In the ultra-competitive world of college basketball, they are the kind of jobs you don't think twice about before accepting: head coach of Kansas, and head coach of Georgia Tech.
Given the chance, you sign the contract in a flash. It's only later that you fully grasp the challenge.
Bill Self and Paul Hewitt know the dynamic well, each having replaced a high-profile coach at a university with impossibly high expectations on the basketball court.
Self, of course, took the reins at Kansas after longtime coach Roy Williams bolted for North Carolina following last season's Final Four. Hewitt was hired by Georgia Tech when Bobby Cremins resigned in April 2000.
On Sunday, their teams will meet in the St. Louis regional final for the right to advance to the NCAA tournament's Final Four in San Antonio, where Oklahoma State awaits. Georgia Tech (26-9) is the region's No. 3 seed, but fourth-seeded Kansas (24-8) likely will enjoy a home-court advantage with thousands of Jayhawks fans making the five-hour drive from campus.
On the eve of the game, Hewitt and Self reflected on the high-profile jobs they stepped into, the different challenges they posed and the similar strategy they've used to advance to the final eight — one victory away from a Final Four berth.
Hewitt, 40, suggested from the outset that his task had been easier than Self's in at least one regard. Cremins guided the Yellow Jackets to nine consecutive NCAA tournaments from 1985 to 1993, but Georgia Tech basketball lost its luster as the '90s drew to a close. Its last Final Four appearance was in 1990, so distant it may as well be another era to current players.
Hewitt's chief task upon arrival, after two upperclassmen transferred when Cremins left, was persuading incoming freshman guard Marvin Lewis to stay. That done, he felt confident he had both the staff and the personal drive to make the Yellow Jackets competitive again in the ACC.
Expectations were far higher in Kansas, where going to the Final Four had become almost a ritual of spring under Williams.
"When you have teams that have been very successful, and a new guy comes in, it takes a while to get them to buy in," Hewitt said. "When you take over a team that hasn't had a lot of success, everybody is all ears."
While a popular choice, Self, met plenty of resistance from Jayhawks players grappling with the disillusion and disorientation that Williams left in his wake.
Junior forward Wayne Simien grew up in Leavenworth, Kan., and his childhood had been inseparable from Jayhawks basketball. Coming to grips with the fact that the game he loved was also a business, he said Saturday, was difficult.
Keith Langford struggled, too.
"Once it was like a realization that [Williams] was leaving, I was surprised how much it hurt me because I really didn't notice it, but I had grown attached also," said Langford, a junior from Texas. "We just had to be mature about the situation and understand that for once in his 15-year career, he finally made a decision for himself and thought about himself first."
Still, the fact that Self preferred playing at a slower tempo didn't help. Early losses to Stanford, Nevada and Richmond undermined the new coach's agenda further.
Self, 41, stayed true to his message through the season's rocky first half.
"When things go well, it's easy to move forward," Self said. "When things don't go well, then you gravitate to what was good. I'm sure in players' minds we weren't playing as well. Instead of looking at, 'We're not executing,' or 'We're not doing exactly what the staff wants us to do,' and those sorts of things, it's, 'Why aren't we doing it like we did before?' "
He also stayed true to himself, neither finessing that fact that he wasn't Roy Williams or apologizing for it.
"I'm not going to be him; I'm not going to try to be him," Self said. "He was great his entire tenure at Kansas. I certainly respect that, appreciate that and will benefit from that. But all I can do is be me."
In Atlanta, Hewitt had been preaching the same thing to his Yellow Jackets. After back-to-back ACC losses, they finally embraced the notion that shooting streaks may come and go, but tough defense rarely fails.
With their top scorer, B.J. Elder, hobbled by a sprained right ankle, Georgia Tech will need to play especially tough on defense to stay with Kansas on Sunday. Elder is undergoing round-the-clock treatment and will play Sunday, Hewitt said. But it's unclear how long he'll hold up or how effective he'll be.