How Kansas went from preseason No. 1 to school basketball’s largest disappointment

Invoice Self’s stranglehold on Huge 12 males’s basketball has been nearly probably the most constant factor in all of sports activities. Self’s Kansas Jayhawks gained not less than a share of the Huge 12 common season championship 14 straight years from 2002-2018, breaking a document beforehand held by John Wood’s UCLA Bruins. Even after the streak broke, Kansas bounced again with one in all Self’s biggest groups ever in 2020 earlier than the pandemic canceled within the NCAA match. Two years later, he discovered redemption by main the Jayhawks to the 2022 nationwide championship on a group that includes Christian Braun and Ochai Agbaji.

This was purported to be the yr Self’s Jayhawks bounced again after an uncharacteristic down season a yr in the past, when the group completed simply 10-8 in convention acquired knocked out blown out by Gonzaga within the spherical of 32. Kansas returned three key starters in heart Hunter Dickinson, ahead KJ Adams, and level guard Dajuan Harris. It landed a five-star recruit in bouncy massive man Flory Bidunga. Then Self went into the switch portal with one of many largest luggage of NIL cash within the nation, and primarily had his choose of gamers to reinforce his core.

Kansas introduced in proficient wing scorer AJ Storr from Wisconsin. It signed Lawrence-native Zeke Mayo after a prolific three-year profession at South Dakota State. It snagged an enormous wing in Rylan Griffin from Alabama, and crammed out the bench with a star from Northern Illinois (David Coit) and a job participant from Mississippi State (Shakeel Moore).

When the preseason polls have been launched, Kansas sat at a well-known place of being No. 1. These Jayhawks have been purported to be a premium instance of the way to assemble a roster within the NIL period: they retained their foundational items, augmented them with a number of the most coveted transfers within the nation, and had one of many oldest and most skilled rosters within the nation throughout the closing season of the bonus Covid yr.

What Self has discovered this yr is expertise on paper doesn’t matter when the items don’t match. Expertise can solely take you up to now when the roster feels prefer it’s constructed to reach 2010, not 2025.

BYU blasted Kansas, 91-57, on Tuesday night time. The loss will drop the preseason No. 1 proper out of the polls subsequent week, and all of the sudden pushes them to simply 8-7 in Huge 12 play. The Jayhawks’ NCAA match bid is probably not in jeopardy but — our bracketologist Chris Dobbertean had KU as a No. 4 seed earlier than the BYU loss — nevertheless it’s turning into clear that it is a misplaced season that can pressure Self to reevaluate every little thing when it’s over.

The 34-point loss ties the largest margin of defeat within the Self period. It’s not like BYU is a superb group this yr. We had the Cougars as one of many final 4 groups into the sector earlier than going through Kansas. That is the kind of opponent the Jayhawks ought to run out of the fitness center even on the street, however not anymore. In some ways, this recreation was a microcosm of Kansas’ season: they have been bricking threes all night time, couldn’t get to the free throw line, and had no approach of coming again as soon as BYU’s onslaught began.

As soon as Kansas will get down, it seems like they’re incapable of coming again. This group was clearly going to have capturing and spacing issues coming into the season by enjoying a standard massive in Dickinson alongside a non-shooting 4 in Adams and a non-shooting level guard in Harris. Throughout a time when groups at each degree of the sport are attempting to engineer five-out spacing, Self thought he might win with one or two shooters on the ground at a time.

The outcomes have been disastrous: solely 34.1 p.c of Kansas’ discipline aim makes an attempt come from three-point vary this yr, which ranks exterior of the top-300 in DI, per KenPom. They solely make 33.9 p.c of these photographs, which ranks No. 167 within the nation. Proper off the bat, the Jayhawks are dropping the maths recreation each night time.

The dearth of capturing doesn’t simply harm on the three-point line. Kansas’ perimeter gamers haven’t any room to drive to the basket on such a crowded flooring, and it reveals up of their abysmal free throw fee. Solely six groups in DI get to the free throw line much less typically than Kansas on a per possession foundation — Marist, Drexel, Colgate, Florida Gulf Coast, Canisius, and Holy Cross. That isn’t the kind of firm Kansas — Kansas! — must be holding. The Jayhawks additionally get mainly nothing again on the offensive glass, with an offensive rebound fee that ranks No. 193 in America.

With an incapacity to entry probably the most environment friendly components of the ground — threes, rim photographs, and the free throw line — the Jayhawks are doomed to the areas the opposing defenses are prepared to concede. Dickinson’s post-ups have develop into much less and fewer efficient over time as he struggles along with his contact even when he can set up inside place. Harris has all the time had turnover issues as groups have packed the paint and dared him to shoot from the surface, and people stay a problem. Storr was introduced in to deliver offensive punch off the bounce, however he’s been some of the disappointing transfers in America with a one-track thoughts to shoot that doesn’t match how Self needs to play. Adams simply seems like he’s clogging the ground on offense, unable to leverage his lob catching and rim ending prowess as a result of he doesn’t have any house.

Maybe most damning of all, Self mentioned after the BYU loss that his group simply must get away from one another:

Self is among the few holdovers amongst elite coaches from the pre-NIL period. Mike Krzyzewski, Roy Williams, Jay Wright, and Tony Bennett all hung it up in the previous few years as the foundations modified the cash might begin being exchanged above the desk. There have been all the time allegations that Self did his greatest work underneath the desk within the pre-NIL days, even when Kansas one way or the other barrel-rolled out of the FBI investigation with simply slap on the wrist. Today, the status of Kansas’ model may be matched or surpassed by deep luggage of cash at NIL colleges.

Are Kansas’ benefits gone? Not fairly. Self nonetheless pulled in coveted transfers at prime greenback, with Storr reportedly getting $750K and others certainly cashing in. Subsequent season, Self has prime recruit Darryn Peterson coming in. Peterson is an absolute famous person who we have now the projected No. 1 choose within the 2026 NBA Draft. He might go down as the most effective participant Self ever coached.

Will Self truly maintain teaching, although? At 62 years previous, he’s taking a look at a completely totally different school basketball panorama. NIL has fully altered the game, the convention growth means he now has to fly to Utah and Houston and Arizona for league video games. Given what number of legendary coaches have known as it quits lately, wouldn’t it shock you if Self all of the sudden retired after this yr?

That is simply no approach for Self to exit. The chance to educate Peterson — probably an all-time nice scoring guard prospect (sure, I notice the load of these phrases) — is simply too tempting to move up. Dickinson will mercifully be out of eligibility, and the group will not be catered to him. Kansas will nonetheless have tons of cash to throw at transfers. If they’ll persuade Bidunga to come back again, they’ve a ready-made pick-and-roll mixture and defensive anchor to fall again on.

It simply didn’t work this yr, which is an odd factor to say for Kansas basketball. Being older isn’t all the time higher when there’s a cause the NBA doesn’t need your gamers. Self can take loads of classes from how the group failed whereas constructed round Dickinson, Harris, and Adams. There simply aren’t many fast fixes this season.