Kansas Jayhawks
2021-22 record: 34-6, 14-4 in the Big 12
Head coach: Bill Self
Tenure at Kansas: 20th season
Career coaching record: 763-229
Home court: Allen Fieldhouse
Starters: G Dajuan Harris Jr., G Gradey Dick, G Kevin McCullar Jr., F Jalen Wilson, F Zach Clemence
Bench: G Bobby Pettiford Jr., G MJ Rice, G Joseph Yusufu, F KJ Adams Jr., F Zuby Ejiofor, C Ernest Udeh Jr.
Overview: Kansas was dominant last season. The Jayhawks defeated North Carolina in the 2022 national championship game to win the program’s fourth title and second under long-tenured head coach Bill Self. Kansas also finished first in the Big 12 regular season and rolled through the conference tournament for its 12th Big 12 tournament championship and Self’s ninth. The March Madness run marked the Jayhawks’ 32nd-consecutive tournament appearance, an NCAA record. The championship roster featured four All-Big 12 selections in first-teamer Ochai Agbaji, second-teamer Christian Braun and third-teamers David McCormack and Jalen Wilson, as well as an honorable mention selection in Dajuan Harris Jr. Agbaji also won the conference’s Player of the Year award and was selected as the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player.
The Jayhawks have two of their five starters returning in Wilson and Harris Jr., but will lose a number of important contributors and lots of production. Four of the top five scorers from last year’s squad have moved on to professional ball, leaving Kansas with a young and relatively inexperienced group. This is aided, however, by the nation’s fourth-ranked recruiting class. The prize of the class is Gradey Dick, a talented guard and high school teammate of Duke forward Mark Mitchell at Sunrise Christian Academy who will excel from the wing. Dick was the top player out of the state of Kansas in the 2022 cycle and will provide the much-needed shooting accuracy the Jayhawks lost in the offseason. Wilson, a versatile forward, was named to the All-Big 12 Preseason Team and is Kansas’ highest-scoring returner after putting up 11.1 points per game in 2021-22.
Despite the heavy roster turnover, the Jayhawks still have the talent to compete with anyone in the country and will find themselves near the top of the Big 12 again this season.
Team ceiling: Dick and his fellow freshmen impress and the returners take a step forward, launching the Jayhawks to be just the third back-to-back champions since the NCAA tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
Team floor: The lost production is just too much to overcome, leaving Kansas struggling to fit its new pieces together. The Jayhawks will find themselves in the middle of the Big 12 conference at the end of the regular season and make a first-weekend exit from the NCAA tournament.
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