Kansas forward Carlton Bragg Jr. (15) gets in for a bucket over UMKC forward Aleer Leek (30) and UMKC guard Broderick Robinson (10) during the second half, Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2016 at Allen Fieldhouse.

A rough start to what was predicted by many to be a breakout season took a terrible turn for the worse early Friday morning, when Kansas sophomore Carlton Bragg, a 6-foot-10 forward from Cleveland, was arrested on suspicion of domestic battery and booked into Douglas County Jail.

Bragg, who opened the season as a starter and was in line to replace the production and fill the role left by the departure of Perry Ellis, got off to a slow start and eventually lost his starting job.

KU coach Bill Self, who told the Journal-World via telephone on Friday morning that this was “obviously a charge that we take seriously,” had remained upbeat and positive throughout the first nine games of the season about Bragg’s ability to turn the corner and develop into the kind of player that many believed he could be.

After adding more than 20 pounds of muscle and possibly even growing an inch or two in the offseason, it was believed that Bragg was ready to be more of the inside presence that the Jayhawks needed instead of a player who floated on the perimeter and favored the jump shot over scoring inside.

But partly because of issues with foul trouble and also the appearance that he was pressing to perform, Bragg has averaged just 16 minutes per game in KU’s first nine contests while posting 7.8 points and 5.3 rebounds per game, decent numbers to be sure, but a far cry from the double-digit totals that many believed Bragg had in him.

Although his immediate future with the program remains unclear at this point following Friday’s arrest — a source told the Journal-World on Friday that Bragg was certain to miss Saturday’s 2:15 p.m. game at Allen Fieldhouse with Nebraska — Bragg’s absence for any extended period of time or even possible dismissal from the program would seriously cut into the Jayhawks’ depth in the front court.

Senior forward Landen Lucas’ game has struggled so far this season and freshman center Udoka Azubuike, though starting and showing improvement, has been slow to develop because of his young age (17) and raw ability. Without Bragg behind them, the Jayhawks would be forced to lean on freshman Mitch Lightfoot or junior Dwight Coleby as the third big man in the rotation.

Both have played sparingly so far this season — Lightfoot 4.3 minutes per game in eight games and Coleby 7.4 minutes in seven games — but neither was expected to be a critical part of KU’s rotation after the upcoming winter break, both because of Self’s move to play more four-guard lineups so far this season and because Self historically has preferred to trim his rotation to eight players — nine max — when conference play has rolled around.

With Bragg out for the short term or long term, Self either will lean more on Lightfoot and Coleby when the need arises or perhaps choose to play even smaller at times with 6-foot-8, 210-pound junior guard Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk seeing his minutes increase from 24.4 per game.

Simple math indicates that if Mykhailiuk were to play 5-10 more minutes a game, either Lucas (17.4), Azubuike (13.2) Coleby or Lightfoot, or some combination of the foursome, would need to take on an additional 5-10 minutes a game to account for Bragg’s minutes on the court.

Self had no further comment on the matter and clearly was far more concerned this morning about gathering more information about the legal side of this issue than what he would do to replace Bragg in the lineup.

When he gets to that, he’ll find he has options but that the Jayhawks have far less depth and less margin for error.