Coach Bill Self wants his Kansas University basketball team to develop more hunger for success. One carrot, or pizza maybe, that he might dangle on a stick is the prospect that the Jayhawks will enter the Big 12 Conference season in danger of being no better than fourth.

If that won’t motivate a promising but pitifully erratic, rudderless squad which has been drifting to and fro, there’s not much hope. We’re talking about defending league champions and national finalist performers in danger of becoming also-rans. If that doesn’t get immediate attention, a lot of hot tickets could wind up disguised as empty seats after Jan. 1.

Right now, there’s little doubt that Missouri, Texas and Oklahoma are better than KU. Sure, Mizzou is also feeling its way. It almost was embarrassed by Illinois the way Kansas was by Nevada. A gutty rally fell short, but MU still displayed punch that Kansas hasn’t unveiled.

Texas misses point guard T.J. Ford more than it expected. There still is height, bulk, experience and skill that I wouldn’t want to see turned against Kansas right now. Once the Longhorns get better attuned to distributing the ball to their bell-cows, they again could be NCAA Final Four prospects.

Time and again there is a tendency to short-change Oklahoma, but coach Kelvin Sampson keeps coming up with tough, aggressive, capable guys to bedevil opponents. The loss of Hollis Price, Ebi Ere and Quannas White was supposed to hit OU about as hard as the departure of Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich from Kansas, right?

Ol’ Kelvin signs himself a tiny package of freshman dynamite named Drew Lavender, makes some other adjustments and gets off to a 7-0 start. Victims include a Michigan State team that Kansas figured was a real bellwether of its capabilities. Apparently not. But OU is good and improving.

Also lurking in the bulrushes are Dollar General Bobby Knight’s surprising Texas Techsters, an Iowa State team that opened 7-0 and much-improved outfits at Kansas State and Nebraska. Colorado brought back eight of its top men from a year ago and added some talent; Kansas has to play in that hostile atmosphere Jan. 5.

Oklahoma State will be heard from. Lordy, right now Kansas may be no stronger than sixth place in the conference. Not right? OK, prove it, guys.

The Stanford team that took Kansas to task is a lot better than many figured, although a spark or two from the injured Mike Lee could have helped there. The Nevada crew that embarassed the Jayhawks in Reno will be heard from, maybe a lot. No good reason Kansas shouldn’t beat Binghamton and Villanova here if its stomach begins to growl and some serious fire ignites in the belly.

But starting a conference season with a loss is big trouble, and Colorado will be primed to do in the Jayhawks Jan. 5. Lee could be back by then, but he’ll be rusty, and KU can’t depend too heavily on him. Best thing is for those currently adrift to get focused and cohesive, now.

Kansas has all the tools with Wayne Simien, David Padgett and Jeff Graves to dominate as paint performers. The problem is that the others guys have done a miserable job of getting the ball to them. Self has films to show how Aaron Miles and Co. have stunk up the joint in the simple phase of a solid bounce pass to an insider.

Simien will keep getting better, Padgett eventually can be a Raef LaFrentz, and Graves is old enough that he needs to get out of whatever his mope-of-the-day might be and trade on his skills and experience. On a night when all three are playing well, KU can handle anyone.

Miles has all the physical skills of the departed T.J. Ford and is a better shooter. But his judgment has been of a questionable nature. Keith Langford also needs more of a fierce 40-minute mentality. J.R. Giddens is a jewel, but a roughcut one right now, yet we haven’t begun to see all he can do.

Keep hearing how Bryant Nash and Jeff Hawkins are terrors in practice and have awesome potential. So prove it. They have to start taking two steps forward without at least one, even two, back. Those silly fouls. Hope we’ll be seeing more of Omar Wilkes and Jeremy Case.

Self is aiming for a solid nine-man rotation; a lot of roles are begging to be filled.

• Recently I wrote that many women sports broadcasters suffer from the fact that sound systems don’t pick up and project their voices clearly enough. Throw Dick Vitale’s jet-plane whine into that mix. He gets cranked up during a game and starts emoting all over the place; you can’t understand what he’s saying, even if you might now and then agree with any of it. This guy long has been out of control, now he’s increasingly undecipherable.
• Athletic director Lew Perkins’ $136,000 bonus package for the football folks after the bowl trip really raised eyebrows, especially among Jayhawk faculty people. The quiet way it was done also caused a stir.

You gotta chuckle at one Lawrence angle. In 1956 when Max Rife became LHS basketball coach, he was paid $5,500. Jerry Waugh left the job for the head KU assistantship and also was paid $5,500 while head man Dick Harp got $7,500. Fast-forward to Clint Bowen, an ex-Lion now on the Mark Mangino staff. His basic salary isn’t too far below the six-figure realm, and the bonus he was handed this week was $7,333.34, more than Rife and Waugh and almost what Harp made in 1956-57.

Clint should be grateful to Rife, who some time back encouraged him to stay in coaching.

Again, more head-shaking: Average KU football assistant salary $105,000; average KU full professor, $85,000. At Texas the difference is $43,000, at Oklahoma $48,000.

How long before somebody takes a serious look into the KU cash drawer?