Kansas Jayhawks head coach Bill Self will begin the college basketball season watching his team on television.
The school announced this month that Self and assistant coach Kurtis Townsend would be suspended for the first four games of the season in relation to an FBI probe into college basketball corruption that stemmed from the 2017 season. Norm Roberts will coach.
“Coach Townsend and I accept and support KU’s decision to self-impose these sanctions,” Self said in a statement to ESPN. “We are in good hands with Coach Roberts, and I am confident that he will do a great job on the bench leading our team. I am proud of the way our guys have handled this situation and I look forward to returning to the bench for our game against NC State (on Nov. 23).”
The Jayhawks won the National Championship last season, the second time since Self took over the program in 2003 (also 2008). They are among the favorites to win the championship again.
Self and Townsend will miss their third game this week against Duke in the Champions Classic on Nov. 15, after wins against Omaha (Nov. 7) and North Dakota State (Nov. 10). The final game of their suspension is Nov. 18 against Southern Utah.
Check out the full College Basketball National Championship odds (as of Nov. 2), via DraftKings:
Self is going to have to deal with a different group of players than the championship roster from last year. Ochai Agbaji, David McCormack, Remy Martin and Mitch Lightfoot all moved away from the program. But Self's 2022 recruiting class ranked fourth in the nation, and there's bound to be some new faces who make themselves household names in Lawrence.
Returning to the Jayhawks starting five will be point guard Dajuan Harris Jr. and forward Jalen Wilson. Though not the biggest or most gifted guard in the Big 12, Harris proved to be a viable option throughout the 2021-22 season, logging 29 minutes a game, playing stout defense and shooting over 30% from 3-point range. Wilson proved to be an above-average scorer, putting up 11.1 points last season, and could take over a leadership role left by Agbaji.
Joining Harris and Wilson will be prized transfer guard Kevin McCullar (Texas Tech), along with top recruit guard Gradey Dick.
“In the last eight to 10 years, we’ve always said, 'Just recruit interchangeable parts,'” Bill Self told The Athletic. “We had good size with MJ (Rice) and great size with Grady, and Kevin was an interchangeable part that had size.”
