Kansas head coach Bill Self talks about the Jayhawks’ seeding during a press conference following the NCAA Tournament selection show on Sunday, March 16, 2025 at Allen Fieldhouse. Kansas will face Arkansas in the first round in Providence, Rhode Island. Photo by Nick Krug

Thanks to some key summertime additions — namely, guard Kohl Rosario and center Paul Mbiya — Kansas men’s basketball coach Bill Self feels even better about his roster than he did before.

“You go back historically, we’ve been pretty good in the spring,” he said on Monday. “We were really good in the spring this time, but it took longer than it normally takes to be good in the spring. And I think with that (comes) angst and nervousness and all that stuff. But we end up getting exactly what we set out to do.”

But even after doing “about as well as you can do late in the game with those two,” Rosario and Mbiya, who committed on June 24 and 25, respectively, Self may not be quite done. He said on Monday that he would indeed “be open to adding another.”

“And we’re in the process of definitely looking into another,” he added. “In my opinion, (it) needs to be a guy that can at least run a team, play a point, maybe have some experience, shoot the ball, but if something were to happen and somebody were to go down, just as an insurance policy as well. So we’re looking (to) hopefully get something done with that.”

Under the terms of the new House v. NCAA settlement, and given the enforcement of its final penalty from the Independent Accountability Resolution Process, KU has a roster limit of 14 players this year, all of whom could potentially be on scholarship.

Currently, the Jayhawks have 12 in returnees Flory Bidunga, Elmarko Jackson, Jamari McDowell and early enrollee Bryson Tiller as well as newcomers Corbin Allen, Samis Calderon, Melvin Council Jr., Jayden Dawson, Darryn Peterson, Kohl Rosario, Paul Mbiya and Tre White.

They also have three walk-ons, who are believed to be exempt from the roster limits as Designated Student-Athletes who would have otherwise lost their spots if limits were enforced this year: Justin Cross, Wilder Evers and Will Thengvall. Noah Shelby, a former Vanderbilt and Rice guard who redshirted during his lone season at KU, entered the portal as a Designated Student-Athlete early in July.

The Jayhawks’ search for one additional ball handler could give them another option at the point beyond the likes of Peterson and Jackson, as the latter continues to work his way back from a torn patellar tendon that cost him all of the 2024-25 season. Self said on Monday that Jackson is back where he was athletically prior to the injury, but his on-court timing is “still a ways away.”

Self’s comments also come after JayhawkSlant reported last Wednesday that KU got a visit from Nginyu Ngala, a 5-foot-10 point guard from Montreal, Quebec, who played last season at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario. He averaged 14.9 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game and was the Voyageurs’ male athlete of the year. Ngala previously played in three seasons across four years at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and for the Montreal Alliance of the Canadian Elite Basketball League.

Even as KU looks for a final piece for its 2025-26 roster, Self took time to reflect on the process of building the team as it currently stands. Echoing comments from earlier in the offseason, he noted that its roster-building strategy might have deviated more from players widely perceived in the public to be among the top recruits in the transfer portal.

“Not that that’s our emphasis before, but the appearance is you go out and get the guys that are the highest-rated guys that are in the portal,” Self said. “Which is good, you get Hunter (Dickinson), that’s a great get, or whatnot. But I think the emphasis was more on what we needed to do to allow us to play as athletic and to play the style that best suits us and best fits me for winning.”

He said KU accomplished that.

“Is it a perfect roster? No, but I don’t know if we’ve ever had a perfect roster,” Self added. “But I think we’ve got size, we’ve got depth now, we’ve got more shooting — even though I don’t know that you could ever have enough. And we certainly have more athleticism, and we’re big.”