This Saturday David Padgett, J.R. Giddens, Omar Wilkes and Nick Bahe should be giving their senior speeches at Allen Fieldhouse.

But Padgett got his feelings hurt, Giddens went and got stabbed, Wilkes got homesick and Bahe wanted to trade his cheerleading role for playing time. Their departures have been a blessing in disguise ­­­— sort of.

If Padgett stayed, C.J. Giles is somebody else’s headache — there’s the ‘sort of’ part of the equation. With Padgett, Darrell Arthur would probably be a Baylor Bear. Remember Arthur had a dream that he was a Jayhawk, but he would have woken up and realized Self was all out of scholarships had Padgett stayed.

If Giddens had stayed, there wouldn’t have been a roster spot for Brandon Rush and he’d either be at Mizzou or Indiana. If Wilkes didn’t get homesick, either Russell Robinson or Mario Chalmers would probably be playing elsewhere. And if Bahe stayed, he’d still be giving high fives. His departure didn’t affect much.

Padgett’s transfer was the one head-scratcher of the group. He had a starting spot waiting for him his sophomore season and probably would have been a focal point of Bill Self’s hi-low offense.

But you had to kind of feel for the guy. He made the mistake of arriving on campus a year after Nick Collison left. He was immediately anointed the next Great White Hope. But beyond needing to duck when he entered a room, Padgett resembled Collison as much as George W. Bush resembles Bill Clinton as a president.

KU students alienated Padgett his freshman season by filling the free-for-all with Padgett bashing. He became the anti-Chuck Norris. Even though he had a decent season for a freshman with no athletic ability – 6.5 points per game and 4.5 rebounds – he wasn’t Collison.

Padgett was in the good graces of KU fans for about a day or two after his line drive buzzer-beating jumper beat the Tigers in Columbia. Then, fans again realized he wasn’t Collison and went back to bashing.

It didn’t help his cause that Papa Padgett was back in Reno crying about the way Self used the big man. Self put Padgett at the top of his hi-low offense, which utilized the big man’s best attribute, his ability to knock down the 18-footer. But Papa Padgett became convinced that his lumbering 6-foot-11 son should be playing on the perimeter.

Padgett transferred to Louisville thinking that he would get the chance to show his perimeter skills. He was even once listed as a small forward in a preview of the college basketball season. Not surprisingly, when he hasn’t been injured, Padgett has spent his time playing center for the Cardinals.

Giddens’ career started with such promise. He helped the Jayhawks advance to the Elite 8 his freshman season and almost sent the Jayhawks to their third-straight Final 4 when he made a three-pointer that sent the Georgia Tech game to overtime.

But then Giddens’ head got as big as Barry Bonds. He obviously didn’t spend much time working on his game between his freshmen and sophomore seasons and his one strength, three-point shooting, turned into a weakness. He still couldn’t dribble and he became a turnover machine because of his insistence on jumping in the air to pass the ball (usually to the other team).

Even though he only made 33.7 percent of his three-pointers his sophomore season, Giddens kept jacking up shots and became the first Kansas player in recent memory to get booed by the home crowd.

Then Giddens went and got stabbed.

All indications are that he provoked the stabbing. It still didn’t make it right but the fact that he put himself in that situation made it so Self had to cut ties. It’s one of the best decisions Self ever made. Giddens was recently suspended indefinitely by coach Ritchie McKay at New Mexico. Had Self kept Giddens, he probably would have been a cancer on this year’s team that seems to get along with each other so well.

Wilkes would have never hurt the Jayhawks. He would have been a nice role player off the bench with a positive attitude. But he wanted to be more than a role player and wanted to be close to home and he’s gotten that at California, where he’s been a starter the past two seasons.

If the four former Jayhawks had stuck around, the Jayhawks roster would look a lot different. And instead of playing this Saturday for the Big 12 title and the chance at No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, the Jayhawks would probably be trying to fight off K-State for third place in the conference standings.

Moore is a Shawnee senior in journalism.

—Edited by Lisa Tilson