Kansas basketball: Strengths and weaknesses of the rebuilt Jayhawks roster

Weakness — Bench Reliability

While the starting lineup will be chock-full of experience, the bench will be chock-full of bright-eyed, bushy-tailed youngsters. Assuming Timberlake begins the season in the starting lineup, there will be just two players on the bench that have college basketball experience.

Arterio Morris and Parker Braun will be the only bench players that have seen live game action at the college level, and thus could be relied on heavily early in the season. Coach Self likes to ease freshmen into the game, meaning that Morris will likely be the first guard off the bench, with Braun likely serving as the first big man off the bench. This helps the young players figure the game out without taking on as much of a workload and immediate expectation to succeed.

This year though, that could be tough to do. With only two non-freshmen in the reserves, Self will likely have to give significant minutes to at least a couple of freshmen. My guess would be Elmarko Jackson and Marcus Adams, the two highest-ranked recruits in this year’s class. Self loves experience, and while he has it in the starting unit, it could be a slight issue with the bench.