Brandon Rush won’t be back, and it’s likely Mario Chalmers and Darrell Arthur won’t be either.
But coach Bill Self says no one should write off Kansas next season, even if the Jayhawks are without three of the top players from their national championship team.
Self, who visited Boys Town on Wednesday afternoon before appearing at an Omaha banquet in the evening, said he won’t know what his roster will look like until after June’s NBA draft. And he said he’s not worried about it.
If Chalmers and Arthur return, “We could be as talented next year as we were this year,” Self said. “People may say, ’No way,’ but I have a lot of faith in our young guys. If they don’t come back, we’re still going to be good. Part of coaching, to me, is sometimes starting with a fresh slate.”
Self spent about an hour visiting with Boys Town staff and student athletes. It was his first visit to the famed home for troubled youth, and he left impressed with the facilities in the village on the west side of Omaha.
He was much more relaxed than he was during his previous visit to Omaha. That was the third week of March, when Kansas beat Portland State and UNLV in the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament at the Qwest Center, which also was the site for Wednesday’s B’nai B’rith sports banquet.

