A lack of depth on his 15th Kansas University men’s basketball team, however, does.

“I will say we will play more zone this year more than my entire career to stay out of foul trouble and I despise it,” Williams said Thursday, giving a sometimes spooky assessment of his 2002-03 Jayhawks during the Big 12 Men’s Basketball Media Day on Halloween.

“Probably more than any time in my entire career unless something strange happens between now and Monday I’ll know who will be out there at the start of the game. There’s such a gap between those (starting) five and anyone else.”

Barring injuries in the next couple of days, Williams is sure to start his fab fivesome of Nick Collison, Kirk Hinrich, Aaron Miles, Wayne Simien and Keith Langford in a 7 p.m. Monday home battle against the EA Sports All-Stars. After that he has the unproven Jeff Hawkins, Michael Lee, Bryant Nash, Moulaye Niang and Jeff Graves to turn to.

You can bet the opening five will be running and gunning as they did last year in averaging a nation-best 90.9 points per game. But if KU gets in foul trouble, all bets are off.

“I really don’t know. I am hoping we can play the same way as last year. I still want to play fast,” Williams said.

“One hundred years ago when I played with Wilt it’s the way I wanted to play,” he quipped, making light of the fact one of his basketball campers this summer thought Williams coached the late Wilt Chamberlain. “Fans enjoy that style of play and players enjoy that. Can we do it with five guys only until we get somebody to step up? That is a good question.”

The substitutes have been inconsistent at practice.

“The crazy thing in practice one day we coaches will say, ‘Boy Jeff Hawkins had a nice practice today.’ The next day it’s Michael Lee; the next day, Bryant Nash,”’ Williams said.

“Jeff Hawkins one day really does a nice job putting pressure on the ball defensively. He can push it well and the next day he’ll make bad decisions. Bryant Nash will get to the offensive board and have a tremendous slam dunk follow and you’ll say, ‘Wow.’ Then the next two times he will not get to the board and he’ll turn it over.

“Michael Lee shows quickness in blocking a shot and you’ll say Michael is having a good practice then he’ll go the opposite way he is supposed to on a set play. Just the consistency of doing it on an everyday basis is what we’re looking for.”

Juco transfer Jeff Graves, meanwhile, still “is not officially a member of our team,” Williams said, indicating he’d talk about Graves when he “does become a member.”

Williams says the first 16 practices have lasted a bit longer than they will in coming weeks.

“We’re starting to (cut back) now,” Williams said. “We’re still trying to find that sixth or seventh person so we’ve probably gone a little longer and yet we’re still doing a great deal of teaching because four or five of the other guys are sophomores. We’re trying to build habits.”

And find players to contribute.

“Right now, I’d give it a tie to be honest,” senior guard Hinrich said of who’ll be the first off the bench Monday night. “I’d say probably a three-way tie between Michael, Bryant and Jeff Hawkins. They’ve all been impressive at times. I think Bryant has really improved since last year. He’s showing a better sense of how to play and play in our system.”

As for the new big men frosh Niang and junior Graves senior power forward Collison assessed, “They both have good days and bad days. Jeff will be able to play, I think, but it’ll take him a while to be able to go up and down a lot. Moulaye has been playing very hard. He’s really young, a little on the skinny side. He’s struggling with banging sometimes. They’ll both do a good job eventually.

“It’ll take a while for them (reserves) to get ready. There’s probably two or three of them who will step up, play a lot and do a good job. Hopefully we’ll be able to win some of those games early with guys who came back from last year and those guys will eventually improve. I think it’s just a matter of them getting comfortable with what we’re trying to do.”

Collison said Williams has been patient in trying to turn KU’s question marks into exclamation points.

“He’s trying to be patient with them. He knows we need them out there,” Collison said of the reserves. “He can’t get on them too much and have them scared to death to be out there. He’s doing a good job of bringing them along, giving them some confidence.”