Kansas Basketball: 2024-25 season preview for the Jayhawks

When you get dethroned in the conference you've owned for the better part of 20 years, you want to get back on top in a hurry. Even if you return enough talent to compete in the toughest conference in the country, sometimes you go above and beyond to get back on top; just ask Kansas Basketball. For just the 4th time in 21 seasons, Kansas failed to finish atop the Big 12. But, for the first time, in those 21 years, last season was the first in which they didn’t finish in the top 3.

"Struggle" is a relative term, but when you’re a program with the pedigree of the Jayhawks, their recent performances in March could be classified as such. They have failed to reach the Sweet Sixteen every year except one since 2019, albeit that one year they did, they took home the national title.

In 2024-25, the Jayhawks are hoping to halt those struggles, and head coach Bill Self did everything he could to help ensure that happens. He lost three players to graduation and another, Johnny Furphy, to the NBA draft. He hit the portal so hard that one player who originally committed to Kansas, Riley Kugel, de-committed and will now attend Mississippi State. Despite the loss, Kansas brings in the 3rd best transfer class in the country, just behind Arkansas and Indiana, according to 247sports. If struggling is relative, then so is rebounding, which Kansas hopes to do this season.