Tom Keegan: Addition of Diallo makes this Self’s best

Kansas freshman Cheick Diallo comes in for a dunk during warmups.

We never will know what shape last season would have taken for the Kansas University basketball team had Devonté Graham not missed six consecutive games from the middle of December through the first week of January with an injury.

I still wonder whether KU coach Bill Self would have started Frank Mason and Graham and turned talented freshman Kelly Oubre Jr. into a sixth man. Watching the way Kansas plays now with two small guards makes it a safe assumption that it would have been last season’s best lineup as well had Graham never been sidelined.

This year’s team is so much faster and cleaner than the squad that was bounced from the NCAA tournament in the second round by Wichita State, 78-65. Mason and Graham have combined for 48 assists with just 10 turnovers in 297 minutes.

“That’s pretty good,” Self said of the tandem’s 4.8-to-1 assists-turnovers ratio. “From a steals standpoint, you play two little guys who can create a little bit more havoc, I think you should run through more passes and do some more things like that. And we’re playing so much faster than what we ever have since I’ve been here.”

The numbers back up the coach’s word. Kenpom.com tracks a statistic called “adjusted tempo” and ranks Kansas 30th in the nation, which is second only to Iowa State (24th) among schools ranked in the top 25. Kansas takes a 93.4-point scoring average into tonight’s anticipated blowout victory against Loyola Maryland.

“I feel like this is who we can be, this is who we are and we can just keep going like that,” junior Wayne Selden said when asked if the team can maintain such a fast pace throughout a long season.

All five Kansas starters can handle the ball at high speeds, so the team doesn’t have to worry about getting the ball to a specific ballhandler to start fastbreaks. Plus, as Selden pointed out, the team’s fastest player with the ball, the 5-foot-11 Mason, also happens to be a terrific defensive rebounder. Believe it or not, Mason is tied with Landen Lucas for the team lead with 22 defensive rebounds.

When Cheick Diallo subs in for Jamari Traylor or Perry Ellis, that’s one less player who can bring the ball up the court in transition, but getting five bodies down court won’t fall off at all.

“(Diallo) will make us even faster, make us a better rebounding team, being able to get the ball off the rim and get going,” said Selden, who cautioned that everyone needs to be patient with Diallo because he’s new to the college game.

His speed running the floor in both directions typically is among the first attributes mentioned about Diallo by those who have seen him play.

“That’s what I’ve been doing all my life, I just like to run,” Diallo said. “Fastbreak, catch a rebound, give to point guard, be the first one to run inside. I like to do that every time.”

At media day in October, Diallo said, “I don’t get tired. I don’t know why. I played soccer when I was younger, so that’s helping me right now.”

Sounds like a perfect fit for Kansas to keep the pedal to the metal, even though he inevitably will stumble along the way because he’s a freshman and that’s what rookies do.

— Tom Keegan appears on The Drive, Sunday nights on WIBW-TV.