Kansas head coach Bill Self talks with friends and fans outside the Omni San Diego after the team's arrival on Wednesday, March 18, 2026. Photo by Nick Krug

SAN DIEGO — It has been far from a guarantee in recent seasons, and even throughout Bill Self’s 23-year tenure as head coach, that a Kansas men’s basketball team arrives for its first NCAA Tournament weekend ready to play at full strength.

Two years ago on a Salt Lake City side street, Self ruled out Kevin McCullar Jr. for the duration of the postseason; last season when he spoke in a hotel lobby in Providence, Rhode Island, rotational guard Shakeel Moore’s status was still in question.

Even further back, Self’s teams have dealt with other key postseason absences like — as he referenced on Wednesday — the lack of freshman phenom Joel Embiid in 2014 as he battled a back injury. The possibility that Embiid could potentially have played in the second weekend of that NCAA Tournament never came to fruition because KU suffered a second-round upset loss to No. 10 seed Stanford that year.

All that is to say that it was surely a relief for Self on Wednesday to disembark from the team bus in San Diego’s East Village with a fully healthy complement of Jayhawks as KU gets ready for another tournament run, beginning on Friday night against Cal Baptist.

“I actually thought about that today,” he said, “that I feel fortunate that all 16 guys have been out there practicing for the last week or whatever.”

With one notable and highly significant exception, the injury bug has not bitten KU this year. Six of the Jayhawks’ top seven players by minutes have missed a combined one game: Backup guard Elmarko Jackson hit his knee against BYU on Jan. 31, played the following game two days later, but sat out the next one against Utah on Feb. 7.

Even Darryn Peterson, who due to a hamstring injury, cramps, a rolled ankle and flu-like symptoms at various points throughout the season has missed 11 total games and significant portions of some others, has now played seven full games in a row without incident and with a seemingly increasing level of comfort on both ends of the court. The Jayhawks will hope that trend continues this weekend at Viejas Arena.

Of course fatigue and physical wear and tear are still issues, and Self acknowledged earlier in the week that he gave fifth-year senior guard Melvin Council Jr. an extra day off to account for the sheer amount of time he’s played this year (a team-high 1,151 minutes, or 34.9 per game) after he faded to the background in some less effective late-season showings.

But in terms of the sort of injuries that, as Self put, have “somewhat derailed” KU in tournaments past? Plenty of teams might be battling them, but not the Jayhawks at this point.

“We don’t have that, which is good,” Self said.

KU’s good health will be borne out in digital form when the NCAA releases its player availability report at 11 p.m. on Thursday declaring all players either available, questionable or out for Friday night’s game.

Kansas guard Darryn Peterson, center, comes off the team bus with teammates and coaches outside the Omni San Diego on Wednesday, March 18, 2026. Photo by Nick Krug

Kansas forward Bryson Tiller comes off the bus as coaches and players arrive outside the Omni San Diego on Wednesday, March 18, 2026. Photo by Nick Krug