In the aftermath of Kansas University’s unsightly victory over a bad Pepperdine team, Bill Self said, “I get sick and tired, to be candid with you, about people’s opinions on starting lineups.”

That makes one of us.

When a team is searching for the right combination, only the mindless and/or gutless would not be offering opinions on that right combination.

“I think I know, in my mind, what I’d like our best team to be,” Self went on to say. “That team, right now, is not ready to play.”

That set in motion the wheels of the minds of anyone interested in KU basketball.

Here’s my guess: Mario Chalmers, Brandon Rush, Julian Wright, C.J. Giles and Sasha Kaun.

Remember, at heart, Self is a defensive coach first and a believer in cramming the ball inside for high-percentage shots that draw fouls. He also has said he wants to pick up the pace defensively and in transition.

That lineup, once everyone in it is polished enough to meet Self’s standards for big minutes, accomplishes all that.

Rush is the team’s best player, and the Kaun/Giles tandem makes life miserable for teams trying to score inside, so those three are a given.

His second sentence, the one about that team not being ready to play, suggests one or two players not starting now could be once they become ready. Self is on record as saying Chalmers is his most talented point guard but doesn’t take good enough care of the basketball yet. So Chalmers makes four.

Self’s preference for defense gives Wright the nod over the more polished Micah Downs at small forward.

So why wouldn’t the Chalmers-Rush-Wright-Giles-Kaun lineup be ready now? Too sloppy. Chalmers leads the Jayhawks with 6.0 turnovers per 40 minutes played. Despite playing most of his minutes to this point at power forward, Wright ranks second with 4.4 turnovers per 40 minutes. (Downs, by the way, has 0.96 turnovers per 40 minutes).

Two players surrendering so many possessions in a Big 12 Conference game wouldn’t work. So the question then becomes what is the best path to getting the players to tighten up their sloppy play? The coach either can hold playing time as a carrot and hope that motivates players to clean up their games, or he can go out of his way to give them excessive minutes in hopes the added experience will allow them to play through their mistakes and become better at not making them.

The second option only is available to a coach in automatic-victory games, such as tonight’s against winless Northern Colorado. So keep a close eye on what combinations Self uses for long stretches. If the Chalmers-Rush-Wright-Giles-Kaun fivesome is on the court, ask yourself: Is there any other combination that blends speed, quickness and size the way that one does? The three perimeter players all have a knack for popping into passing lanes for steals. Giles and Wright are talented shot-blockers, and Kaun is a strong post defender.

Would there be enough offense with this lineup with Downs playing the sixth-man role? There would be if the unit forced enough turnovers to trigger fastbreaks.