As everyone knows by now, Josh Selby will be making his long awaited Kansas Jayhawks debut on Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse against the USC Trojans. We've been waiting for this for months and months as the Selby rollercoaster went up and down. But, it's finally here.
That rollercoaster ride includes a ridiculous amount of media attention along the way. Selby, the No. 1 player in the country entering Kansas, is being looked at as if he will "save" Kansas basketball. The only problem? KU is already pretty damn good without Selby. So for KU it's more about him fitting in.
Head coach Bill Self compared Selby to former KU star Sherron Collins earlier this week when talking about the media attention and the confidence necessary for Selby to succeed.
"He's got a lot of Sherron (Collins) in him, and I mean that in a good way. He thinks he's the baddest boy out here every day regardless of who is out there with him, so I think you need to have confidence like that. But I'm not expecting him to make every shot or never turn it over which I think could be the expectations of other people who are coming to watch him. But I just want him to have a good time and have fun."
Self has continually downplayed the expectations of the Selby debut. He says the game will be one of the most anticipated at Allen Fieldhouse in years but cautions everyone that Selby won't be scoring 20 points a night. I like this approach from Self -- heck, his team is No. 3 in the country right now already -- and I think it's somewhat necessary for Selby to survive this year. The expectations mean the average fan wants to look at the box score and see 35 points and 12 assists but that simply won't be happening because, as we said, this team is already pretty damn good.
Even after listening to Self talk all week, I still want to see -- and part of me still expects -- that 35 and 12 line.