The Kansas Basketball team lost 4 starters from the Elite Eight team in 2010-2011 season. Tyrel Reed and Brady Morningstar were seniors and the Morris twins left early for the NBA. Josh Selby, a player with a bright future, also decided to enter the NBA draft. Those 5 players contributed over 70% of the scoring a year ago for the Kansas Jayhawks. Thomas Robinson and Tyshawn Taylor are the key returning players for KU and are expected to lead the team to an 8th consecutive Big 12 Title. Elijah Johnson is also a key returning player that is expected to contribute to the scoring. Bill Self didn’t have his best recruiting class coming in this season but he did have two highly thought of freshman that ended up being ineligible for the year due to academics.

With a majority of the scoring gone from a season ago and your two best freshman that were suppose to help you rebuild, out for the season, Bill Self has much less talent on the court than he is used to. Earlier in the week KU got handled pretty easily by #2 Kentucky who showed the big difference in talent level that was on the court. It has been several seasons since KU has played a game that they were over matched by that much. Now Kentucky has the best freshman class in the country and are one of the favorites to win the championship this year so being over matched by them is not a terrible thing. For KU, however, their fans expect them to have the best talent on the court in every game they play every year.

This year is what KU calls a rebuilding year for their men’s basketball team. They’re ranked #11 in the country but that is mostly on the reputation of the school and it’s history. Right now the team is a ways away from being a top 15 team in the country. The good news for KU fans is that their is still good talent on the team and they’re being coached by one of the best coaches in the country. If it weren’t for players leaving for the NBA, KU would have the best team in the country. A rough starting lineup would have looked like this: G Josh Selby, G Tyshawn Taylor, G Xavier Henry, F Marcus Morris, F Markief Morris. That would leave you with Thomas Robinson, Elijah Johnson and Travis Releford coming off the bench. What could have been for the Jayhawks. Bill Self is a great coach, though, and is known for getting great recruits and will be able to rebuild KU to the national contenders their fans are used to.

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