The Day the (Regular) Season Ended for Kansas

KU has no depth and the recruitment of Arterio Morris is a reason why.

You’re never out of it for a national title as the NCAA Tournament is the ultimate wildcard, with matchups being more important than anything. Kansas could get favorable draws, teams around them could be eliminated, and they could face teams whose weaknesses are Kansas’s strengths. 

This isn’t a doomsday letter. But this Kansas Jayhawks basketball regular season has taken a turn for the worse that many didn’t expect, and being three games back with three to go, Kansas is eliminated from Big XII title contention in everything but name.

So, after a home loss to BYU, the first loss in 20 games at the Phog, top scorer Kevin McCullar sitting out indefinitely with a bone bruise, and bad road losses at K-State, West Virginia, and UCF, teams that occupy slots in the bottom half of the Big XII standings, it should be easy to pick a game or time where the Big XII conference title fell out of Kansas’ grasp. 

But we’re going to go back further than that, before the season even started. In fact, the day the 2024 conference season was lost for the Kansas Jayhawks took place just a month after the last college basketball season ended.

The date was April 28, 2023, and that was the day that Arterio Morris committed to Kansas.

In Morris, Kansas brought in a man who was already in trouble with the law and for reasons unbeknownst to anyone, Kansas expected no trouble. This one lands squarely on the shoulders of head coach Bill Self. Not to sound flippant, but this is Kansas. It is one of the blue blood programs, a basketball program that should have no trouble going out and finding a piece of the puzzle that fits which also doesn’t have legal trouble trailing it everywhere it goes.

As a member of the Texas Longhorns, Morris was already up on charges and eventually pleaded no contest to a class C misdemeanor of assault resulting from an altercation with a female. Self brought him to Kansas anyway, choosing to focus on his basketball abilities, assuring everyone that he foresaw no future problems with Morris. His explosiveness off the dribble, strong defensive presence, and ability to nail three pointers were the key reasons he was brought to Kansas.

Do these attributes sound like some that Kansas could use right about now? 

They sure do, but then came September and on the last Friday of the month, Morris was charged with rape and Self dismissed him from the team. Kansas was officially shorthanded and was now without a player possessing all of the basketball attributes this team currently needs.

But again, this is Kansas. Players are dying to play at this program under this head coach. KU should have been able to find a guy in the transfer portal who dribbles, shoots, and defends and doesn’t have a criminal record. We’re not going deep into who was available in the portal at the time because speculation about a bunch of potential prospects isn’t constructive and is a waste of time. The point is that there were definitely guys in the portal who could be contributing to this team right now, and this is putting it nicely for print, who don’t assault women.

The fact that Kansas doesn’t have a consistently reliable three-point shooter, has no depth, and can’t get a defensive stop on the perimeter for long stretches has everything to do with this misstep in recruiting by Self. All of KU’s portal signees came after Morris. There were guys there that could have been a key component in a team competing for a Big XII regular season title.

Instead, KU signed Morris, and he was dismissed less than 40 days before the regular season tipoff and with no time to find a replacement. As a side note, many people (pundits, journalists, and fans alike) were absolutely, and as it turns out, rightly outraged at the signing of this player. It was a rare misstep on the recruiting trail by Bill Self, but one that he likely looks back on and thinks about what could’ve been.

We as fans think that way too, but in the case of Arterio Morris and Kansas, it should read what should never have been.

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