This is 1 thing Kansas basketball coach Bill Self knows he must focus on early this season

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Back in mid-October, during Kansas basketball’s media day in Lawrence, coach Bill Self highlighted a desire to manage the minutes a few of his veterans will play this season.

It’s not that Self won’t play graduate center Hunter Dickinson, graduate guard Dajuan Harris Jr. or senior forward KJ Adams Jr. a significant amount of minutes in close, meaningful games. It’s that he’d like the averages, which were 32.2 for Dickinson, 35.7 for Harris and 33.5 for Adams last season, to be under 30 minutes per game this season. Self thinks they’ll be a better team if that happens because more guys will be contributing and they’ll have more of a role in the Jayhawks’ success.

Fast forward to later that month, at Big 12 Conference media days in Kansas City, Missouri, and Self was sharing a similar message. But the idea came with more of an emphasis than it did the previous time he spoke on it. It also came with an acknowledgment that, despite the difficulty of the non-conference schedule Kansas will play, he needs to stick to this strategy so the Jayhawks’ depth is set up well for later in the season.

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“Sometimes when you play a hard schedule, it’s hard to play a lot of depth — especially young kids,” Self said at Big 12 media days. “But I’ve got to make myself do it. I’ve got to make (Harris) and KJ and Hunter’s numbers be under 30 to give everybody — I’ve got to do that. They’ll be better, and I think we’ll be better over time if we do that.”

Kansas basketball guard Dajuan Harris Jr. plays dodgeball during Late Night in the Phog inside Allen Fieldhouse on Oct. 18, 2024.

The two high-profile freshmen Kansas brought in, guard Rakease Passmore and forward Flory Bidunga, are in line to help make that happen as options off of the bench. But it’s the transfers the Jayhawks have brought in who are set to be able to do more to allow this to…

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Author : The Topeka Capital-Journal

Publish date : 2024-10-28 15:14:00

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