Let’s hope a 2006-07 Kansas University basketball team with all the ingredients to dominate its league and even win a national title does not face constant distractions because of speculation about who will and won’t turn pro.
This may be the biggest, most talented roster in school history. Let the coaches and the guys do what they do best without persistent pestering about who’s likely to “go league,” meaning a shot at the NBA Draft. Players and coaches can chase a lot of speculative dolts into the bushes by making it clear from the start they’re concentrating on victory rather than how much money they might be able to make come 2007-08.
Then there are those media nitwits dying for some meaningless scoop who’ll try to stir the pot. KU has sensational young men with a great chance to accomplish what the Jayhawks did in 1952 and 1988. They can win the Big 12 regular-season and postseason titles, then run off a 6-0 for the brass ring. Florida, North Carolina, UCLA, Memphis, Ohio State, Duke : they’ll be in the hunt. This is a non-senior Kansas team that might take until January to get its house in order.
But the chances of doing that will be ever so much better if everyone, particularly the Jayhawks, concentrates on the here and now rather than on the draft. Of last year’s Big 12 NBA hopefuls, only LaMarcus Aldridge from Texas seems to have a remote chance of making it as a pro. Look around, kids.
I notice that Colorado’s Richard Roby has returned to Boulder and says he may stay two more years. That’s something Kansas’ Brandon Rush should consider seriously. He’s a 21-year-old sophomore who slumped at the end of ’05-06. If Rush doesn’t shake down the rafters for a first-round draft spot, he also might consider two more years.
Keep hearing how Julian Wright, Mario Chalmers, C.J. Giles, Russell Robinson and even freshmen Darrell Arthur and Sherron Collins could be pro prospects by next April. Right now, not one of them is first-round material; talk that KU could have five guys depart is barf-worthy. Sasha Kaun, at 6-foot-11, maybe 260 pounds, could command first-round focus after two more seasons of KU experience and refinement. He has an NBA-type body that lots of teams might draft and try to blend into their systems.
What’s so great about the current KU crew is that it has so doggone many guys who are so easy to like and root for. There’s showmanship and flair, but so far there’s been no abrasive hot dog emerge to foul up the chemistry. They like each other and get along. Let’s hope it stays that way and that we’ll get so wrapped up in their fabulous feats that we’ll push that go-pro trash aside and relish what they’re offering.
I’m drooling over a lot of kids on the roster, but one I’m pulling for a little extra is hometown boy Brady Morningstar. He’s got skills and instincts and he can SHOOT THE BALL! KU lacked gunnery at key times last fall; Brady could alter that.
Another topic in Rumorville is that coach Bill Self must deliver big-time this year since his contract runs out after the 2008 season. Fear not. Then a hot topic during the football season will be that coach Mark Mangino’s pact runs through ’08 and that he also needs a nifty year. Mark and athletic director Lew Perkins aren’t bosom buddies, so Mark has as practical an approach as there is: You win, new contract; you don’t, probably not.