Bill Self’s KU basketball roster could include ‘8 starters’ during 2024-25 season

Bill Self has cited a lack of depth as one of the main reasons his Kansas Jayhawks went 10-10 in their last 20 games of the 2023-24 college basketball season after a splendid 13-1 start.

“Last year we’re playing five guys,” Self, KU’s 21st-year head coach, said Monday on Andy Katz’s NCAA March Madness podcast. “We tried to work out a substitution situation where you play five starters and sub all five at once, and play the reserves one minute at a time to make sure your five starters play together 35 minutes.

“We were so beat up we couldn’t even do that. That was the thought we had. How do we keep these five guys together because these five guys have shown us they’re pretty good? But it didn’t work out that way because of injuries. I don’t want to have to think like that again.”

He may not need to think like that again.

KU so far has signed three players out of the transfer portal, in guards AJ Storr (Wisconsin), Zeke Mayo (South Dakota State) and Rylan Griffen (Alabama).

The status of Florida guard Riley Kugel still up in the air. He has committed to KU but has not yet signed a financial aid agreement for undisclosed reasons.

Two freshman signees — Flory Bidunga and Rakease Passmore — join a roster that also includes returnees KJ Adams, Dajuan Harris, Hunter Dickinson, Zach Clemence, Jamari McDowell and Elmarko Jackson.

Johnny Furphy has entered his name in the 2024 NBA Draft, with Self saying Monday that Furphy projects to be a first-rounder and would probably remain in the draft.

“I want eight starters,” Self said Monday. “Granted even though you can only only start five, obviously, but have eight guys that are good enough to be in the game at any point in time. You look at the teams that have won it for the most part and look at (two-time defending national champion) Connecticut.

“Connecticut had their main guys, there’s no doubt. You could bring a guy off the bench and rest somebody for a certain period of time whether it be in the pivot or be a rotational guard or whatever and there’s not a dropoff.

“Those are areas we had to address and I think for the most part we did a pretty a good job,” Self added of recruiting, which may not be finished.

KU had an unofficial visitor on campus Monday in Rice sophomore guard Noah Shelby. Other names of possible transfers (who are currently in the portal; the deadline for entering the portal has closed) could surface in coming weeks.

But for now, Self explained Monday, “for us it was something we needed to have a good offseason to get back on track because we felt we got a little off-track.”

Self noted some other problem areas in 2023-24 were “perimeter shooting and obviously athleticism.”

The KU coach also commented on some of his returning players during the interview with Katz on Monday. No KU players who were eligible to return entered the transfer portal.

“With Juan, KJ and ‘Hunt,’ Hunt was the only one of the three that probably seriously considered entering the draft so we caught a break there,” Self said of 7-footer Dickinson electing to return for a super-senior season.

“Elmarko didn’t have the freshman year he probably hoped for, but he’s a heck of a prospect. He will be better. Zach Clemence who didn’t play this past year … Zach’s a really good player at 6-10,” Self noted.

Of first-team all-Big 12 pick Dickinson, who will be a likely first-team All-America candidate in 2024-25, Self said: “I think athletically he can still do better, guard ballscreens better, set and get out of ballscreens better.

“We love ‘Hunt.’ One thing I don’t think he did last year as well as he can do (is) he didn’t shoot the ball consistently. He was on a roll to start the season. The cat is shooting 70% from 3 for the first 13 games or whatever. After that he went through a pretty big drought (finishing at 54.8%). I think him shooting the basketball which is what he does … I think he can shoot it much better then play a little more athletic.”

Of junior guard Storr, who led Wisconsin in scoring last season at 16.8 points per game, Self said: “I think AJ has to be more engaged defensively. There’s no reason he can’t be a great defender and a great rebounder. He can score the ball. He has individual talent.

“I also think he can get more consistent shooting the basketball. I think he’s one of those guys late in the clock he can go get a basket. We were lacking that last year.”

Of his roster, Self conceded: “Losing Johnny and losing (Kevin) McCullar, that is quite a bit, but I can’t complain too much. Not too many people return three quality starters and a couple that have won a national championship.”