Bigger role
Devonte’ Graham will take over as leader for Kansas in place of Frank Mason III
Devonte’ Graham sits in an empty Allen Fieldhouse and imagines fans roaring to their feet. As a member of three of the Jayhawks’ 13 consecutive Big 12 regular-season titles, it’s not that difficult to envision the atmosphere in one of college basketball’s greatest venues, which has sold out since 2001.
That pandemonium made putting the NBA on hold and coming back for his senior year — as a preseason All-American, no less — an easier choice. Kansas is losing the national player of the year, Frank Mason III, but Graham sees his former backcourt partner’s departure as an opportunity as much as a void.
“It’s my team now,” Graham says confidently.
Coach Bill Self won’t argue. “We never had anybody better than Frank,” Self says. “But at the same time, Devonte’ also deferred a lot last year — in large part for what was best for our team. Now what’s best for our team is for him to be our primary handler and have the ball in his hands. People will see how much better he is now.”
Dating to his days coaching at Tulsa and Illinois, Self has had no shortage of great guards throughout his career. It’s part of what made his acceptance speech for the Basketball Hall of Fame — Self was enshrined in the Class of 2017 in September — so difficult.
“There’s not enough time to list everyone off,” Self says. “It’s always been about the players. I’ve been fortunate that everywhere I’ve been, I’ve had bullets in my gun.”
Mississippi State transfer Malik Newman is now eligible to help out Graham in the backcourt.
“He’s a guy that could be your leading scorer,” Self says. “An explosive guard.”
In large part because of a nagging toe injury, Newman underachieved at Mississippi State in
2015-16 before sitting out last season per NCAA transfer rules. Expected by some to be a one-anddone NBA player, Newman instead regrouped and matured over the last year in Lawrence.
“It’s been a lot of patience,” says Newman, a top-10 recruit in the class of 2015. “You hear a lot of criticism but can’t respond. Now, I get to respond — with a lot of built-up aggression.”
The backcourt chemistry with Graham (13.4 ppg, 4.1 apg last season) and Newman (11.3 ppg in
2015-16) should be on point. Despite Newman sitting out last season, the two were roommates and Graham was Newman’s tour guide during his visit to campus — a determining factor in his decision to transfer. As a result, Newman says they’ve clicked on the court.
He also says watching Mason’s player of the year season provided a blueprint for the type of toughness Self wants in his guards.
“Watching Frank and Devonte’, those guys helped me pick up a lot of small details that can help me thrive this year. We run so many ball screens, and it benefits us because our guards are so interchangeable,” says Newman, who also credits the team’s international trip to Italy as a chemistry builder. “Where we’re at now, I think we’ve already jelled.”
Self says that while the talent is there on paper for this year’s roster, he feels a toughness factor must develop.
“From a talent standpoint, we’re fine. But from an intangible standpoint, we’re not even close,” Self says.
“With Coach Self,” Graham says, “I feel like our identity always tends to be the same: Tougher than whoever you’re playing.”
Self says newcomers Billy Preston and Marcus Garrett, two toprated freshmen, will have to learn on the fly as the team mixes in experience and youth.
Self returns key 6-8 guard Svi Mykhailiuk, a versatile offensive talent who tested the NBA waters at the combine and is poised for a breakout senior year after playing on the Ukrainian national team this summer.
“This year, I think we can be special,” says Mykhailiuk, who lost 20 pounds this offseason to be in prime shape for 2017-18. “Not just because of our returning talent but because we are all very motivated. Everyone is trying to go to the gym at night. I think we are trying to do everything in our power to get to the Final Four.”
The Jayhawks have come up just short in back-to-back Elite Eight finishes the last two seasons. Kansas hasn’t been to the Final Four since 2012.
Adds Newman: “Being at a school like Kansas, if you don’t make it to the Final Four, it’s kind of a bad season. That’s why we’re all focused on making that goal happen.”
Graham echoes that state of mind.
“Getting to the Final Four is definitely the goal, the dream,” Graham says. “Having been right there two years in a row, it definitely hurt.
“Going to the Elite Eight twice and losing definitely sits with you. It’s helped with the hunger factor.”
Likewise, Self can’t hide the fact that some of his best teams have fallen victim to the spontaneity and rigors of the singleelimination NCAA tournament — Kansas has had a No. 1 seed seven times under Self and turned that into only one Final Four.
The Jayhawks’ streak of 13 Big 12 regular-season titles is one of the best in sports history, which Self says stirs up “subtle pressure” for players to not be the team to end it. But ultimately, the program’s Hall of Fame coach wants the team to cut down the nets in April more than anything.
“I’d much rather go to 13 straight Final Fours than win 13 straight leagues,” Self says. “But I think your goal, when you’re competitive, is to be the best on a night-to-night basis. My guys have done such a great job at raising the level when it mattered in January and February. The ultimate goal is to do what we did in ’ 08 — we win the league, the (Big 12) tournament, then win the national championship.”