Late Night is tonight!! Basketball!
Last year’s Late Night cannot—and will not—ever be topped. And, to be fair, no one would have that expectation for the 2020 edition, as it is taking place during the worst and most stressful year of all time. It’s an all-virtual affair (streaming on ESPN’s app and KUAthletics.com) and KU is asking fans to make donations to local food banks, which rules. Food banks are important! I’ll be donating this week’s subscription proceeds to the cause, and I encourage readers to do the same, if they can.
Anyway, since this is the first Jayhawks basketball we’ve seen in some time, I think a brief walk-through of where things stand is merited. So let’s start with the big stuff. I’ll follow up next week with a post about what we saw at Late Night, once I’ve gotten a chance to watch it and “break it down.”
So… who is on the team these days?
Here’s a look at the current roster, updated with de Sousa’s departure. The roster now includes 12 scholarship players in a year where the rotation could be wide open; “Depending on how things fall out, there’s times where maybe we could play all 13 (scholarship players),” Self said before de Sousa left the program. Muscadin feels like a redshirt candidate, although an injury to a member of the frontcourt could mean that we’ll be seeing Gethro early than expected.
While a few dudes on the roster have been with the program for a year, we haven’t seen them play much, if at all—guard Dajuan Harris redshirted last season, and Jalen Wilson only played in two games before breaking his ankle. Tyon Grant-Foster’s first season as a Jayhawk will come as a JUCO-seasoned 20-year-old, and Self expects his presence will be felt on offense and defense. In terms of the creative burden, there’s a huge bucket to be filled. Instead of one person stepping up to fill the void left by Devon Dotson and Doke—who both had usage rates in the 20% range—it’s going to be more of a committee affair in 20-21.
What performances should we pay most attention to?
While I’m always excited to see how the high-ceiling dudes like Enaruna and Wilson look in a scrimmage setting, the thing I’m going to be looking for is how much of the action is steered by Marcus Garrett. Even with all of the offseason work on his shot, I don’t expect him to replace Dotson’s production on offense. But he’ll definitely be taking on a bigger role in the offense, and I want to see what that looks like.
How will Garrett and freshman Bryce Thompson look together in the backcourt? If they play “small” with wings like Braun and Agbaji, what will the spacing look like? Will they use a lot of pick-and-roll actions like they did last year—Doke developed an uncanny feel for those—or will the offense have a completely different rhythm with more slashing and kicking?
Late Night’s scrimmage is a fun formality, and because of the lifted restrictions on preseason activities, this team might have a better on-court feel for one another compared to Late Nights of the past. But what does this chemistry look like in action, now that KU’s two most important players from last year’s dominant squad are headed to the NBA?
I’ll be back early next week with a full break-down of what we saw, which I’m hoping includes some killer virtual skits from emerging content king Bill Self.