Even though they haven’t taken the court this season, redshirt guards Mario Little and Travis Releford have shown vast improvement in practice, coach Bill Self said in Monday’s press conference.

For two players who will most likely be key leaders on next year’s team, Releford and Little are both convinced they made the right decision to redshirt this season.

“If you were to ask them both, they would agree 100 percent that this has been good for them,” Self said. “They’re much better basketball players now than they were back in October.”

Self said his team benefits from having two of the more talented backups for his starters to play against in practice and the process is helping out Little and Releford, as well.

During practice, Self tells them to imitate a player, like Baylor’s LaceDarius Dunn who is known for putting up questionable — if not daring — shots. Basically, Self said, he is telling them to take any kind of shot they want and they won’t get yelled at like the other players will.

It makes them more versatile scorers, but their defensive mindset isn’t exactly at game speed right now.

“There’s a lot of things that happen through redshirting that’s positive from an offensive standpoint,” Self said, “probably not as good from a defensive standpoint.”