The Kansas roster, in its current form, looks pretty good on the interior. The Jayhawks return small-ball center KJ Adams, who may slide over to the four spot depending on what transpires this offseason and/or the development of Ernest Udeh Jr. and Zuby Ejiofor.

Udeh profiles as a modern-day, rim-protecting, rim-rolling center. He showed flashes of a guy who looks like he could be one of the best defensive bigs in the country, able to slide his feet against guards, blow up ball screens and block shots. He’s already feared as a lob catcher, the type of vertical lob presence that pairs well with point guard Dajuan Harris Jr. Ejiofor is similar in his strengths and limitations. A team that would start Udeh and Adams together with Harris as the lead guard has a chance to be elite defensively. With Udeh and Harris on the floor together this season, the Jayhawks turned opponents over on 24.8 percent of possessions, per hooplens.com. That would have ranked fourth nationally. That’s a disruptive defensive tandem. Offensively, it might take some creativity to figure out workable spacing with both Adams and Udeh on the floor. Both are at their best as rollers, but Self is a problem solver.

But Self is also a man who loves a post pin. The Kansas coach evaluated his roster this spring, and he determined one of KU’s primary targets would be a big man who can score. The top pick is Michigan’s Hunter Dickinson, the No. 1 player available in The Athletic’s transfer portal rankings. Dickinson was a second-team All-American as a freshman and has only improved since then. He is the most accomplished player to ever come available as a transfer. And if Kansas were to land him, he would be a monster in Self’s system. The coach would giddily dust off all of his post-pin specials and build an offense around Dickinson. He is worthy.

Dickinson is scheduled to visit Kansas this week. He has already visited Georgetown and Maryland. Villanova and Kentucky are also interested.

He would undoubtedly make any of those programs better. He would be a big part of any of those offenses. But if he wants something close to a guarantee that he’ll be on one of the best teams in the country with a chance to chase a title and be the focal point of an offense that could make him look really good, then he and Kansas sure seem like a match made in low-post heaven.

What makes Dickinson so good

Let’s start with Michigan, because I’m about to get all hyperbolic on how amazing Hunter Dickinson is, and it’s worth addressing why he played on a team that tied for fifth in the Big Ten and didn’t make the NCAA Tournament. The Wolverines had talent. Both Kobe Bufkin and Jett Howard will likely get drafted this summer. Bufkin really heated up late, and had he started the season at a similar level, Michigan probably makes the tournament. The main issues were Michigan was young (310th in experience, per KenPom.com), starting point guard Jaelin Llewellyn tore his ACL eight games in and the Wolverines just weren’t very good outside of their top three. They had role players who usually wouldn’t be part of a rotation at a place like Michigan.