Is KU a contender for a repeat NCAA basketball title? One preseason poll is skeptical

Kansas will officially begin defense of its 2022 NCAA men’s basketball championship on Monday night against Omaha.

That 7 p.m. game will take place in Allen Fieldhouse four days after an exhibition game against former KU guard Jeff Boschee’s Pittsburg State Gorillas.

Tipoff for that dress rehearsal is 7 p.m. Thursday, also at KU’s tradition-rich fieldhouse.

The Jayhawks, based on their preseason No. 5 ranking in both the Associated Press and USA Today polls, are considered a team in the conversation for both Big 12 regular-season and 2023 NCAA crowns.

True, the Jayhawks lost three starters and three additional rotation players off a 34-6 team. But many fans and pundits alike envision a scenario in which forward Jalen Wilson takes over as this year’s Ochai Agbaji (last year’s team’s leading scorer) and guard Gradey Dick assumes the role of Christian Braun (effective scorer from outside, ball-mover and defender).

Also, many see continued improvement from national title point guard Dajuan Harris, as well as stellar defensive play coming from Texas Tech transfer Kevin McCullar, who could become the team’s top defensive stopper since Marcus Garrett.

As far as filling in for big man David McCormack and his backup, Mitch Lightfoot, the frontcourt of Ernest Udeh, KJ Adams, Zach Clemence and Zuby Ejiofor (as well as Cam Martin, upon his return from injury) has many thinking scoring inside, as well as rim protection, will be well under control.

Aside from AP and USA Today, 247sports.com has KU ranked No. 7 in the preseason. On the more skeptical side, CBSsports.com currently does not see KU as a preseason top 10 team. The Website’s Matt Norlander on Thursday ranked KU 12th to begin the season.

Norlander has KU ranked behind future Big 12 member Houston (No. 4 overall), plus Big 12 entries Baylor (No. 6) and Texas (No. 11).

Here’s Norlander’s take on KU entering the 2022-23 campaign:

“Get ready for Bill Self, fresh off winning his second national championship, to prove for the 2,947th time just how good of a coach he is. (And probably make my ranking look bad in the process.) KU checks in as a top-10 team according to the preseason AP poll and a variety of predictive metrics, this despite the fact the Jayhawks lost six of their eight best players and don’t return a sure-fire NBA Draft pick.

“Dajuan Harris (5.4 ppg, 4.2 apg) is back to run the offense and Jalen Wilson (11.1 ppg, 7.4 rpg) will keep his spot on the wing. Those two upping their games significantly will be paramount to KU keeping stride with Baylor and Texas. The starting five figures to round out with five-star sniper Gradey Dick at the 2, Texas Tech transfer and big-time bruiser Kevin McCullar at the 4 and maybe freshman Ernest Udeh in the middle. Few national champions in the past two decades have had to replace so much and return so few scholarship players. That’s why the only program to win back-to-back titles in 30 years was Florida in the mid-aughts (2006 and ‘07).”

Meanwhile, CBSsports.com’s Zachary Pereles, on Monday wrote a piece identifying each top-10 team’s “big question” entering the upcoming season.

Of KU, he wrote: “Big question: Is the next standout post player currently on the team? Though Ochai Agbaji and Christian Braun were both first-round NBA Draft picks, David McCormack was the key cog in Kansas’ offense last season. The senior big man led the team in usage rate for the second straight campaign, posted the fifth-highest offensive rebounding rate in the nation and, fittingly, scored the final four points of the national championship game. He leaves huge shoes to fill, and the potential options to fill them are mostly unknowns.”

The Jayhawks, while making no promises of a repeat NCAA title, are looking forward to perhaps being in the mix.

“Last year’s team was more experienced,” point guard Harris said at the recent Big 12 media day. “This year’s team, we’ve got a lot of new people. We have a lot of players from last year that didn’t even play, so they’re basically new, too.

“It’s just an inexperienced team we have right now. We have a lot to learn right now because we lost a lot of people (from last year).”

Noted small forward Wilson: “I mean last year we felt we had the team to win. The whole year we said, ‘We’ve got to fight to win.’ This year defending we have to understand we are going to get everybody’s best shot. Everybody wants to knock down the champion. No one wants to see a champion defend the championship. We’re used to that. This is Kansas. We always have a target on our back.”

The Jayhawks will not shy away from talk of a possible repeat.

“We have the potential to do the same thing,” Wilson said. “Winning a college championship is already crazy enough. To be able to have the opportunity to do it again and also help guys understand what it takes to get there is pretty special.”

Many months will pass prior to NCAA Selection Sunday. In the meantime, KU coach Self doesn’t mind discussing prospects for a Big 12 title.

That’s the team’s initial goal each season. The players break each huddle at practice by yelling in unison, “Big 12 champs.”

“We’re very excited about this year’s group. It’s young, inexperienced. But I think pretty talented and certainly one that hopefully we have a chance to play at a high enough level that we can compete for a title in a league that’s been as good or better than any league in the country,” Self said. “It’s a stiff challenge but one we’re looking forward to and can’t wait to get started.”

It all begins with Thursday’s dress rehearsal in front of an expected 16,300 fans followed by Monday’s opener vs. Omaha, also in a packed fieldhouse.