This could be the year Kansas University’s men’s basketball players clip the nets on the final day of the 2004-05 season.

It could be the year the Jayhawks trek to the White House to meet the president and ride in floats down Massachusetts Street.

This year seniors Wayne Simien, Aaron Miles, Keith Langford and Michael Lee might be making early-April visits with Jay Leno, David Letterman and Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa.

Yes, indeed, it could be the year the Jayhawks claim the school’s third official national championship and first since 1988.

But will it be that year?

“I think every year can be the year,” said second-year KU coach Bill Self, who today participates in the KU basketball media day — the unofficial opening of a six-month marathon that this year could end on April 4 at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis.

“Last year was not our year and we were an eyelash from the Final Four. Hopefully at Kansas we’ll look at it like, ‘Every year, if things fall right, this could be our year,'” Self added.

“With experience and points and number of rebounds returning, good perimeter play and a stud big guy, I think this would be a great opportunity to do something special … hopefully.”

The Jayhawks, who are led by national-player-of-the-year candidate Wayne Simien, return 81.5 percent of their scoring and 73.1 percent of their rebounding from last year’s 24-9 Elite Eight squad.

That team, which fell to Nevada on the road and Richmond at home during the nonconference season, and suffered an 80-60 blowout loss at Oklahoma State and surprising 74-55 setback at Nebraska during a 12-4 conference season — peaked late under its first-year coach.

KU rolled over Illinois-Chicago, Pacific and UAB in the NCAA Tournament before falling to Georgia Tech in the Elite Eight with a 79-71 overtime loss.

“Last year a lot of people told me it was a great year. It wasn’t a great year,” Self said. “You don’t lose some of the games we lost and have a great year. It was a learning process for the kids.

“I was so proud of them down the stretch. I felt at season’s end that UConn, Duke and Oklahoma State were the only three teams in America — on paper — that were better than Kansas.

“Oklahoma State handed it to us. Duke was on a roll. Connecticut was on a roll. Georgia Tech was a coin-flip game. We played bad, and it went to overtime.

Kansas University men's basketball coach Bill Self talks to the media prior to the Jayhawks' exhibition trip to Canada during the Labor Day weekend. Self and the 2004-05 Jayhawks will meet with the media today at KU during media day, the unofficial opening of the season.

“If we played Oklahoma State again (in the national semifinals) … you know how competitive our guys are. We had a chance to play in the national championship game, and it wasn’t even a great year.”

Perhaps the main reason editors at Street and Smith and Slam magazines, who were the first to tap KU No. 1 in the preseason, believe the Jayhawks will have a “great year” this year as the transition from former coach Roy Williams to current coach Self is over.

2004-05 Roster and Bios

“I feel like a sophomore again,” said Langford, KU’s senior swingman who averaged 15.5 points a year ago, second on the team behind Simien’s 17.8 mark. “Coach Self came in with a new system, new rules, new regulations. The second time around things are crisper. All the firsts are out of the way.”

That includes Self’s first recruiting class of highly-regarded newcomers Alex Galindo, C.J. Giles, Darnell Jackson, Sasha Kaun and Russell Robinson, who all figure to contribute and add something last year’s squad was missing — depth.

Jackson just now is rounding into shape after undergoing arthroscopic ankle surgery following KU’s Labor Day weekend trip to Canada and suffering through flu-like symptoms that also have slowed him.

“I am much more excited this season than last season, much more,” Self said. “Not a knock on last season. Last season had a lot of stuff going on. I didn’t know our guys. I think I know them a lot better and know how to relate to them.

“Last year’s team was not a good practice team. I said that many times. A lot is players feeling comfortable and competition adds to that, too.”

Competition provided by the new guys.

“This team is like a big family,” Giles said. “We all want the same thing — a national championship.”

The team showed promise and also had a leg up on the competition, practicing 10 times in August before rolling over four Canadian teams in exhibition games.

One coach up North was convinced.

“If they stay healthy, I’m calling it right now, they’re my preseason pick to win it all,” University of British Columbia coach Kevin Hanson said after his team was drubbed by KU, 83-51. “Their defensive intensity is something you won’t see in many teams.”

Self will take a wait-and-see attitude into the 2004-05 campaign.

“You can have a better team,” the coach said, “and not do as well in March. This could be a fun year. I think we’ve got a shot — no prediction, but we’ve got a shot.”