Kansas men’s basketball coach Bill Self turned “Traditions Night” into a pep rally of sorts on Friday night when he told 5,000 or so KU freshmen nestled at the bottom of Campanile Hill outside Memorial Stadium what could be in store for Jayhawk athletics during the 2024-25 school year.
“I’m excited,” Self said during an hour-long program that also featured Chancellor Douglas Girod, director of football relations Darrell Stuckey and director of football sports performance Matt Gildersleeve, “because I think that in 2007-08 we had a chance to maybe have the most memorable athletic year that any school has had in the last 20 to 30 years when our football team finished third or fourth in America and won the Orange Bowl and then the basketball team … Mario (Chalmers) made a pretty big shot and we cut down the nets in San Antonio.
“This is the closest thing to ’07-08, so I’m excited because I think that we have a chance to play a role along with a lot of others to make this potentially the most special athletic year this campus maybe has ever seen,” Self added to wild applause from the new students, already in town for Monday’s start of first-semester classes.
Self, after taking some selfies with students, hopped in his car to update The Star on progress made by his 2024-25 KU basketball team during summer practice sessions in June, July and part of August as allowed by NCAA rules.
“I thought we had a good summer. Obviously the biggest setback we had was in early summer when Elmarko got hurt,” Self said of sophomore guard Elmarko Jackson , who will redshirt the season after undergoing knee surgery to repair a torn patellar tendon in his knee.
“But I thought it was a productive summer. I thought our guys got better. I thought we started coming together from a chemistry standpoint. We haven’t really done that much yet (but) I think this is going to be a bunch I really enjoy being around.”
Self was asked about the notion that perhaps four of the five starting slots are already filled in returning starters Hunter Dickinson, KJ Adams and Dajuan Harris, plus AJ Storr who led Wisconsin in scoring last year and practiced with the Bahamas National Team and attended some camps this past summer to go with his workouts at KU.
“No,” Self said asked if the lineup was set. “We do return three starters and we’ve got not only AJ, but we’ve got (Rylan) Griffen and we’ve got (Flory) Bidunga and we’ve got (Zeke) Mayo and we’ve got obviously (Shakeel) Moore and (David) Coit and (Rakease) Passmore,” he added of squad newcomers to go with scholarship returnees Zach Clemence and Jamari McDowell.
“I think it’s going to be a very competitive camp. Even people that perceive certain guys to be starters,” he added, “there’s a big difference in starting and playing 35 minutes a game that they did last year or starting and now you are sharing time because there’s enough competition in the gym. Even with our returning starters there’s going to be competition for them to have similar roles as they had in the past because we’ve got more depth.”
Self said Storr, a 6-7 junior wing, “had a good summer. He’s obviously athletically a very talented youngster. He’s still got to put some stuff together. I really feel like we got better this summer.”
Of returning leading scorer and rebounder Dickinson, Self said: “I think Hunter’s had a good summer. He’s getting old, entering his fifth year. We’re an old team with Hunter five (years), Juan six, KJ four, Mayo four, Storr three, Griffin three, Moore five, Coit five. We’ve got some experience. I do think Hunter’s batteries are recharged. I’m certainly hopeful we don’t have to put him in a situation where he’s playing all the minutes he did last year though.”
Asked which of KU’s seven scholarship newcomers can play point guard, Self said: “Zeke can play some point. Shakeel for sure can play some point and Coit can play some point. The way I wanted to do it is get as many combo guards as we could. That’s how we have always played.”
First-semester classes begin on KU’s campus on Monday with Self indicating, “I believe they (players) should all be here by Sunday.”
Self on Monday morning will begin his 22nd season as KU coach.
“I think everybody is happy,” he said, reiterating to The Star the optimistic statements he delivered to the students at the annual Traditions Night. “It’s an exciting time to be a part of Kansas. Enrollment is at an all-time high from what I understand. ... all the upgrades that are happening within the campus and primarily athletics, and then to have a squad we feel like may be very competitive and may have a chance to do something special.”
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