Any college basketball team with Final Four aspirations as its baseline for expectations knows chemistry can be just as crucial as talent when it comes to chasing a national championship.
While this year’s Kansas basketball team has a six-man core of returning players, the Jayhawks are doing more than just trying to incorporate a talented freshman class into the mix for the 2021-22 season.
“It’s kind of weird to say this,” KU super-senior Mitch Lightfoot said Tuesday at Allen Fieldhouse during the team’s media day, “but you’ve got a bunch of new old guys. You’ve got some experienced transfers that they’ve had experience elsewhere, they’ve had success elsewhere.”
The “new old guys” are former Arizona State standout guard Remy Martin, former Drake guard Joseph Yesufu and former Missouri Southern big Cam Martin. The No. 3-ranked Jayhawks would like to intermix those three into what figures to be a deep rotation for head coach Bill Self, with Lightfoot, senior guard Ochai Agbaji, senior big man David McCormack, junior guard Christian Braun, sophomore guard Dajuan Harris and sophomore wing Jalen Wilson all returning.
And don’t forget about the members of KU’s 2021 signing class: guards Bobby Pettiford and Kyle Cuffe Jr., and forwards KJ Adams and Zach Clemence.
This is Lightfoot’s sixth go-round in the program. The 24-year-old, who is old enough to have experienced firsthand KU’s last Final Four trip in 2018, said it is up to him and other returning veterans to help the new additions mesh.
Agbaji said bringing so many different players together this past summer at least was different than in 2020, when the pandemic delayed the arrival of new players to campus. Agbaji said that helped him appreciate how crucial those summer months together before the start of the fall semester can be.
“Guys got to meet each other and build that chemistry over the summer,” Agbaji said of the welcome change. “So right when school starts, it’s like hitting hard and preseason practice starts and guys already know each other and know how each other play.”
Another part of the equation that differed from most years was the need to create a smooth acclimation process for an already established player in Martin, the Big 12’s preseason player of the year.
“In my sense, I kind of think of it as just like a professional team,” Agbaji said of the roster moves. “Guys get traded. That’s kind of how the transfer portal was this year.”
Martin averaged 19.1 points and 3.7 assists at Arizona State last year. And while Agbaji explained the Jayhawks appreciate his talent and what Martin has proven about himself as a player, Agbaji said Martin’s new teammates at KU don’t spend much time thinking about what he did in the past.
“It’s like, what what can you do for us now,” Agbaji said, emphasizing that he didn’t mean that in a disrespectful way. “So everyone has that same mindset coming in here, and I think that’s just gonna make us special.”
After observing this year’s team over the past few months, Self said the players like each other, so that part of the chemistry equation has been “terrific.”
Even so, Self warned: “I think just because you like somebody doesn’t mean you’re gonna play well.”
What’s more, as far as Self is concerned the on-court chemistry for the Jayhawks isn’t where he thinks it should be.
For example, Self doesn’t think all the Jayhawks play to their strengths — and he said some players may have a different view than his regarding what their strengths actually are right now.
Ahead of his 19th season at KU, Self also said the team’s ability to communicate when they’re playing hasn’t been great.
“Guys won’t shut up off the court, and you can’t get them to say boo on the court sometimes,” Self said. “That all comes with chemistry, too — trusting people to talk and trusting people to call something out, so that way you can react to it. And a lot of times when you don’t trust, you go half-assed at something, and therefore that totally screws the possession up or whatever.”
While the on-the-floor chemistry has improved, Self added, he figured it could be midseason before it reaches its optimum point.
Lightfoot expects the way the Jayhawks interact and complement each other on the floor will get a boost soon, with the season finally here.
“Obviously, you’ve got to start playing real games. That helps any team mold into who they’re going to be and what their identity will be throughout the year,” Lightfoot said. “I think that this team has to figure that out, and it’s going to take some real games to figure that out. But I think right now we’re at a good point and we’re ready for these games, and ready for these challenges.”