During Self’s first 13 seasons in charge of the KU program, 14 scholarship players had left KU to go to other Division I programs while nine scholarship players had come to Kansas from other D-I schools.

Recent events, however, have closed the gap to 15-13, as KU has added four new players in the past four months alone, with three of them coming in April, and said goodbye to one, sophomore forward Carlton Bragg Jr.

Now, the Jayhawks will head into the 2017-18 season with six of the 13 scholarship players on their roster having started their college careers at another school. What’s more, nine of the 13 D-I transfers to come to KU under Self have arrived in the past five years.

If it were up to Self — and dozens of other coaches, in his estimation — the transfer epidemic would be a much smaller part of the college game. But since the numbers continue to rise, climbing into the 700s during each of the past couple of years, Self has chosen to embrace it rather than ignore it.

“With undergraduate transfers, I do think the numbers are down this year a little bit from last year, so far,” Self told the Journal-World recently. “But the reality of it is it’s not the coaches running guys off. It’s a societal problem. How many kids switch high schools when things don’t go well or how many kids drop a class if they flunk the first test? People want immediate results and a lot of times that can’t be the case for all 13 on scholarship to get immediate results.”

The recent addition of former Memphis standouts Dedric and K.J. Lawson, along with this week’s signing of former Cal point guard Charlie Moore, brings to KU three players who will sit out the upcoming season but very well could be in the starting lineup during the 2018-19 season. There’s a long way to go before reaching that point, but this trio perfectly illustrates Self’s stance on transfers.

Not only will they help the Jayhawks in the future — all three are virtual locks to at least be in the rotation when they become eligible — but they also figure to help the Jayhawks (and themselves) immediately, by going through practices where they will push KU’s 2017-18 squad and learn KU’s systems and how to play for Self in the process.

“If the rules allow you to take transfers then people will look into taking transfers,” said Self, matter-of-factly. “If the rules allow you to take guys that are eligible immediately, people will look into that. The misconception is that coaches are wanting these transfers or are creating a situation to run guys off. That’s not true at all. The vast majority of these situations are (where) the families feel like it’s in their best interest to look at a different situation. But the reason for that has changed a lot over the last 25 years.”

While the list of the 28 D-I transfers tied to the KU program during the Self era has been a mixed bag of success stories — with Jeff Withey and Tarik Black having the biggest impact to date for KU and David Padgett (Louisville) and Andrew White III (Nebraska/Syracuse) having the best careers elsewhere — Self said he and several other coaches would prefer to see less movement.

“It used to be people picked schools because that’s where they wanted to get their degree from or that’s the program (they) want to be a part of, with the understanding that they may have to put in some time to put yourself in position to play a lot of minutes,” Self said. “Now, people want immediate results and I feel like that’s one of the biggest reasons for the transfers, because people aren’t achieving their goals their first or second year and (they believe) a change of scenery will help them do that.”

— The following is a list of the scholarship Jayhawks who either have come to KU from another Division I school or left Kansas for other D-I opportunities during Self’s 14 years in Lawrence.

Transferring In (13)

Rodrick Stewart – 2006 – USC

Jeff Withey – 2009 – Arizona

Justin Wesley – 2010 – Lamar

Kevin Young – 2011 – Loyola-Marymount

Hunter Mickelson – 2013 – Arkansas

Tarik Black – 2013 – Memphis

Dwight Coleby – 2015 – Ole Miss*

Evan Maxwell – 2016 – Liberty

Malik Newman – 2016 – Mississippi State*

Sam Cunliffe – 2017 – Arizona State*

Dedric Lawson – 2017 – Memphis*

K.J. Lawson – 2017 – Memphis*

Charlie Moore – 2017 – Cal*

* on current roster

Transferring Out (15)

David Padgett – 2004 – Louisville

Omar Wilkes – 2004 – Cal

J.R. Giddens – 2005 – New Mexico

Alex Galindo – 2005 – Florida International

Micah Downs – 2006 – Gonzaga

C.J. Giles – 2006 – Oregon State

Quintrell Thomas – 2009 – UNLV

Royce Woolridge – 2011 – Washington State

Milton Doyle – 2012 – Loyola (Chicago)

Merv Lindsay – 2012 – New Mexico

Anrio Adams – 2013 – Ohio/Eastern Kentucky

Zach Peters – 2013 – Arizona

Andrew White III – 2014 – Nebraska/Syracuse

Conner Frankamp – 2014 – Wichita State

Carlton Bragg Jr. – 2017 – TBD