We talked about Andrew Wiggins, certainly. Itâ€™d be ridiculous to have a conversation with coach Bill Self about Kansas basketball without that name coming up, without his potential impact on the 2014 Jayhawks being considered at length. Wiggins, though, was not the only KU player who spent a good deal of June on campus in Lawrence. He was not the only player who made a positive impression upon his coaches. And he was not the only player referenced when Self told Sporting News, â€œThis is without question the most athletic team weâ€™ve had.â€ Wiggins surely was a major reason for that assessment, though.

This is the second year in which college basketball coaches have been allowed to work with their players on a limited basis while they are enrolled in summer school. That has been hugely important this summer for Self, who is replacing nearly an entire team with a group of players who had either supporting roles, minor roles, no roles or, in the case of six freshman recruits and one graduate transfer, business elsewhere as Kansas was winning its ninth consecutive Big 12 championship last winter.

More or less unanimously expected by analysts to be the No. 1 pick in the 2014 NBA draft, Wiggins is the most prominent of the latter group. A 6-8 forward originally from Toronto, who figures to be one of the most dynamic athletes ever to play the game, Wiggins withdrew from competing for Canada in the FIBA U19 World Championships because of his interest in getting started at Kansas. His presence allowed Self to get a more complete view of what to expect from the team this winter, and itâ€™s as important for the Jayhawks as for any team in Division I.

Kansas played 37 games last season. With the requisite five players starting each game, that represents 185 starts through the year. Sophomore power forward Perry Ellis made four of those, sophomore power forward Jamari Traylor one. The players who made the other 180 starts are all gone from the roster, with four of them completing their eligibility and All-American guard Ben McLemore filing for early NBA draft entry.

So that means KU is starting over with players who accounted for 2.7 percent of last seasonâ€™s starts.

â€œPerry, without question, even though he didnâ€™t start, in my mind heâ€™s the equivalent of a starter,â€ Self said. â€œBut with all that being said, itâ€™s still the youngest team that weâ€™ve had.â€

Ellis, Traylor and point guard Naadir Tharpe, who averaged nearly 20 minutes a game as Elijah Johnsonâ€™s backup, will be the most experienced players in KUâ€™s rotation. Well, anyway, theyâ€™re the most experienced at being Jayhawks. Self also has grad transfer Tarik Black, who scored nearly 1,000 career points in three seasons as a regular at Memphis. â€œHeâ€™s without question the most experienced guy we have, as far as playing in big games,â€ Self said.

What was learned during KUâ€™s summer-session practices:

â€”Wiggins must improve his conditioning to equal his athleticism, which is no great surprise. Itâ€™s rare for high school athletes to arrive in the kind of shape that has become common for college athletes who are exposed on a daily basis to elite strength training. Wiggins will need to learn to use his burst more efficiently; heâ€™ll get to the rim more often than most but will be more dangerous if he pulls up for short jumpers or to feed teammates who become open when defenders collapse.

â€”Center Joel Embiid, a 7-0 native of Cameroon who attended high school in Florida, impressed Self with his skill and potential. â€œWhen we recruited him, I thought he had a chance to be pretty good. And then we watched him with his high school team and thought he had a chance to be real good,â€ Self said. â€œAnd then after coaching him for a while â€¦ heâ€™s just so young in the game, but I think heâ€™s got a chance to be one of the best big guys Iâ€™ve ever been around.â€

â€œHeâ€™s just got it. He just doesnâ€™t know how to do it yet.â€

â€”The pressure on Tharpe to be a functional point guard might come as much from freshman Frank Mason of Massanutten Military Academy as from the responsibility inherent in such a high-profile position. â€œNaadir and Frank Mason and Conner Frankamp, theyâ€™re all guys definitely better than what Iâ€™ve thought, but still a long way to go to run a team, to being the primary guy,â€ Self said. â€œThereâ€™s definitely competition there. Masonâ€™s going to put pressure on everybody to be better. He wants it so bad â€¦ Our workouts have been so competitive.â€

â€”The abundance of athleticism, which includes freshman wings Wayne Selden and Brannen Greene, will allow KU to play a more ferocious defensive style. â€œI think weâ€™ve got to defensively do things to pressure more because for the first time in years we can actually pressure the ball,â€ Self said. â€œWeâ€™ve got wings that can run through passes. I think weâ€™ll have to do more stuff fullcourt.

â€œAnd then also, we havenâ€™t played any zone, but I think we can have an unbelievable zone team. Iâ€™m not saying weâ€™ll do that a lot. I definitely want to investigate it.â€

Kansas has been installed with 10-1 odds to win the NCAA championship according to The Linemakers, which puts the Jayhawks behind only favored Kentucky in the race for the 2014 title.

KU has been a No. 1 regional seed five times in the past seven seasons. Whether this can be another of those teams, Self is not sure.

â€œI donâ€™t think this team, I would say, would win more games. But just as far as having bodies and active guys â€¦â€ Self said. â€œWe should be a fun team.â€