KU Jayhawks Q&A: KU basketball recruiting, NCAA case, Bill Self extension and lineups

Here’s the latest Kansas Jayhawks Q&A.

Thanks for all the Twitter questions, and a reminder that with our latest deal, you can get all our Star sports stories at 99 cents a month for the next three months.

Next week would seem to be a pretty good estimate.

KU chancellor Douglas Girod originally said — on March 10 — that he wanted to work “quickly and judiciously” to make a new hire within a few weeks. An announcement in the last week of March, then, would seem to fit those criteria.

We speculated on some potential KU AD candidates last week, but with these types of positions, the pool to choose from is much larger than that of, say, a football coach. It’s possible — maybe even likely — the next KU Athletics leader is not on that list.

Either way, we all should know the final resolution on this soon enough.

This is an interesting question with pros and cons.

The longer the AD search plays out, the more I think KU would be wise to let interim Emmett Jones coach the 2021 season. That would be beneficial for a few reasons: KU likely would keep most of the players from its highly touted recruiting classes the last two seasons, the current staff could remain in place to allow players to not have start over anew after spring ball, and it obviously would give the new AD a little time to settle in before having to make a decision on the next football coach.

What’s fascinating about KU’s specific scenario, though, is that some of the school’s AD candidates have natural ties to some of the top head coaches that might be interested in the football opening. An example: Army deputy AD Mike Harrity — a KU alum — could potentially bring along Army football coach Jeff Monken if he was hired in Lawrence. Similarly, Buffalo AD Mark Alnutt — another rumored name — could make an offer to Buffalo coach Lance Leipold, who also seems in line for a Power Five gig soon.

It’s strange to discuss a potential KU package deal with AD and football coach, but if the new hire knew which direction he or she wanted to go already — and that coach was willing to change jobs this late in the spring season — then it probably makes sense to just make the move. Though that might cause some financial and logistical issues with the current staff (how many new assistants would you bring in for this season?), it could hypothetically help with recruiting and also player development for a new coaching hire to get a few-months’ head start.

Last month, Self said he expected the case to be decided around late summer or early fall, and that remains a reasonable guess as to when a resolution will take place.

As for the “what’s taking so long” question ... it’s good to revert back to a previous story we wrote that discussed the process with the NCAA’s VP of Hearing Operations, Naima Stevenson Starks.

Here’s an important passage:

The biggest question mark will be the actions of the Complex Case Unit (CCU) in regards to KU’s case.

Stevenson Starks points to the CCU as having a “vital” role, as it gives the new process an independent investigative arm. In the past, the NCAA’s enforcement staff would not only investigate potential violations, but it would also present those allegations and findings to the Committee on Infractions.

With this new method, the findings are presented by the CCU, which is made up of external investigators and advocates with no school affiliations, along with one member of the enforcement staff.

In short, the CCU is charged with reviewing the NCAA enforcement staff’s notice of allegations and investigative efforts, then making independent determinations on whether additional investigation is needed.

If you want to think about it in these terms ... the whole case is likely at the point where it’s being re-litigated. It took years already for the NCAA Enforcement staff to come up with the evidence and interviews needed to charge KU’s program with five Level I violations, and now, fresh eyes are taking a look at things while examining the actions of all parties, which could even include the NCAA and its staff as well.

It seems like that’s taking a while. So as much as KU fans would like to have some sort of conclusion here ... there are some logistical reasons for why the case remains unsettled at this point.

The idea of a “self-imposed ban” — or any negotiation tactic — was also addressed in the previous Q&A with Stevenson Starks, so I hope you’ll check out the whole story if you haven’t yet.

Here’s the response relevant to the question, though:

Q: CAN KU AND THE NCAA STILL NEGOTIATE WITH THIS CASE AND COME TO AN AGREEMENT OR SETTLEMENT ON PUNISHMENT IF IT ENDS UP IN THE IARP?

The short answer, Stevenson Starks says, is no.

“Once you get into the independent structure,” Stevenson Starks said, “then you are moving towards a hearing ultimately.”

The bottom line: Most NCAA cases are predicated on schools being cooperative and self-governing. In those instances, oftentimes the NCAA and schools agree to certain facts and work toward a resolution.

More and more, though — and especially in KU’s case — schools have started to advocate for themselves while rejecting the NCAA’s assertions. It’s these types of cases that are likely to end up in the IARP process, where NCAA outsiders can help resolve contentious matters.

It’s possible, Stevenson Starks said, for a school like KU to agree with certain allegations at its hearing. That potentially would make the job of the IRP easier, as it wouldn’t have to settle as many disputes.

Negotiated resolutions, though, are not available once a case enters the IARP. The process is then moving toward a hearing, which eventually ends up with the IRP deciding the case.

KU landed five-star prospect Bryce Thompson last year — remember, Self coached his father at Tulsa, so there was a family connection there — but it has been a struggle lately. Self admitted as much last month.

“Our playing field has been more difficult recruiting against the people we normally recruit against just because we have the NCAA situation hanging over our heads,” KU’s coach said then. “That’s what’s made recruiting difficult for us.”

It makes sense. The NCAA Tournament is college basketball’s greatest spectacle, so it’d only be natural for prospects to want clarity on whether KU will be eligible for that over the next few years.

KU’s coaches are unlikely to have a clear answer on that at this point, which also would make negative recruiting against the program easier than many years past.

A potential Self extension is obviously on hold for at least one important reason: He doesn’t have a permanent boss. The next athletic director is the one who will be tasked with any of those future discussions.

Having said that, I think this has been an overblown topic in recent months for one reason: I don’t think Self has much motivation for wanting to get a deal done.

The reason for that is leverage.

Think about it from Self’s perspective for a second: If KU came to him with a potential extension right now, it would likely be a lesser offer simply because there’s still a possibility that the NCAA hammers KU with penalties, and the school would rightfully want some protection. That hurts Self’s leverage, and would make him hesitant to want to come to the table to start.

Let’s say the NCAA case plays out and KU basketball is mostly unaffected, though. Self would have all the leverage again, both as a hall of fame coach and someone with an unparalleled track record of consistency. There wouldn’t be any doubt then that he’d deserve to be paid among the tops in his profession, whether that was at KU or elsewhere.

I don’t think there’s much risk in Self (and KU) seeing how this plays out. Most of the time, there’s a rush to extend coaches to show recruits that the school is committed to them. In this case, there’s an easy explanation for Self to give if any recruit asks: The athletic program is under investigation, and both sides want to know the resolution before making long-term decisions.

That’s all a long way of saying that I think some patience is required here. The timing doesn’t seem right for a new deal now, but that could change quickly in a few months.

Yep.

Self, after his team’s 85-51 loss to USC, said this about 2021-22: “For us to be a team that really has a chance to be a national contender, I mean, we need to get a little bit more athletic. We need to get a little longer and bigger, those sorts of things.”

Fellow beat writer Gary Bedore did a great recent breakdown on KU’s current roster situation, but early indications are that there should be quite a few more changes over the next month or so. That could include potential additions like recruit Ty Ty Washington or UMKC transfer Brandon McKissic, who both have received interest from KU.

Well, it’s first good to understand the criteria for making the rafters: whatever the current KU men’s basketball coach thinks is best. Ha.

But really ... that’s true. It’s Self’s call who goes up there, and he’s going to do what he thinks is best for his program.

Case in point: Andrew Wiggins and Joel Embiid, should Self remain the coach the next few years, will have jersey retirement ceremonies. Yes, that’s based off their NBA success more than their KU accolades ... but why in the world wouldn’t KU’s coach want to point to an “Embiid” or “Wiggins” jersey in the rafters to use that as a selling point to a recruit? It only makes sense.

For Garrett ... winning national defensive player of the year last season is his best argument, but I agree with you in that I don’t think it’s enough. There’s nuance here. It’s fine for Self to have personal favorites — like we all know Jamari Traylor was — while also fully understanding that player can be celebrated in other ways besides a jersey retirement.

With KU likely to have a backlog of rafters ceremonies coming the next few years anyway — the Jayhawks have had some great teams and players lately — I don’t think there’s any shame in Garrett being left off that list.

It’s a good question that — as you might expect — doesn’t have a definitive answer.

The numbers I’d probably trust most with this come from EvanMiya.com, which has competition-adjusted, lineup-based data. The obvious caveat is that this is based on small sample sizes — meaning the data is less reliable than we’d like ideally — but here are the rankings of KU’s top five-man groupings that played at least 50 offensive possessions together.

KU had plenty of success with “big” lineups, as evidenced by the efficiency margin of the top two fivesomes.

You’ll notice the Jayhawks’ most frequent combination — Garrett/Agbaji/Braun/Wilson/McCormack — was good at plus-17.4, but also not quite as effective as some of the others. That includes the only “small ball” setting that appears on the list of Garrett/Harris/Agbaji/Braun/Wilson, which rated somewhat-but-not-overwhelmingly better than the Jayhawks’ typical starting five.

Again, small sample size here, so I don’t think any grand conclusions should be drawn when most of these combinations only played the rough equivalent of one full game together.

It does, though — at the least — show that KU had multiple ways to play this season that were successful at various times.

This story was originally published March 25, 2021 at 5:00 AM.

Jesse Newell

The Kansas City Star

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Jesse Newell covered the Chiefs for The Star until August 2025. He won an EPPY for best sports blog and previously was named top beat writer in his circulation by AP’s Sports Editors. His interest in sports analytics comes from his math teacher father, who handed out rulers to Trick-or-Treaters each year.