Providence, Rhode Island
Kansas Jayhawks men’s basketball coach Bill Self was asked about the immediate future of his team after Thursday’s 79-72 NCAA Tournament loss to Arkansas — a first-round defeat that guaranteed a 13-loss season, the most of any team he’s coached in 22 years in Lawrence.
“That’s a fair question,” Self said, when asked specifically, “What adjustments do you anticipate making to get KU back to more of where you had been for a majority of your career?”
KU this season added portal players AJ Storr, Shakeel Moore, Rylan Griffen, Zeke Mayo and David “Diggy” Coit to go with senior returning starters Dajuan Harris, Hunter Dickinson and KJ Adams.
“I think it’s a fair question that in some ways is an unrealistic question, though,” Self quickly added.
His Jayhawks lost 11 games in 2023-24. That was the high-water mark for defeats in the Self era until this season. KU lost 10 games in 2013-14 and 2018-19.
“No matter what you do in life, there’s going to be some ups and downs,” Self said, “and we just haven’t had very many downs, to be honest with you. The last two years, we were such a beat-up team at the end, we probably didn’t have much of a chance with our injuries to Kevin McCullar and Hunt wasn’t healthy (last postseason).
“This year we don’t have that excuse. This year our roster was good enough to be competitive, but it probably wasn’t the roster it needed to be, to be talked about in a way that the best teams in America are talked about.”
He stressed that there will be some changes in how he assembles a roster.
“We’ve got to re-evaluate on how we do things,” he said, “and you can’t afford misses (in portal), but I will say this: In today’s time, there’s going to be schools that do a great job, but still there’s an element of luck involved (in recruiting transfers) — I think more now than there was even before.
“You can go after the kids that you get a great bargain on (with NIL). You get a good deal on it and all that stuff, but it doesn’t matter unless they fit in and can help you win.
“We’ve got to do a better job of evaluating the portal, but I’m happy with the roster we had. It just didn’t turn out to be the team that we had hoped it was, but still yet going into last year, I would have taken that roster every day. And then I don’t think we really, with Elmarko (Jackson) tearing his patellar tendon and Shak not being available to us (foot injury), I don’t think we had our best team to make a push at it.”
As far as the transfers, Storr (15 points versus Arkansas), Griffen (three points) and Coit have remaining collegiate eligibility and could return. Griffen in fact said after Thursday’s game he “loved Kansas” and hadn’t thought at all about any possible switch in schools.
Sophomore forward Flory Bidunga said he needed to talk to his family and coaches in coming days/weeks, but the general feeling in the program has been is he’ll return.
Other possible returneees: Jackson, plus redshirt walk-on guard Noah Shelby, freshman wing Rakease Passmore, sophomore guard Jamari McDowell and junior forward Zach Clemence.
Clemence considered a transfer after last season but ultimately decided to return for at least one more year as a Jayhawk. He was injured most of the season and could be a likely candidate to move on.
KU is bringing in 6-foot-6 Prolific Prep standout Darryn Peterson next season along with Samis Calderon, 6-8 from Overtime Elite in Atlanta. Bryson Tiller, a 6-10 Overtime Elite graduate, has been on campus during the second semester and will play for KU next season.
Teams will be able to have 15 scholarship players for the 2025-26 season, meaning Self again will be able to hit the portal if he so desires.
As far as returnees, Jackson said he should be back on the court 100% healthy in June and is looking forward to being a team leader.
“I have heard nothing but good things about him,” Jackson said of Peterson. “I think we do have a good group of guards and great group of guys. This is Kansas and we will be back working hard every day to be the best team we can be.”
Asked what his postgame message was to the players who will possibly return, Self said: “To be honest with you, there wasn’t a message tonight. We had a kid in there (injured KJ Adams) who was really hurting with his family. I think the message was guys, proud of your effort. You guys did what we asked you to do. We appreciate everything, but now is not the time to talk about that stuff. Let’s worry about your teammate right now.”
This story was originally published March 21, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
