Self cites upside to secondary violations at Illinois

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- To new Kansas coach Bill Self, it's almost a point of pride that during his three seasons at Illinois the school reported 20 minor violations to the NCAA.

The minor, or secondary, violations surrounding the program were reported Sunday by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Because they didn't give the school a recruiting or competitive advantage, Illinois faced no sanctions.

Self, speaking Monday at the Great Plains APSE sports editors meeting, said the fact there were so many violations speaks to the strength of the compliance program at Illinois and not to any lack of institutional control.

"If you're not turning yourself in for secondary violations, your compliance program is not very good," Self said. "Everybody commits secondary violations. Everybody.

"If they're reported, it shows you're on top of your business."

Illinois has four full-time staffers in its compliance office keeping tabs on its coaches, three more than at some other schools where Self has coached. Kansas hired Self in April after former coach Roy Williams left for North Carolina.

"I think Bill is an honest guy," Illinois athletics director Ron Guenther told the Post-Dispatch. "I think Bill came from a different culture, and (found) we ran our compliance program in a much different way than what he was used to."

The violations

Of the 20 violations, Self said six were committed by individuals who didn't work in the basketball office doing things like issuing equipment out of season. Of the 14 committed by his office, Self said in only five or six instances did he even recognize an error in judgment.

"You know, if you bump into a kid and you say more than hello, that's a no-no," Self said. "Sometimes those are relatively unavoidable, but still, by the letter of the law, those are not right.

"But there's some of them that, you know, you may not even know is even a violation."

In one report detailed by the Post-Dispatch, a staff member provided $7 for lunch to players instead of the permissible $6.50. In another instance, a staff member gave players $20 for dinner, $1 over the maximum allowance.

Three of the reports dealt with off-campus contacts by coaches with recruits, and a fourth said a coach last summer may have influenced a $2,000 donation made by a booster to a local amateur boys basketball team.

Self was cited for an impermissible contact last July when he was in Peoria and recruit Brian Randle told him he was committing to Illinois, the Post-Dispatch said. Under NCAA rules during that time period, Self was allowed to exchange greetings but nothing more.