Kansas photo file.

C.J. Giles, freshman forward, defends Curtis Stinson, Iowa State sophomore guard, during the game on Jan. 12. Giles sat out some games during the regular season because of a bruised foot and saw limited action after recovering from the injury.

If experience defined the 2004-05 Kansas men’s basketball team, then inexperience would describe next year’s.

Next year’s Jayhawk team will have 11 players who are freshmen and sophomores.

With that amount of youth, Kansas coach Bill Self will have the opportunity to put his coaching mark on the team.

Next year’s Kansas team can start fresh.

Self is clearly excited. His energy comes across in his voice whenever he talks about it.

“We will be so young and green,” Self said. “We won’t know what we are doing. But we will be fast and athletic and that is fun to think about.”

Self has proven that he can recruit. At Illinois he brought in a trio of guards who have led Illinois to the Final Four — Dee Brown, Luther Head and Deron Williams.

This year at Kansas he signed the 10th, 12th and 14th ranked players, according to Rivals.com, in Julian Wright, Mario Chalmers and Micah Downs.

Add that to this year’s freshman class, which will have the summer to work on improving and getting stronger, and Kansas fans are looking at an entirely new face of Jayhawk basketball.

Now Self can coach his team.

He has thought a great deal about next year’s team. He said they would lose some games. He said there would be ups and downs. He said it would be fun.

“Just thinking about it is exciting,” Self said. “How do you replace 20 and 11, that will certainly be difficult. But we feel like we will be good players but we will just be very very young.”

Losing the contributions of the four seniors will leave large deficits to fill in the frontcourt and the backcourt.

Wayne Simien’s 20 points and 11 rebounds per game is the most gaping of those deficits. But Aaron Miles’ assists and ability to take care of the ball, Keith Langford’s penetration and Mike Lee’s leadership are all areas in the Jayhawks’ game that will have to be filled by young guys.

When he is healthy, freshman C.J. Giles has the athleticism to put up big numbers on the boards. First he has to get some repetitions and become comfortable in the system.

Freshmen Russell Robinson and Chalmers will compete at the point guard position. Robinson has proven that he can dish the ball this year, but he has been prone to turnovers.

Self said the incoming freshmen could add new elements to the Jayhawks’ game that they didn’t have this year.

“Julian does a lot of everything because he does a lot of everything,” Self said. “Micah can really shoot. And Mario is about as athletic a young guy as you’re going to get.”

Self knows there is potential for next year’s team. But he knows the brand of basketball will be different and the faces will be new. He said the current freshmen must get stronger and more experienced.

“All the guys will be good players, but they have a chance to be great players,” Self said of the current freshmen. “We have a chance to have one or two develop into all-league type performers. The guys coming in can develop into all-league type performers, and if that happens you find yourself with a pretty good team.”