STF Super Awesome Team Previews: #4 Kansas Jayhawks

Team: Kansas Jayhawks

Conference: Big Twelve

Last Season Recap: 33-5 (14-2) Kansas lost to another tradition-rich team in the West Region Final, falling in a low-scoring game to UCLA after putting away Niagara, Kentucky, and Southern Illinois to get to the brink of the Final Four.

Key Players Returning: Tough-as-nails point guard Russell Robinson, Smoove B shooting guard Mario Chalmers, future NBA player Brandon Rush, and sophomore big man Darrell Arthur. Dervish Sherron Collins plays big minutes off the bench, and Sasha Kaun is a defensive presence in the middle.

What's to Love: Options, options, options. Kansas is dripping with talent, to the point where the superlative Sherron Collins is still coming off of the bench for the Jayhawks.

What's not to Love: Options, options, options. Nobody takes the game over when Kansas is in the doldrums. Bill Self has been waiting for Brandon Rush to be that guy. If he can't or won't, it's time to turn to Mario Chalmers.

Key Player: Guard Mario Chalmers. He's not nearly the star he could be, because he has deferred his game to the likes of Julian Wright and Brandon Rush, but Chalmers makes it look effortless when he wants to. Now is the time for him to really want to.

Best Case: A national championship, twenty years after the one brought home by Danny and the Miracles. As previously mentioned, someone has to be Danny in this scenario. Since Mr. Manning is sitting on the Kansas bench these days, maybe he can show them how it's done.

Worst Case: Kansas is too good to fall in the first round again, but the hot-potato to avoid the big shot routine could doom them to a disappointing exit in the Sweet Sixteen.

STF Prediction: I grew up in Lawrence, and went to KU. Fair disclosure. That said, I've never warmed to Bill Self the way I did Roy Williams, and I was openly campaigning for the job to go to Mark Turgeon back when it was open. Self teaches brutal defensive basketball and toughness, which I love, but the offense needs to find a way past other defensive-minded clubs. I like to think that can be done this year, of course, so I predict another Final Four banner in Allen Fieldhouse. The championship might take another year or two, but a FF will keep fans off Bill's jock for a while. Unless Mark Mangino wins a football championship, and then all hell will break loose.