he had anything to prove. Lee said Self just showed them a lot of tape, worked them through the shootaround and didn’t give any special speeches or use motivational tactics. Self knew they were prepared enough.

His team had more than enough advantages: it was playing in St. Louis, had Final Four experience from the previous two seasons and Tech’s leading scorer was injured. Yep, the Jayhawks had them all. Except one.

Kansas didn’t count of Georgia Tech’s Jarrett Jack. Jack, a sophomore guard for the three-seeded Yellow Jackets, shot the four-seeded Jayhawks out of the tournament. He scored 29 points, and Tech won in overtime 79-71. Kansas missed 16 of its first 18 shots, and star players Keith Langford and Wayne Simien made just eight of their 25 attempts.

“Some people call it luck,” Lee said. “Some call it preparation. It depends on how you look at it. There’s no special formula.”

March 24, 2007

After close losses, Self often laments that his team missed too many “bunnies,” his word for close shots.

Against UCLA in the Elite Eight last season, the Jayhawks missed plenty of them. More than 10 shots from inside or layups didn’t fall in for the Jayhawks.

While they missed, UCLA turned up its offense. The Bruins made 58 percent of their shots in the second half, including 75 percent from long distance. Their defense proved better than Kansas’, which had been regarded as one of the best in the country.

“It hurts,” Self told the Kansan after the game. “I really felt like this was our year.”

March 30, 2008

Will this be the day? Will Self finally get fans off his back and take Kansas to the place he hasn’t been able to reach in four tries?

Everything will have to be just right. Self knows that already. He’s seen Final Four dreams disappear because of foul trouble against North Carolina, an inspired team with Arizona, a hot performer with Georgia Tech and missed layups against UCLA.

“Coaches know there’s an element of intangibles out there that some people catch breaks and some people don’t,” Self said. “All we want to do is prepare our guys to be the best they can be and hope that’s good enough. A lot of factors go into playing well this time of year that are unknown to everyone else’s eyes so I won’t feel the pressure.”

Good fortune should be on Self’s side this year. If any team was built for a run to the Final Four and National Championship, this one is it. Kansas has a myriad of scoring options and five seniors and two juniors who have seen just about everything possible in their college careers.

They were the ones who helped build Self’s team at Kansas, along with sophomores Darrell Arthur and Sherron Collins. They want a Final Four and national title for themselves and for their coach.

“He loves us and we love him,” senior guard Jeremy Case said. “We’re going to do everything we can to get him that national championship just like he’s going to do everything for us to get us that national championship.”

This group won’t be around forever. Seniors Russell Robinson, Sasha Kaun and Darnell Jackson are all gone after this season. Junior Brandon Rush is a lock to enter the NBA Draft, and Arthur will probably join him. Heck, Collins and Mario Chalmers might even leave.

Kansas is two games away from a Final Four berth, and the Jayhawks will be favored in both. Everyone will expect them to beat Villanova tonight and Wisconsin or Davidson on Sunday.

It’s now or never for most of the players, and it could be a while before Self gets another team as good as this one. That’s why Phillips thinks this could be the year for his former boss.

He’s watched the team and seen how they play defense as good as any Self team. They also have the necessary focus, and Phillips knows that Self always finds the perfect playing style to suit his team during the postseason even if it comes at the expense of some sub-par regular season games. More than anything, Phillips is just confident in Self’s competitive nature.

“He’s still a young man,” Phillips said. “He’ll get there. There’s nobody I know that is more of a competitor than Bill Self. He wants to win at marbles, at ping-pong. Desire on his part is there. Once he breaks in, he’ll be there a lot.

— Edited by Jessica Sain-Baird