Coach Bill Self put it bluntly. After being asked to reflect on the season shortly after the loss to Michigan State, the national coach of the year had one thing to say.

“We weren’t a very good basketball team early,” Self said. “The guys really came together and they gave us a chance to be good.”

Kansas, after losing all five starters and a key reserve, simply never should have made it this far.

The Jayhawks earned a low-20s preseason ranking on the strength of a national title reign, an unproven nucleus of Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich, a seven-deep recruiting class that Rivals.com ranked as the second-best in the country and a coach who is arguably the best in the game.

But, beyond Self, nothing was proven. The Jayhawks, who represent one of the top college basketball programs in history, were for the first time in a long time an unknown commodity. They were unproven, untested and unqualified.

But that’s what made this year’s Jayhawks so fun to watch. No one knew what to expect, and the Jayhawks redefined unpredictable, going from the highest highs — a 25-point dismantling of a solid Missouri squad — to the lowest lows — a 19-point loss three days later to lowly Texas Tech — without any seeming reason. Once the young Jayhawks hit the bottom of the barrel, though, it took little time at all to float back on top. After that Tech loss, Kansas rebounded to knock off Texas and clinch an improbable fifth-straight conference title.

It took a coaching performance from Self that has racked up multiple national awards to get the Jayhawks this far. It took Collins developing into a dominant scorer and all-conference guard. It took Aldrich growing from a virtual unknown to a potential lottery pick if he decides to leave Kansas for a shot at the NBA.

The maturation of this year’s inexperienced team was plain to see, and perhaps nothing demonstrates it better than their fourth loss and the one that ended the season. Those two losses, both to national title contender Michigan State, couldn’t have gone differently.

In East Lansing in January, Kansas didn’t belong on the same court as the Spartans. Michigan State dominated the first half, holding the Jayhawks to only 19 first-half points with their physical play. But in Indianapolis in March, the Jayhawks were tougher, stronger and refused to go quietly into the night.

The best thing about this year’s team, though, might be its potential for greatness down the line.

“If we’re able to keep these guys together,” Self said. “I really believe that this could be a special group, based on how much they improved over the course of the season.”

— — Edited by Jesse Trimble