It’s rare when Kansas men’s basketball team enters season with five new starters
The 2025-26 edition of Kansas men’s basketball will feature just one player who started a game for the Jayhawks last season.
That person would be Flory Bidunga, who was on the court for the opening tip six times during his freshman campaign in Lawrence.
Bidunga, as KU fans know all too well, entered the NCAA transfer portal on March 29 but after a week’s deliberation announced his return to the squad Sunday.
Had big man Bidunga left KU for Auburn or Indiana or some other school , the Jayhawks would have been left with no returning starters from the previous year’s squad.
Three previous times in the 22-year Bill Self era, the Jayhawks have completely changed over their starting five, and the upcoming season figures to be the fourth.
It should be noted, however, redshirt sophomore-to-be combo guard Elmarko Jackson, who sat out this past season while rehabbing from patellar tendon surgery, did start 17 games his freshman year (2023-24).
As far as the three instances in which Self replaced all five starters with an entirely different group ... all three of those teams fared well in the Big 12, but did not go far in the NCAAs. Here’s a look at the three times Self implemented an entirely new lineup from the year before.
2005-06
KU entered the 2005-06 season with a completely different starting five from 2004-05.
In 04-05, the regular starters were Aaron Miles, Keith Langford, J.R. Giddens, Christian Moody and Wayne Simien.
Michael Lee, C.J. Giles and Sasha Kaun also started six, five and two games respectively for a 23-7 KU team that tied for first with Oklahoma in the Big 12 standings, went 1-1 in the Big 12 tourney and lost in the first round of the NCAAs to Bucknell.
With five new starters (Russell Robinson, Mario Chalmers, Brandon Rush, Julian Wright and Kaun), the 05-06 squad went 25-8 overall and 13-3 in the Big 12, good for a tie for first place with Texas. The 05-06 Jayhawks also won the Big 12 postseason tournament but lost to Bradley in the first round of the NCAAs.
It should be noted Giles started 13 games, Jeff Hawkins 12 and Moody nine games in 05-06 after the trio combined to start 11 games the previous year.
Robinson in a phone interview Tuesday drew on his own experience, indicating it could be tough on next season’s KU team in fielding a squad with no returning starters (except Bidunga for six games).
“It’s going to be difficult just establishing the order of the hierarchy. That’ll be important having someone speed that process up,” Robinson said of team leaders/heavy contributors emerging quickly. “They’re going to have a lot of pick-up during the summer to figure out what it’s going to be like.
“You can win both ways,” Robinson added of winning with a bunch of returning starters or very few. “When you’ve got returning starters, they do the coach’s job of helping everybody get along.”
Robinson said it takes time for a team with all new starters to jell.
“You are not going to learn to be a Jayhawk two months over the summer,” Robinson said. “I wish some of the alumni could be involved, more active, to help speed the process. I was recruited two years before I got to KU. I knew what to expect before my freshman season. It’s hard to expect guys to learn about it in a couple weeks. It’s more the mental approach. It could take a little time. They’ll have their proving ground starting in the summer in pick-up.
“Everybody will have opportunity. I don’t think everything is set in stone (regarding roles on a team still being formed through portal acquisitions).”
Robinson said he remembers having positive feelings in 05-06 despite losing to Bradley in the first round of the NCAAs. He believes KU’s 2025-26 team can also vie for the league title and postseason success.
“It is one of those things — we were playing well (but) I don’t think we were too high on ourselves after winning the Big 12,” Robinson said. “As a blue blood everybody goes through it. It was our time (to be upset in the NCAAs). We won games after that and before that.”
Members of a young 05-06 team went on to win the national title in 2008.
“We learned to trust one another, establish trust fairly quickly,” Robinson said.
2008-09
The Jayhawks entered the 2008-09 season as a team that needed five new starters following the 2007-08 NCAA title season.
Led by a new starting unit of Sherron Collins, Tyshawn Taylor, Brady Morningstar, Marcus Morris and Cole Aldrich, KU went 27-8 overall, including a Big 12 best 14-2 league mark.
The Jayhawks lost their first game in the Big 12 tourney then fell to Michigan State in the Sweet 16. It should be noted Markieff Morris (seven games), Mario Little (three), Tyrel Reed (two) and Matt Kleinmann (two) started a handful of games in that 08-09 campaign.
The starters lost from the 07-08 team, one that went 37-3 overall (13-3 in Big 12 and 3-0 in Big 12 tourney) were: Robinson, Chalmers, Rush, Darnell Jackson and Darrell Arthur. Rodrick Stewart (eight games), Kaun (six) and Collins (three) all started a few games in 07-08.
“When we came with all new starters (in 08-09) it was a little different. The team had just won a championship,” former KU guard Tyshawn Taylor said Tuesday in a phone interview.
“We were trying to fill shoes compared to these guys (2025-26 Jayhawks), who will be coming in with a team that didn’t do so well (21-13, 11-9 in league and first round NCAA tourney exit). The transition might be a little easier for them. We had just won a title and there were a lot of new faces, not a lot of expectations. But as a team we had our own expectations. Maybe it was ignorance of young kids thinking we could be as good as them (‘08 champs) right away.”
Taylor described 2008-09 as a “completely new feel for everybody.”
“All we wanted to do was play hard and compete,” Taylor added. “We knew we were young. It was, ‘Come to practice and compete every day.’ I remember we made it to the Sweet 16 and when it was over nobody felt we had a bad season. The fans were supportive. We felt it was a pretty good year.”
Taylor noted that because of the NCAA transfer portal, some of KU’s 2025-26 additions will have been starters at other schools and have more experience than the 08-09 Jayhawks possessed.
For instance, incoming transfers Jayden Dawson and Tre White started a year ago at Loyola Chicago and Illinois, respectively. KU is not finished recruiting with up to five spots on the roster still open.
“They’ll be fine as long as they play hard,” Taylor said of the upcoming team with all new starters. “The climate of today’s basketball, everybody is transferring. They’ll be grown men making the adjustment together.”
Taylor said having five new starters could “be refreshing for Kansas fans. I think it will be good to see new faces. We’ll still have Flory. Having him … it will be good for him to play more minutes. I will love to see Elmarko in a Kansas jersey again (after a year of rehab). Having him there with Darryn Peterson coming in … if he has a John Wall-type year and kills it, we’ll be fine. They’ve got to be dogs who play hard.”
2013-14
KU entered the 2013-14 season with five new starters. That team, which opened with Naadir Tharpe, Wayne Selden, Andrew Wiggins, Perry Ellis and Joel Embiid, went 25-10 overall, winning the league title with a 14-4 record.
That squad, which also started Tarik Black 15 games, went 1-1 in the Big 12 tourney then lost in the second round of the NCAAs to Stanford.
Previously, the 2012-13 team went 31-6 overall and a league best 14-4 in the Big 12. The Jayhawks won the Big 12 tourney and dropped a Sweet 16 game to Michigan.
Starters in 12-13 were: Elijah Johnson, Ben McLemore, Travis Releford, Kevin Young and Jeff Withey. Perry Ellis also started three games.
“I do think it is harder with five new starters (compared to having a veteran squad),” said KU assistant Kurtis Townsend, a member of Self’s coaching staff in 13-14. “At the same time we had the No. 1 and 3 picks in the draft in Wiggs (Wiggins) and Joel. Had Joel not gotten hurt (he did not play in the postseason) you could make a case we’d have had more success.
“We had Frank Mason and Tarik Black — and Conner Frankamp who could really shoot it and some other guys like Landen Lucas, a really good team,” he added.
The Jayhawks figure to get a lot accomplished in spending June and July on campus, he said.
“Well I think the summer is enough time especially if you are fortunate enough where it’s one of those years you can take the team overseas to play some games, on a foreign trip,” Townsend said.
There is no such trip slated for this summer. The Jayhawks went to Puerto Rico before the 23-24 season.
He said the Jayhawks are looking forward to upcoming summer workouts.
“We’ve still got some guys who have been around here a while (Bidunga, Elmarko Jackson, Jamari McDowell, Noah Shelby) and a young guy like Darryn Peterson and other talented guys coming in. We’re excited about it,” Townsend said.
Three McDonald’s All-Americans could start in 25-26
KU may not have any regular starters coming back in 2025-26. The Jayhawks do, however, have three McDonald’s All-Americans who could possibly emerge as members of the starting five. They are: Peterson, Bidunga and Jackson.
The last time KU had as many as three McDonald’s All-Americans in the starting lineup was 2019-20, when Devon Dotson, David McCormack and Udoka Azubuike started games.
KU’s 2020-21 team also had McDonald’s All-America starters in McCormack and, for four games, Bryce Thompson.
The most McDonald’s All-Americans to start for a Self-coached team would be five in 2009-10: Collins, Taylor, Xavier Henry, Marcus Morris and Cole Aldrich.
Self’s 2018-19 team also started five at various points in the season in: Dotson, Quentin Grimes, Dedric Lawson, McCormack and Azubuike.
This story was originally published April 9, 2025 at 10:15 AM with the headline "It’s rare when Kansas men’s basketball team enters season with five new starters."
