23. Kansas Jayhawks
Despite rumors and other rumblings, Bill Self is back for his 24th season as head coach at Kansas. He’s responsible for significant success over nearly a quarter century, taking the Jayhawks to multiple national titles and a ton of Big 12 titles. However, that success has slowed recently and Kansas is coming off another season where they weren’t quite a national contender, though Self is hoping the new faces in town are a better recipe for that success.
With Darryn Peterson, Tre White, and others gone from the backcourt, Kansas managed to find a pair of pretty intriguing guards from the portal. Neither of these names really jump off the page for fair weather fans, but former Toledo guard Leroy Blyden was highly revered for his work as a freshman, averaging more than 16 points per game last year. The stats for Dennis Parker at Radford were even more impressive, averaging 18.3 points and 5.9 rebounds as a junior.
We don’t know how those former mid-major stars will adjust to life at Kansas in the Big 12, but the Jayhawks did grab a fellow Big 12 big to bolster their frontcourt. Keanu Dawes put up 12.5 points and 8.8 rebounds a game last season at Utah and becomes a big new face in this new-look frontcourt. He’s joined by Christian Reeves, a 7-footer from Charleston with phenomenal size and potential after putting up impressive figures for the Cougars.
A Blue Blood program like Kansas expects to be in the national conversation on a yearly basis. These recent seasons haven’t quite been that and it’s fair to wonder how many more years Self has left before opting for retirement, especially with NIL and other changes to this sport. Regardless, Kansas added four double-digit scorers with great potential to add some veteran presence to a changing roster and we’ll just have to see if it’s the right combination this time around.
Add us as a preferred source on Google