Coach Bill Self steps to the plate, tightens his gloves and knocks the bat against his cleats. In his own words, Self needs to hit a home run.

The first pitch comes, and Self takes a mighty hack. He whiffs on his first chance at a recruiting home run this week, losing Brandon Knight, Rivals.com’s top ranked player to Kentucky.

Knight certainly would have been the home run Self was openly pining for. Instead, Knight is strike one in Self’s quest to go long.

That’s if we’re treating this week as a new at bat. Self already whiffed on his first major target for the 2010 class, Harrison Barnes. Barnes is headed to North Carolina instead.

But Barnes committed a while ago, long before this season ended, way before Kansas lost to Northern Iowa and way before Cole Aldrich, junior center, and Xavier Henry, freshman guard, confirmed that they were NBA bound.

It was those circumstances, along with the graduation of Sherron Collins, senior guard, that prompted Self to call his shot.

The good news is that although Knight represents strike one this week, Saturday represents an opportunity at a two-run shot.

That’s because at this Saturday’s Jordan Brand All-American Game, five-star studs Josh Selby and Doron Lamb will offer their commitments. Kansas is rumored to be high on both their lists.

Selby, the second ranked point guard in the nation according to Rivals.com, likely isn’t going to Kentucky now that Knight is. And Lamb, perhaps the most dynamic scorer in the entire recruiting class, was seen sporting a KU T-shirt recently. Most importantly, no one seems to think that the two would be averse to teaming up in the same back court. In fact, some speculation has it that they would prefer to tag team, wherever they commit.

Still, nabbing either player would clearly be a tremendous supplement to a class that, thus far, includes only the underhyped Royce Woolridge. You might even say that either Lamb or Selby would be that home run Self seeks, and that getting both would be a grand slam.

So, strike one in the books, Self steps out of the box and readjusts his gear. Two more pitches to go.

— Edited by Michael Holtz