LAWRENCE This Kansas team differs from previous editions in several ways. It&#x92;s depth-shy, relies almost totally on its key players and doesn&#x92;t shoot it as well from the perimeter.</p><p>Coach Bill Self knew all of this would happen, and in the preseason wondered how much slippage he&#x92;d have to manage. After all, the Jayhawks have been No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament in four of the last five years. To Self, when he addressed his team in the preseason, thought about the limitations.</p><p>&#x93;I told our team, &#x91;This is what we&#x92;re going to do, and it&#x92;s going to work,&#x92; but I&#x92;m thinking to myself, &#x91;is it really?&#x92; &#x94; Self said.</p><p>But the Jayhawks who take the floor Monday night at Kansas State have exceeded Self&#x92;s expectations. They&#x92;ll have climbed further in the polls, up from their second-five status of last week, and the upward mobility in perception will follow the program in bracketology as well.</p><p>If the season ended today, Kansas is a No. 2 seed at worst.</p><p>In other words, what&#x92;s really changed for the seven-time defending Big 12 champions who are tied with Missouri for first in the conference standings?</p><p>Self&#x92;s recalibration is based on leaps in progress from the six leading players. Five played last year and one &#x97; Tyshawn Taylor &#x97; started. Sixth-man Conner Teahan sat out as a redshirt.</p><p>Look at how far the regulars have come:</p><p>From first big man off the bench, Thomas Robinson averages 18.5 points and 12.0 rebounds and is a candidate for national player of the year.</p><p>Taylor, who has incurred fans&#x92; ire for turnovers this season, has become perhaps the team&#x92;s most indispensable player. He&#x92;s nearly doubled his scoring average to 18.4 points in conference games and is the team&#x92;s top three-point shooter.</p><p>No improvement has been more stunning than center Jeff Withey&#x92;s. He brought into this season two-year career averages of two points and 1.8 rebounds. In his last two games, Withey has scored 43 points and grabbed 25 rebounds, and he continues to lead the Big 12 in blocked shots by a wide margin.</p><p>Asked to contribute in a major way for the first time, Travis Releford, Elijah Johnson and Teahan are all having their best years in a Kansas uniform.</p><p>The improved play should come as no great revelation. The six main contributors have been in the program for at least three years each. Teahan came to Kansas as a walk-on, but the starters were all highly recruited, five- or four-star prospects by Rivals.com, which essentially made them top-100 players in their graduating class.</p><p>During the last three years they&#x92;ve practiced against five NBA draft selections. Besides Texas, nobody in the Big 12 consistently operates at such a high personnel level.</p><p>Still, Self was unsure how this group would respond. And until the team played at the Maui Invitational, he feared this could be the worst of his nine Kansas clubs.</p><p>&#x93;I didn&#x92;t think we were very good at all,&#x94; Self said. &#x93;But (the players) thought they were good, regardless of what I thought, and that&#x92;s a great thing for a coach.&#x94;</p><p>The Maui trip, where Kansas defeated Georgetown and UCLA before falling in the last minute to Duke, opened Self&#x92;s eyes. They got wider after the Jayhawks defeated Ohio State, even though the Buckeyes were playing without Jared Sullinger. Then the loss to Davidson at the Sprint Center made Self cringe.</p><p>&#x93;The thing is, when we&#x92;ve been good we&#x92;ve been really good, and when we&#x92;ve haven&#x92;t been good, it&#x92;s a big drop,&#x94; Self said.</p><p>That was no more evident than Saturday, when Kansas played perhaps its best half of the year in racing to a 27-point halftime lead on Oklahoma State and then getting outscored by 12 in a sloppy second half.</p><p>That&#x92;s where the depth is a factor. If a starter has a few poor possessions, Kansas had been able to plug in a future starter or NBA draft selection. That&#x92;s not the case this year. Starters have had to play through poor decisions.</p><p>But it&#x92;s worked. Plenty of challenges await beginning tonight against a Kansas State team desperate for a marquee victory to enhance its NCAA Tournament chances. Early on, Self wasn&#x92;t certain this team was ready for its most difficult tasks. The season turned around his thinking.</p><p>&#x93;They&#x92;ve exceeded my thoughts of where we could be,&#x94; Self said.