With Drew Gooden in the lineup, Kansas University basketball figured to face some high expectations next season.

“No. 1, they’d be my No. 1 team in the nation,” ESPN color analyst Dick Vitale said emphatically in a phone interview.

Gooden won’t be in the lineup, though. The junior All-American announced Friday that he will enter the NBA Draft.

“They will still be in what I call my ‘Super Seven,'” Vitale said. “Kansas will still be outstanding. With (Keith) Langford, (Aaron) Miles and (Wayne) Simien stepping up along with the constants in (Kirk) Hinrich and (Nick) Collison, I think they will still be sensational.”

Vitale  he already has done some preliminary predicting on his dickvitale.com and espn.com Web sites  says he’ll wait for all the NBA prospects to declare their draft intentions before finalizing his preseason top 25 for the 2002-03 season.

He’ll likely tap Arizona No. 1 now that point guard sensation Jason Gardner has said he’ll return for his senior season. Connecticut, like Kansas, figures to drop some in Vitale’s poll following the loss of Caron Butler, who has declared he’ll enter the draft.

Kansas, 33-4 this past season, still figures to contend for the Big 12 title, with Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri as fellow title hopefuls.

How does KU replace the 6-foot-10 Gooden? That is the question.

“I think I’ll be counted on to score more,” said Nick Collison, KU’s 6-9 senior-to-be who averaged 15.6 points on 59.2 percent shooting and hit three of eight threes. “I think I’ll have a lot more confidence in my outside shot next year. I’ll have to take more of those type shots.”

Collison also led the Big 12 in blocked shots with 83.

He and fellow inside player Simien, a 6-9 sophomore-to-be who averaged 8.1 points and 5.3 rebounds a game, will need inside help from Jeff Graves, a 6-9, 260-pound newcomer from Iowa Western Community College.

Moulaye Niang, a 6-9 freshman-to-be from Senegal via El Cajon Christian High in the San Diego area, is considered a possible red-shirt candidate.

“Jeff Graves is big, strong, very skilled for a big guy,” Collison said of the first-team junior college All-American. “He’s going to have to come in and be able to run. He’s 260-plus pounds. The running game is something he might have to adjust to. If he does, he’s going to be tough.”

Meanwhile, don’t count out Bryant Nash, a 6-6 junior-to-be from Carrollton, Texas, who played sparingly his first two seasons at KU.

“I think Bryant Nash is as gifted as anybody maybe in college basketball in terms of athleticism and length,” Collison said.

“He has a perfect basketball body. His skills have not caught up with his body. Eventually if he works at it, if things click upstairs and he starts to understand the game better, he can really be good. It’s kind of up to him. He is athletic as can be.”

Collison will be joined in the leadership department by Hinrich, a 6-3 senior-to-be from Sioux City, Iowa, who averaged 14.8 points a game his junior year.

Hinrich and Collison have yet to officially declare their intentions to return for their senior seasons, but have said they expect to be back for a final go-round.

“Obviously I think our freshmen will improve a lot,” Hinrich said. “Keith, Aaron and big Wayne, Michael Lee, Jeff Hawkins. They will get a lot better and help this team.

“I think Bryant Nash has tons of ability and can help us,” Hinrich added.

Point guard Hawkins impressed at practice while red-shirting this past season.

“He has the tools. He is really quick, a great passer. He can shoot it. Once he learns a little more about the game under coach Williams, I saw him improve a lot this year. I think he’ll continue to improve,” Hinrich said.

KU could gain another player in Devin Smith, a 6-6 guard from Coffeyville Community College, who will choose either KU, Iowa or Virginia, perhaps as early as next Wednesday once he returns from recruiting trips to Iowa and Virginia.

Kris Humphries, a 6-9 junior from Minnetonka, Minn., was on campus last weekend for a visit. He’s considering Minnesota, KU, Duke and others.

David Padgett, 6-10 junior from Reno, Nev., will visit KU next weekend. He might be joined by Omar Wilkes, 6-2, junior from Los Angeles.

Jeremy Case, a 6-2 junior from McAlester, Okla., visited two weeks ago. KU is the heavy favorite over Oklahoma.