photo by: Nick Krug

Kansas head coach Bill Self has words for Mitch Lightfoot and the Jayhawks during a timeout in the first half, Saturday, Dec. 16, 2017 at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska.

I hesitate to share too many stories about Kansas basketball from the national media because, too often, those writers, though terrific at what they do, are writing from a position of limited information and second-hand knowledge.

That’s not their fault, nor is it a knock by any means. After all, those of us on the beat who make covering KU a massive part of our day-to-day lives should have more insight, information and anecdotes about the Jayhawks than those who are only around the program from time to time.

But I thought this latest story from Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com was absolutely worth sharing — and very well done — because Goodman used his national status and contacts to talk to other coaches about what is currently ailing Kansas.

I realize the Jayhawks won on Saturday night and snapped out of their mini-funk and also figure to get right again tonight when 3-10 Omaha comes to town.

But there are still plenty of issues with this team and plenty of areas where it needs to improve if the Jayhawks are going to make the kind of run at Big 12 and national titles like we’ve come to expect.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with saying that and I think Bill Self and his players themselves have admitted as much in the past few weeks.

Goodman, in this latest story, went beyond what Self and the Jayhawks are saying about their weaknesses and talked to opposing coaches who have faced Kansas this season to get a feel for what’s up with the Jayhawks.

Everything from depth issues and a heavy reliance on 3-point shooting to Malik Newman’s early struggles and what might happen from here are included in this and it’s a great look at KU’s struggles through the eyes of those outside of the program.

There’s no doubt that Kansas will continue to work on its deficiencies and the smart money is on the Jayhawks getting better, perhaps even much better, as the season goes along. Getting Billy Preston or Silvio De Sousa — or both — into the rotation certainly would be a huge lift toward making that happen.

But right now, this is a somewhat flawed team that is learning how to work with what it has. It worked against Syracuse, didn’t against Washington and Arizona State and was just enough to survive Nebraska.

After tonight’s meeting with Omaha, which should be an easy win, the Jayhawks are down to the nitty gritty, with Stanford on Thursday and then Big 12 Conference play beginning next week.

Self has said in recent weeks that he really hoped his team could start making serious strides toward improvement right after Christmas. And there’s no debating that what Udoka Azubuike did against Nebraska last Saturday was a huge step in the right direction.

But will it all come together soon enough and in time for Kansas to do what Kansas does? That’s the big question. That’s what a few of these coaches Goodman talked to are wondering. And that will be the biggest question surrounding the Jayhawks, who get no favors from the Big 12 schedule, with their first three road games in conference play being tough, tough matchups against guard heavy teams Texas (Dec. 29), TCU (Jan. 6) and West Virginia (Jan. 15).

Let the fun begin.