Exhibition games are over and the Kansas men’s basketball season finally starts tonight. Consider all the exciting things that a fan of the team has to look forward to this year.

After being ranked pre-season No. 1 by the Associated Press and USA Today coaches’ polls, a national championship is on the minds of a lot of people.

Senior guard Sherron Collins will have the opportunity to again lead the Jayhawks, but in a different way. With the influx of freshman talent, he may still lead with points, but more than anything, he must now lead by example.

I’m looking forward to one thing more than anything else this year, and that is watching Collins, or “the General,” because watching him run a team on the court is like watching a general command his troops during battle.

But with the freshmen additions of guard Xavier Henry, forward Thomas Robinson and guard Elijah Johnson, Collins’ scoring could decrease slightly from last year, which is good because what made the 2008 championship team so good was that it did not have one major scorer—not one scored 30 points per game. Instead, five or six players would score in double digits. Even if the game plan of the opposing team is to stop Collins, Tyshawn Taylor, Cole Aldrich and Henry, among others, are still there to pick up the slack. That being said, Collins averaging 15.8 points this year is certainly attainable. This is, after all, his team. That’s why he is the General. On the floor, he is a leader. He is working hard every play and setting examples for the younger players. In close games, those players will be looking to get the experienced veteran the ball to score.

If Collins can manage to keep up his habit of scoring, this year could be special for him, too. He currently has 1,330 points, which is No. 25 in Kansas’ career history. Last year, he averaged 18.9 points. If he manages to average 15.8 points per game this year, he will likely finish as one of the top five career scorers. To finish his career as fifth in career scoring, he would need to average 20.9 points per game. Just to put things in perspective, Collins would have to average 52.3 points per game this year to pass KU alum and current assistant coach, Danny Manning, and become the all-time leader in career points.

It will be exciting to see the role that the Kansas freshmen play on the team this year. Will forward Xavier Henry live up to the hype that surrounded him when he was recruited?

How many of these Jayhawks will be playing in the NBA some day, and how many will have their numbers hung in the rafters of Allen Fieldhouse? These questions directly depend on Collins’ performance. This is his team. It is up to him to set an example for the freshmen this year, to continue to be the general of this team.

This season has so much potential. If all goes to plan, it will not be long until are talking about raising No. 4 into the rafters of Allen Fieldhouse.

— Edited by Jacob Muselmann