Kansas Basketball: Are the Jayhawks overrated this year?

In recent years, Kansas basketball has been known as one of the nation’s powerhouses. But do the Jayhawks have what it takes to make a run this season?

Bill Self has had much success with the Jayhawks in his tenure. This has included 13-straight Big 12 conference regular season championships, a national championship, and a national runner-up finish. So, it was expected that Self’s team would return to that prominence this season.

To begin the year, Kansas was ranked No. 4 in the preseason AP top-25 rankings. The Jayhawks rose to as high as 2nd in the nation after winning their first seven games of the season. But, after losing two straight games, the Jayhawks have fallen to No.13 in the latest polls. But, are they still overrated?

There is no question that the Jayhawks don’t have the same firepower that they have had in previous seasons. Yes, they have Devonte Graham, who had a great year last year and has carried that play over to this season. He currently holds averages of 16.9 points and 7.7 assists per game, which is an improvement from last years 13.4 points and 4.1 rebounds per game.

But last year Graham was not expected to be the main guy. He had guys like Frank Mason (20.9 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 5.2 apg) and Josh Jackson (16.3 ppg, 7.4 rpg) to take some of the load away from him. Both of these guys are now in the NBA and have both gotten some solid time on their respective teams.

Obviously, Josh Jackson was a lottery pick in this past year’s NBA draft but I think people often overlook how important Frank Mason was to Kansas in his four years there. He was easily one of the best players in the country last year and was a vital senior leader.

The Jayhawks don’t have that guy this year. They do have solid players like Lagerald Vick (18.7 ppg, 6.8 rpg, 4.3 apg) and Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk (15.8 ppg) on the roster. Sophomores Udoka Azubuike (13.9 ppg, 7.4 rpg) and Malik Newman (11.6 ppg) also average in double figures this season.

But none of these guys have shown that they have the same “it” factor that Mason had. Plus, outside of these five guys, the Jayhawks are receiving very little production from the rest of their roster.

Last week, the Jayhawks were exposed and made people question their toughness. After getting upset by an inferior Washington Huskies team on Dec. 6, Kansas lost 95-85 on their home floor on Dec. 10 to the Arizona State Sun Devils. In both games, their opponents controlled the game more than expected.

The toughness of Bill Self’s team has even been questioned by the man himself. After losing to the Sun Devils, Self was quoted saying, “This is the softest team that Kansas has had since I’ve been here.”

This loss was only Self’s 11th loss in 15 seasons at Allen Fieldhouse. That’s pretty crazy and shows that this year’s team may not be in line to win the Big 12 championship. Teams like TCU and West Virginia may have something to say about that as well.

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Now I am not saying that the Jayhawks won’t make the NCAA tournament or anything like that. They do have nice wins over teams like Kentucky and Syracuse and are expected to be back in the tournament this season as relatively high seed.

Yet, this is easily one of the worst Jayhawks teams I can remember under Bill Self. Ranking the Jayhawks at No. 4 to begin the season was expected because of their reputation, but after observing many teams this season, they definitely are not good enough to be ranked that high. I do not expect them to get back to that level this season and would be very surprised if they received any higher than a No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament this year.