Josh Selby's long awaited debut is Saturday

As I'm sure everyone is well aware by now, Josh Selby will be eligible to play for Kansas on Saturday.

Now the question we are waiting to have answered is how Selby will fit in with this team. Kansas is undefeated. While they have had their struggles against teams like UCLA, Arizona, and Memphis, they've won all three of those game. Tyshawn Taylor is flourishing in his role as the point guard, and the Kansas offense is clicking when they run through the Morrii, twins Marcus and Markieff.

To his credit, Bill Self seems to get that. Its why Selby won't be starting immediately.


"He's getting all the reps with the first group now," Self said of Selby's work in practice during the Big XII's Monday teleconference. "I don't think I'm going to start him, even though I don't have a made-decision positively. But I don't think I will (start Selby), because he has to beat somebody out. He needs to perform well in the games, not just practice, but he’s going to give us some scoring punch."

"He's certainly a threat when he catches the ball. He has to figure how to play to our other guys’ strengths and they have to figure out where to get him the ball in certain situations and play to his strengths. It'll take a little bit of time."

And to Selby's credit, he also seems to understand that he will need to find his role with this team, not make it his team.

"I just don't want to mess up the chemistry of my team," Selby told ESPN's Dana O'Neil. "I'm not focusing on myself at all. I want to make the fans feel happy and the coaching staff happy."

So how good does Kansas become with Selby in the mix, and how long until he starts?

Personally, I think that Self will do exactly what he said in the quote above. As soon as Selby proves he's as good as the hype in a game, he'll be starting. I've never seen Selby play on anything more than a high school all-american game or a youtube mixtape. Neither are good ways to get a feel for what a young man is capable of.

But what I can tell you is this: Brandon Knight and Kyrie Irving have been living up to the hype they had coming in. Selby, Knight, and Irving were all consensus top five recruits, and a number of sites had Selby ranked above one or both Knight and Irving (Rivals had him as their No. 1 recruit).

So there's that.

Neither Irving or Knight plays the same style as Selby, but stop for a second and think about putting a guard of their caliber alongside Tyshawn Taylor in the Jayhawk backcourt.

Scary, right?

If Selby lives up to his hype -- which I think he will, although I'm not sure his numbers are going to be as great as Irving's or Knight's -- its only a matter of time before Kansas enters the conversation as being better than Duke.


Here's what Kansas fans have to look forward too: