Why Kansas Basketball's Success This Season Depends on Starting Devonte Graham

Another year, another point guard crisis for Kansas.

For a team that has dominated the Big 12 for an entire decade, the Jayhawks have somehow gotten a lot of inconsistent production out of the point guard position in the last few years from the likes of Tyshawn Taylor, Elijah Johnson and Naadir Tharpe.

This season, head coach Bill Self is facing a similar problem. 

Tharpe, who averaged 8.5 points and 5.0 assists per game last season, left the program during the offseason, and sophomore Conner Frankamp transferred just days before the Jayhawks' first exhibition game last month.

That leaves sophomore Frank Mason and freshman Devonte Graham as the only true point guards on the team, battling each other for the coveted spot in the starting rotation.

Mason is coming off a freshman season in which he averaged 5.5 points, 2.1 assists and just 16.2 minutes per game. However, he is suddenly one of the more experienced players on the Jayhawks due to transfers and departures. 

Mason's strengths are his abilities to defend and distribute the ball, but the biggest knock on him is perhaps his 5'11" height. 

His size has never stopped him from making highlight-reel plays like this one, though:

As for Graham, he can give the Jayhawks a bit more stature at 6'2" and 175 pounds. But he wasn't ranked high on the list of recruits last season, and earning Self’s trust as a freshman is never easy.

Mason got the nod to start Kansas' first two games of the season but struggled mightily, going just 5-of-20 from the field and scoring eight of his 19 points off free throws.

He's also tallied just one assist to go along with four turnovers from the first game. 

Those are not ideal numbers for a point guard who is expected to lead a Top Five team. 

Graham, on the other hand, has looked much better so far.

The freshman came off the bench in the season opener against UC Santa Barbara and turned out to be arguably the best player on the court for the Jayhawks that night.

As a matter of fact, he was so impressive in the first half that Rustin Dodd, the Kansas basketball writer for The Kansas City Star and the Wichita Eagle, did not hesitate to make a joking remark about Graham’s performance:

Graham finished the night with 14 points, four rebounds and two assists in 26 minutes. His highlights from that game can be seen below:

In the second game, the freshman struggled in a 72-40 loss to Kentucky and was held scoreless by the No. 1 team in the country. However, the difference between Graham and Mason in that game was that Graham was more careful with his shot selection. He took and missed only two shots, while Mason went 1-of-10 from the field. 

Of course, it has only been two games, and these early numbers are not necessarily indications of the whole season. But if things don't change for Mason soon, it's probably a wise idea to move him back to the role he succeeded in last season and assimilate the freshman into the system as soon as possible. 

Self could explore the alternative option of starting Mason and Graham at the same time, but that would also mean pushing the 6'5" Wayne Selden to the 3 or going with a three-guard rotation. That is probably not the smartest strategy for a Kansas team that is already lacking in size, with its tallest regular player listed at 6'8".

To sum it all up simply, starting Graham gives the Jayhawks the better chance of winning at the moment, and it is a change that should happen in the near future.