Pity the next Kansas basketball coach.
The standard to lead one of college hoops' most tradition-rich programs has been established at an absurd level over a 120-year history, an anniversary that will be celebrated Saturday when the Jayhawks play host to Oklahoma State.
The position has been held by eight men on a full-time basis, ranging in service from Larry Brown's five years to Phog Allen's 39. Both men won NCAA championships. The only KU coach with a losing record was its first, and we can give James Naismith a break on that. After all, he invented the game.
W.O. Hamilton, Dick Harp, Ted Owens, Roy Williams and Bill Self fill out the card. Self's election to the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame last year brought to five the number of KU coaches to receive that honor.
Collectively, the eight have won 2,235 games, second in the game's history to Kentucky and ahead of North Carolina, two teams that play in buildings named for reserve guards who played for Kansas.
Not all KU coaches worked in the time of the NCAA Tournament, but the six who have coached since 1939 have each taken at least one KU team to a Final Four. No other program can say that all of their coaches who could've taken a team to a Final Four have done so.
"Unmatched, in any sport," is how ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas put it. "You won't find in any sport a list of luminaries like Kansas has had, that starts with the game's inventor."
How did Kansas find winner after winner to lead its program? Let's drill down on how each coach arrived at KU.
