ESPN.com’s Myron Medcalf wrote a tribute to Kansas University coach Bill Self on Monday, as Media Day (Thursday), the official start of preseason practice (Friday) and Late Night in the Phog (Oct. 9) draw near.

The 2015-16 college basketball season officially is underway at Kansas University.

Bill Self, who is in his 13th season as coach of the Jayhawks, ran his squad through a three-hour workout Friday afternoon in KU’s practice facility adjacent to Allen Fieldhouse.

“Not great,” Self told the Journal-World in assessing the practice which took place a week before the 31st-annual Late Night in the Phog.

“(It was) sloppy. We need more energy,” he added.

Practices figure to be even more important that usual this season, considering KU has a slew of players that appear capable of making the rotation. Perimeter scholarship players are: Frank Mason III, Wayne Selden Jr., Devonté Graham, Brannen Greene, Svi Mykhailiuk and Lagerald Vick. Frontcourt scholarship players are: Perry Ellis, Jamari Traylor, Hunter Mickelson, Carlton Bragg, Cheick Diallo and Landen Lucas. Other squad members are walk-ons Evan Manning, Tyler Self and Clay Young as well as injured red-shirt Dwight Coleby.

“I think we’re deeper than what we have been,” Self said. “You know, you can look at teams and say, well, they look really deep, and then as you get into the season, they may only play seven or eight and you’re really not quite as deep as what you thought originally you would be. It’s going to be hard this year figuring out who to play, and that’s what I tried to explain to our players yesterday.

“We’ve got … obviously Dwight is not part of it this year, and with his injuries, he wouldn’t be anyway, but certainly red-shirting he’s not part of it. We’ve got 12 pretty good guys, and 12 are not going to play. Ten may not play. I do think that we have some nice pieces, but the thing I like about it as much as anything is if somebody is not doing what they can do to help our team win, it’s not going to be that difficult to try to give somebody else an opportunity to do that.

“With that being said, hopefully we’ll be much better defensively and we’ll play a style that will give us a better chance to be more complete, a little tougher, things like that, because it’s OK to put Brannen in. It’s OK to put Svi in. It’s OK to put Hunter in or Jamari in or Landen in. That’s OK to do that. Those are good players that’s proven that they can do good things when they’re in there. So I think it’s pretty exciting, and the guys know that there’s going to be more competition in the gym during our practice sessions than what we’ve had in a while.”

Self said he’s had no discussions or thoughts of red-shirting anybody at this early date.

New apartment: KU’s players are scheduled to move into their new apartment complex, $12 million McCarthy Hall, on Wednesday and Thursday, in advance of Friday’s Late Night in the Phog.

“I’ve actually been in the new dormitories or apartments probably a minimum of 100 times in the last year since they’ve broken ground. They’re fantastic,” Self said. “There’s a lot going on on our campus with DeBruce Center ($21 million building to house Rules of Basketball), obviously with the business school, and with McCarthy Hall right here on Naismith Drive that’s going to change the look of this side of campus.

“I don’t know if you guys (media) know the other student housing projects that they’ve done on campus. It’s a pretty exciting time with all the growth that’s going on. It’s a great time to be a student here and our players are certainly going to benefit from the efforts of many that went before them to generate the interest level to do something like what we’ve been able to do. It’s fabulous. We’re very excited about it.”

Junior guard Frank Mason on the season: “I feel great, excited. We just got done with Boot Camp and now have practice. Everyone is excited. We want to be No. 1, but we have to work hard to get there and buy into what coach wants from us. He has been through these things and these situations so he knows what to expect.”