KU needs to step up and make decision for Self

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This is not to say Bill Self is being mistreated. He’s not. He’s making well more than a million dollars per year, and he has certainly been given plenty of support at Kansas.

But this is not a question of being mistreated. This is a question of paying one of the best college coaches in the business as if he’s, well, one of the best college coaches in the business. Kansas is not a small-market program. Kansas claims to be elite, there with Kentucky, Carolina, Duke, Indiana, now Florida — well, those schools are paying their coaches a lot more money than Kansas plays Self.

And ask yourself this if you’re a Kansas fan: Would you trade Self for any coach?

Self wants what everyone wants. He wants more money, sure. More than that, he wants security. And perhaps more than that, he wants to feel as if Kansas values him more than any school in America would.

Right now, Self suspects that Kansas will give him that sort of respect. He’s supposed to meet with athletic director Lew Perkins, and Self really does believe they will cut a deal that makes all the Oklahoma State talk pointless. I think it will get done, too — especially now that Kansas has won the title. It might have been trickier had Davidson hit that final shot in the Elite Eight. Now, I’m betting it gets done.

But, in the end, I don’t know, and Self does not know, either. Coaches get ripped when they leave for better jobs and more money, but it goes the other way, too. I know of a loyal coach in the Northeast who turned down an opportunity at a good job, and two years later, that same school canned him for losing too much. It’s a tough racket. Until Kansas makes him the good offer, Self owes it to himself to keep his cell phone on.

No, the decision is not really Bill Self’s. The decision belongs to Lew Perkins and Kansas. They are the only ones who can make Oklahoma State go away. The question to Kansas is simple: Do you want to be a big-time program? If not, there’s a whole lot of oil money in Oklahoma.

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To reach Joe Posnanski, call 816-234-4361 or send e-mail to jposnanski@kcstar.com. For previous columns, go to KansasCity.com.