the numbers

like most on this board i am thoroughly enjoying this season which by all rights shld be a rebuilding one ( losing frank, landon, and josh and only having 7 scholarship players). its a real indicator of the kind of coach self has become that he has these guys playing at this level so quickly. while theres lots of games to play yet and plenty of the season to enjoy i do find myself wondering how self will manage what is likely to be a very high class problem next year. based on most of the mock drafts i have seen only devonte and svi are likely to be drafted ( both deep in the second round). that cld mean 5 legit players returning, all but lightfoot probably expecting to start with all the minutes theyve played this year, a year which btw cld end up being a very successful one. but wait, we also have 4 legit transfes all of whom probably also expect starter minutes. finally tho we have 4 “ready to start” freshmen to which self clearly expects to add one more. so thats 13 very high quality players, 14 if we get one more freshman and 15 if preston returns ( if thats the right word to use even). clearly way too many. sadly it feels like the only solution is to chase most of the 5 (6 with preston) carryover into the draft or transferring. vick and newman to the draft likely, lightfoot, garret and preston transferring, with doke as the only returner. for me thats sad for two reasons, one is that i think we are really going to like this team and these players and it wld be nice to enjoy them all at least another year and two, its clear that we do better with a mix of youth and experience ( tho 4 transfers give us some continuity in the system plus doke plus de sousa if he reclassifies). i know its the way the game works today and self has to always make moves to get the team better ( which we surely will be) so i guess for me it means we shld really enjoy the guys this year cause we may not see many of them next year. curious if others have a different take on this.

I see it this way. If we have as good a year as we hope I believe besides Svi and Devonte we lose Dok and Legerald. I hope not but if LV really blows up I think he does have the athleticism to play at the next level. I also think Billy P is gone after this year whether he plays or not. I see the makeup of next years team being more bigs than smalls but I do not think there will be too many people. I hate to see us lose any of the guys you mentioned but I do not see any way we lose Marcus G. I think he is good now and is going to very good sooner than later. He is doing lots of little things to help this team win including rebounding.

I agree that Vick and Dok could also be ready for the draft by the end of the season, but that's not a sure thing by any account.

Dok will eventually be a pro, even if he's not an all star. He's just too big and strong NOT to be attractive to a bunch of teams, and his skills are still able to be developed. Vick is an amazing athlete and he's showing it this year.

In either scenario (they stay or they go or somewhere in between) we'll have a much deeper and skilled team next year.

That's kind of what makes this year interesting. Our short bench WILL bite us in the butt this year, that's not an "if" but a "when" and the only questions are "how often?" and "when?". If it's infrequent and it's against weaker teams where we can muscle past them with our "B" option, then we might get lucky and go far. If it's a frequent thing, we get some guys injured, or if it's happening against tough teams, we're in trouble.

Loving that we're #2 in the country right now, but I don't think that's where we'll wind up. I'll be thrilled if we win the Big 12 again this year to keep the streak alive, I'll wait to see how the conference season plays out before I set my expectations for the tourney.

Next year, however, we're going to be REALLY talented. The fact that we're a solid top 10 team in a "rebuilding year" is huge.

Not to get to ahead of ourselves talking about next season but even if we lose 5 players, we are going to be crazy deep next season. The difference to other deep seasons is this is not dominated by any couple guys who still need to play well over 30 minutes per game which has still been Self’s preference even on deep teams. I could see Self going 9 and even 10 deep next year. WSe could lose only the senior (Graham and Svi) or we could lose Dok, Preston, Vick and Newman as well. I can’t imagine all will go but in today’s world you never know. We have the best (deepest) recruiting class we have ever had and three transfers who are good (one supposedly high lottery pick great). But more importantly, this season is shaping up very well. I had a lot of fun watching the combo of Jackson (best fresh at KU in the Self era imho), Mason (most impressive year by a Jayhawk since Danny) and Landon (come farther than almost any Jayhawk in 4 years). I thought that team would be tough to top in terms of fun and expectations. But this team is topping that. We are only through 5 games but this team is about as fun to watch as the 1997 team which was (imho) the most fun team to watch in terms of pure domination. Svi has blown me away this season in how much he has improved over last season, mostly just in that he is doing everything well now. Vick has blown up with maybe the best year over year improvement I can remember. Garrett plays like a dad gum Junior already. Dok is not a super elite talent but he is the perfect cog that fits with this team and he plays to his ability and strengths. Devonte’ is not racking up gaudy scoring numbers but has run this team like a surgeon and has played as good defense as anyone I can remember since Brandon rush. Even Lightfoot has come alive (albeit only really for one game but let’s hope it sticks). Only Newman is not living up to my high expectations preseason but he is still playing very solid basketball and it would be hard for him to live up to my expectations of scoring and rebounding given what Svi, Vick and Garrett are doing. Newman is even starting to play more solid defense and at least last game made much better decisions. He was good for 2-3 turnovers per game on bad decisions alone. He did not do that against Oakland. So this is a team that does not have much of a weak link (assuming Lightfoot stays enlightened). That is pretty exciting.

I don't ever see Self going 9-10 deep. Even when he's had the opportunity, he's generally capped out at 8.

I remember years ago, one of Roy's teams at KU had two 5-man platoons. Fun to watch. Nevertheless, I don't think that's how Self operates. To be critical of him, when we have had crazy depth, there always seem to be 1 or 2 kids who will transfer out, which is the downside of that kind of strategy.

Then again, he's in the Hall of Fame, and I'm sitting in an office on the internet. Honestly, if we had one more big, we'd be in much better shape. Not sure if Preston is that guy (or if he'll have the opportunity to be that guy), but having another big body with decent skills would be a huge boost to this team's chances.

WOW! Great summary HE. That's a DEEEEEP team. Hope we can keep 'em all happy.