The Kansas Jayhawks are ranked #1 and tipoff their season tonight at 7:00 pm in Allen Fieldhouse against the Howard Bison. This team will have a few familiar faces from last year’s team, but some new ones that could help the team make a deeper run when they get to March.
Let’s take a look at the projected starting lineup for the first game of the season.
Projected Starting Five
Center: Hunter Dickinson
Forward: KJ Adams Jr.
Combo Guard: AJ Storr
Guard: Zeke Mayo
Point Guard: Dajuan Harris Jr.
The big three, returning starters Dickinson, Adams, and Harris, will be the steady hand that will hold the team together. Harris and Adams have been in the system long enough that they can run it in their sleep, while Dickinson looked plenty comfortable in it during his first year with the Jayhawks.
Storr joins the Jayhawks via Wisconsin, where he averaged 17 points and four rebounds for the Badgers. He also had 13 points and four rebounds in his team’s first-round tournament loss last year.
Mayo is in a bit of a homecoming, as he grew up in Lawrence, Kansas. He transferred from South Dakota State University, where he led his team with 19 points, six rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game last season. Mayo also led the Jackrabbits to an NCAA tournament appearance, where he scored 19 points in a first-round loss to Iowa State.
Mayo and Storr will both be called upon to be scoring options for the Jayhawks a year after Kansas had limited scoring options behind Dickinson and former Jayhawk Kevin McCullar Jr, who graduated. This should give Jayhawk fans hope for a more well-rounded starting five and a much deeper bench than last season.
Transfer Portal Haul
The Jayhawks loaded up in the transfer portal after a brutal ending to last season. Self saw how depleted his team looked when they had to go to the bench and did a complete overhaul. Two of them are projected to be in the starting line up, but who else did they add?
Rylan Griffen – G, Alabama
Shakeel Moore – G, Mississippi State
David Coit – G, Northern Illinois
Noah Shelby – G, Rice
Justin Cross – F, John A. Logan Community College
Only time will tell how Self uses each of these players, and there could be changes in how the starting lineup looks depending on how things go early in the season.
Griffen averaged 11 points and 3.5 rebounds per game last season but really stepped up his game in March while helping Alabama (currently ranked #2 just behind Kansas) advance to the Final Four. He averaged 12 points per game in the postseason, which was highlighted by 19 points in an Elite 8 win vs. North Carolina.
Coit was an incredible scorer for Northern Illinois, averaging over 20 points per game and dropping 37 in his final game with the Huskies.
Moore and Shelby were bench players, and Cross came from a junior college, so it’s hard to project where they may fit into the rotation at this time.
Potential Impact Freshmen
Self landed the top center in the 2023-2024 high school class when they got Flory Bidunga, the two-time Indiana High School Gatorade Player of the Year award recipient. Self is so excited about Bidunga that he says this may be one of the best big man recruits he’s ever seen.
Bidunga started in an exhibition win over Washburn last week and has shown glimpses of brilliance since joining the team. Bidunga will likely be used as a backup to Dickinson to start the season, but Self could get creative and find certain scenarios to use both Dickison and Bidunga on the floor at the same time.
There’s also been a lot of hype surrounding freshman guard Rakease Passmore. He’s a freak athlete who can use his explosiveness to create his own shot. He can also play off the ball and be a good set-up shooter. With all of the transfers that joined the team in the offseason, Passmore may be getting undervalued just before the season gets underway.
Overview
Kansas should see plenty of game action from both starters and bench players against Howard. The hope is that KU gets a big lead by halftime and can utilize their depth in the second half to help get the rust off before a big game against North Carolina on Friday, November 8th.
Self will be smart in this one, and Kansas should be able to win this one comfortably as they get going on what could be a very special season for the Jayhawks.
