Bill Self reveals four Kansas players that would be 'hard to keep' out of starting lineup

Bill Self is still getting an early feel for his team, with Kansas practice officially kicking off earlier in the week. There might be an idea of who exactly will be the starting five against Howard on Nov. 4 but Self is not going to be revealing any of his secrets quite yet.

Even so, the head coach admitted it will be “hard to keep” four players off the court. Three of them were with the Jayhawks during the 2023-2024 season and are back for another campaign. However, the last one entered the program this offseason via the NCAA transfer portal and received high praise from Self.

“It would be hard to keep Juan (Dajuan Harris), KJ (Adams), Hunt (Hunter Dickinson), and Zeke Mayo out of the lineup,” Self said. “Zeke, he’s been our more consistent, best guy since June, in my opinion,” Self said.

Mayo spent last year with South Dakota State and was a huge win for Kansas out of the portal. Creighton, Oklahoma, and Texas were also being considered during the process.

The main reason Mayo was brought in was to give the Jayhawks some perimeter shooting. It’s been a huge offseason focus for Self, hoping to add somebody who can consistently score from behind the three-point line. Mayo shot 39% from three and 46.6% from the floor as a junior.

Self says the overall goal is to give Dickinson more room in the paint because teams respect what Kansas can do from three. That’s exactly what Mayo can provide.

“It would be nice if you could stretch the defense around him to give him more opportunity to work and KJ is not a guy that can do that,” Self said. “KJ can do a lot of things and he’s improved so much but the bottom line is, we need some shooting around those two. Zeke provides that as much as anybody.”

Kansas shot 33.2% from three, coming in at 229th in college basketball last season. Just over 17 shots were attempted from three, one of the lowest at No. 336 across the country. For reference, there are 362 teams in Division I.

Self has quite a talented roster at his disposal, mainly at the top-end. As he said, there are going to be four players hard to keep out of the starting lineup but if getting better perimeter shooting is the goal, some adjustments will have to be made.