Bravo, Bill, for savoring success, not exploiting it

The money was tempting, as was the allure of home.

I mean, who doesn't love home?

At Thursday's news conference, Bill Self doesn't look like a man with regrets about staying put. (AP)

It's familiar and cozy, filled with family members and old friends and other people who knew you when you were nobody and love telling everybody how they knew you when you were that way. And that's kinda cool, too, the way those people live through you, smile at you, bust on you for making it so far, for doing so well. Every time you run to the store you bump into somebody you've known forever, and they ask about your momma and your daddy and your kids, and that old Kansas girl sure was onto something when she swore there is no place like home.

And that's basically what Bill Self was facing.

That, plus more money than he could ever hope to spend.

So you can see why he had to seriously consider Oklahoma State.

But on Thursday, Self chose to live in the present instead of the past, which is why he told his alma mater thanks-but-no-thanks. The newly crowned national champion coach decided to enjoy this celebratory moment at Kansas rather than toss it away in a matter of days, and the development will give this weekend's victory parade a double-meaning as Jayhawks fans applaud a team that won it all and a coach who understands sometimes enough is enough.

Could Self have made more money by going to OSU?

Of course.

Oklahoma State booster T. Boone Pickens was prepared to make Self the highest-paid coach in college basketball, if not college athletics. The numbers were staggering and a signing bonus could've reportedly been worth at least $6 million. Take that, and Self would've been in a position to not just take care of his children, but also his children's children and their children and my children, if he wanted. All major Division I coaches are rich by normal standards; Self was close to taking it to a level that would've made Billy Donovan shake his head.

In more ways than one.

First, obviously at the money.

But then also at the decision to leave.