photo by: Nick Krug

Kansas Jayhawks guard Frank Mason III (0) and Kansas Jayhawks forward Landen Lucas (33) slap hands during the first half, Thursday, March 24, 2016 at KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky.

Predicting Kansas University basketball coach Bill Self’s starting lineup seldom is as easy as it seems on paper during the offseason.

Surely, a McDonald’s All-American who was the star of the Kansas four-time state champion, would get the majority of starts at power forward for a team that didn’t appear to have a serious competitor for the spot.

It didn’t work out that way. When Kevin Young, a transfer from Loyola Marymount, started, the rest of the team performed better than when Perry Ellis did. So Young earned the majority of starts.

Josh Selby was the No. 1 recruit, per Rivals.com, in the Class of 2010, but after serving an NCAA suspension for the first semester and then suffering a foot injury, he never performed well enough to supplant either Brady Morningstar or Tyrel Reed.

Sasha Kaun started his junior year and came off the bench as a senior, when Darnell Jackson heard his name called. That season ended with a national championship for Kansas.

This past season, the NCAA delayed Cheick Diallo’s eligibility, and, $100,000 in legal fees later, Kansas finally convinced the governing body there was no reason to keep him in the penalty box. He fell behind and never caught up. Landen Lucas kept getting better and better and better.

Aside from the all-senior tradition on Senior Day, Self used four different starting lineups, despite starting Frank Mason III, Devonté Graham, Wayne Selden Jr. and Perry Ellis every time.

The Jayhawks went 16-2 with Lucas at center, the only losses coming at Iowa State and vs. Villanova in the NCAA Tournament. Kansas went 8-1 with Hunter Mickelson starting at center, although many of those starts came in games he played just five minutes.

Jamari Traylor’s record as a starter was 6-1, the only loss against Michigan State in Chicago in the Champions Classic.

Diallo’s lone start came in a shocking 19-point loss to Oklahoma State in Stillwater.

Basketball is played on hardwood, not paper, which makes predicting starting lineups months ahead of time a risky endeavor.

Even at that, this seems like an easier year than most to forecast. The three returning starters, incoming freshman Josh Jackson and sophomore Carlton Bragg Jr. make for a logical, balanced, fast, lethal-at-both-ends starting five. Each probable starter, except Lucas, has the potential to lead the team in scoring, but if Self likes the way the rest of the starters play better with, say, Dwight Colby than, say, Bragg, he won’t hesitate to start him.