Some bold predictions based on basically nothing
Read this if you love dunks
While the NCAA’s biggest revenue sport, football, is tackling an extremely indefinite calendar no matter the pedigree of the program, there’s even fewer firm details when it comes to the resumption of basketball. (Editor’s note: as soon as I wrote this, the NCAA announced that its tentative restart date is Nov. 25). While the NBA’s bubble has proved that it can be done—at great, probably understated expense—most athletic departments are just trying to hang on through the fall. Anything that happens with basketball will be a direct reaction to what happens during the football schedule, so it’s basically pointless to guess about what’s going to happen for KU this winter.
So that’s what I’m here today to do—to take some swings. Feel free to grade me later, or completely don’t. I promise I won’t talk at all about how KU football got drilled by Coastal Carolina for the second straight year, and that this particular vow might be a good enough reason to …
This team will show themselves early in the season
Some years, KU teams grind through the winter months in search of an identity. That will not be the case with the 20-21 roster, even though it’s a deep and mysterious group. Few meaningful details have trickled out of KU’s camp—they seem to be, you know, navigating COVID and a national civil rights movement—but the ones that have emerged intrigue me.
The biggest thing I can surmise—this team has had an irregular amount of contact time because of the quarantine. “There’s nobody else to hang out with,” Self said. By the time we get around to playing games, everyone is going to have a good sense of each other’s personality, on the floor and off. It’s hard to say if that’s a marked “advantage” just yet. However, I think we’ll see their togetherness play out (for better or for worse) early along.
Every roster member is very, very good at Call of Duty: Warzone
There is nothing else to do in Lawrence right now besides hooping, training and gaming, in some order. If any active roster member starts to gain some heat as a streamer, I will be the first to let you know.
This is the year to try stuff weird and wacky stuff out, and they will
There is so much length on this roster. Outside of the tactical stuff, Self’s growth as a coach has allowed for a more fluid approach to playing style. Maybe moreso now than in his early career, he’s figured out a team’s strengths and found ways to exert those advantage on both offense and defense.
If there’s any year to really try out defenses and more involved concepts, it’s this year. While we got plenty of lob action in the Udoka Azuibuke era, this year is about to be a lob-a-thon like we’ve never seen. While the four-guard thing has largely been a boon for Kansas, it’s also prevented the lobs from flowing, to some degree—after all, there’s only so many rotation guys who were able to play above the rim, not to mention dominate. Now, you’re talking about 4-5-6 easy lob targets, which makes me think there’s going to be a lot of decoys/backdoors/new sets to pick apart.
It’s hard to tell if the “wide-open” NCAA tournament concept ACC coaches are peddling has any momentum. But I think it’s safe to assume the format will be tweaked somehow. If that’s the case, regular season games are less important—all of the sudden, they might become laboratories for increased experimentation.
Tristan Enaruna will get meaningful burn
Enaruna is a fascinating prospect, and only part of that is because of his rapid ascendence with scouts last year before he eventually signed with Kansas. He didn’t have a lot of tape, but the stuff you could find pointed at an extremely skilled, if still developing, wing with canny playmaking ability.
Enaruna had trouble staying on the floor during his freshman season—he always was in the wrong position on defense, which is correctible—but I see a savvy point-forward playmaker in there somewhere, something we haven’t seen since the Josh Jackson days. I admit that Enaruna checks a lot of boxes for me—he’s big, not anywhere near his ceiling, and can theoretically switch around easily on defense—but I’m thinking the new season is going to feature a breakout.
Once again: Dunks
There’s going to be so many dunks. NBA.com/stats is the only place taking dunks as a stat seriously right now, but I anticipate that will change at the college level. I’ll be keeping track of dunks, as well, because it is something to do.
While much has been made of the rise of the three-pointer, dunks have also steadily increased year-over-year. At Kansas, the dunks are coming.