Long-term success is built years in advance; one quick instance to refer back to is that of the Oklahoma City Thunder. After years of trading for draft picks and seeing the exodus of their best players, the Thunder now have one of the most dominant teams in the NBA and are poised for a real chance at back-to-back NBA Championships.
Yet, in the NBA, things are a bit more settled; the rhythm of the league eventually takes over, and teams can learn how to maneuver their way to the top. Meanwhile, in collegiate basketball, it feels like the wild west with constant coaching changes, the one-and-done rule, and the ever-miring transfer portal. It can be hard to project your success past the next year.
Certain things have been able to be consistent, though. The “Blue Bloods” have remained atop the NCAA basketball landscape, and the path to the top of the food chain will always be easier for a team like Kansas, whose basketball history has been able to weave through the new-look college landscape. While in the present Kansas has been knocked off its perch temporarily by Houston’s arrival, Kyle Boone, in his “Projecting top 25 college basketball programs of next 25 years: Teams set for most long-term success” article, senses future success for the Jayhawks.
“No program has been kissed by the basketball gods more gently than Kansas. It has been led by a Hall of Fame coach for more than 40 years now — from Larry Brown to Roy Williams and now Bill Self — and I suspect that trend will continue for decades more. While Self may be in the twilight of his career, KU has the history and the financial backing to pluck any coach from their post. This is a top-three program in college basketball and it will continue to recruit at a high level and win at a clip commensurate with its ranking.”
A point to back Boone’s statement is the possible flip of highly-touted recruit Taylen Kinney.
Obviously, there is work to do now. By Kansas’ expectations, the Jayhawks have suffered a down past couple of years. Yet with the enlisting of star recruit Darryn Peterson and the help of one of the nation’s best defenders in Flory Bidunga, Kansas should have no problem getting back to its best soon, and for many years after.