Countdown to Kansas Basketball: Introducing the KU 50

As longtime readers will know, each year I try to count down the 50 days before basketball season with something special. Usually it is a mishmash of different topics, but one thing I try to do each year is to rank each member of the rotation (i.e. no walk-ons). Well, this year I have decided to up the ante and rank the top 50 players in Kansas history.

A few ground rules which I will try to remember to include before each post: only college accomplishments count (absent very special circumstances). I will take team success into account, but at the end of the day this is an individual honor. And when in doubt, a really good 4 year career will outweigh a great 1 or 2 year career, although I suspect a lot of disagreements will come from where I rank the big one-and-dones.

Lastly, I am including players from the very beginning of KU basketball here. Obviously with the number of games and points scored today vs. the early 1900s (not to mention the explosion of teams and players playing college basketball) it is tough to compare players from different eras. I did my best, but I imagine there will be some disagreements there as well.

Finally, while I did solicit some input on the rankings, at the end of the day the list is mine and mine alone, so don’t yell at anyone else if you disagree.

We will kick off the rankings tomorrow, and you’re more than welcome to cape for your preferred players in the meantime.