Bill Self comments on point guard / bigs

Yesterday, Bill Self spoke with the media about the point guard position. In addition, he gave some insight into how he might play small and how he’ll use his bigs.

This is what he said:

“Really, we’re probably the deepest we’ve been at point guard. Last year, I kind of screwed it up and didn’t play Frank there as much as I should have. I probably didn’t put enough on him to get him ready as quickly as he needed to.

“Certainly with Frank, and Conner can play some point, but Devonté Graham is good. You could see two of those three playing together a lot. That makes us real small. Our deepest position is wing. I could see one of our wings being a 4-man and playing real small, which I think would be really hard to guard. I just don’t know if we could guard anybody. I think we’ll have all the pieces to have a chance to have a pretty good team with the exception of standing height. One of our big guys has to play a lot bigger than what they are, hopefully that will be Cliff (Alexander, 6-8) or Landen (Lucas, 6-10) probably.”

Time to over-analyze what Bill Self says here:

1. Bill Self views Frank Mason and Devonté Graham as his point guards. “Conner can play some point” really sticks out here. While Frankamp can play point guard, it sounds like he’s planning on using Frankamp as a combo guard with Frank Mason or Graham.
2. Self regrets not playing Mason more. Mason only played 16.2 minutes per game last year. Of course, it’s easy for Self to look back now that Tharpe is gone and say that. Interesting to note that Mason only played more than 18 minutes in a game twice after February: against West Virginia at home and against Stanford. 
3. Bill Self is going to go small this year. Outside of Landen Lucas, Cliff Alexander and Hunter Mickelson, Kansas is really short. There may be times where Cliff Alexander (6-foot-8) is the tallest guy on the floor for Kansas.
4. You’re going to see lineups where Kansas plays really really small. Self said he may move his wings to the four (that includes Oubre, Greene, Svi). A lineup such as Mason/Graham, Selden/Frankamp, Oubre, Green/Svi and Alexander/Ellis is certainly possible.
5. Self mentions Cliff Alexander and Landen Lucas but not Hunter Mickelson. My overanalysis of this is that right now Self views Ellis as a lock for his four with Jamari Taylor as his backup and his depth chart at the 5 is Cliff Alexander, Landen Lucas and then Hunter Mickelson. 

What do you think of Self’s comments? Is Kansas going to be too small this year? Does a change of size excite you?