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Kansas Hoops Preview
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THIS SEASON, KANSAS IS DREAMING
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T
By Henry Greenstein l hgreenstein@ljworld.com
here were a few tense days after Kansas finished its 2026 season in grim fashion when it seemed like longtime head coach and two-time national champion Bill Self might decide to retire. As Self has explained since, he was trying to make sure he was in good enough physical health to continue coaching. And he said later in an interview with CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein that he regretted casting his future into doubt at all from the
Viejas Arena podium, in the strange moments after his team lost to St. John’s on a buzzer-beater in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. But it only took a week before Self announced his return and a few more before KU inked another No. 1-ranked high school recruit, Tyran Stokes, laying the foundation for another year in which the Jayhawks hope to return to contending at the top level of college basketball. See BIG, PAGE 4
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Big CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2
They might be doing so in a somewhat more under-the-radar fashion than usual. Despite the presence of a boldface name in Stokes, a handful of national prognosticators have left KU off their preseason top-25 rankings entirely, even as the Jayhawks have been a perennial presence in the AP’s preseason poll since 2006. There’s undoubtedly a lot of uncertainty surrounding a team that for most of the offseason until the courts came into play had two returning scholarship players, Paul Mbiya and Kohl Rosario, who came off the bench last year with mixed results — and then after Melvin Council Jr. and Tre White came back now faces the prospect of reincorporating extremely influential contributors on short timelines. The Jayhawks’ other transfer additions, while accomplished and high-quality players, didn’t push the Jayhawks to the top of any portal-class rankings. Throw in the fact that an NCAA appeal could jeopardize the eligibility of Council or White and there are quite a few unknowns. But Stokes and fellow fivestar headliner Taylen Kinney, a point guard, gave KU one of the nation’s best high school classes, and Self was happy with what he saw from his team over the summer. “This year is new, exciting, having arguably as talented a kid as there is in the country again,” Self said, “and then the other guys that we’ve recruited, to me, are far better than what a lot of people had projected them to be.” It didn’t take long for the new Jayhawks to learn, Self added, “that there’s a way we should play offensively to give
This year, I e think we’ll b more balanced, without question.” — Bill Self
us the best chance, and I think the guys have all bought into that … This year, I think we’ll be more balanced, without question.” KU’s scoring should certainly originate from a variety of sources. Council and White already proved last season what they can do. Hot-shooting guard and MAC Freshman of the Year Leroy Blyden Jr. has arrived from Toledo, versatile forward Keanu Dawes brings Big 12 experience from Utah and wing Dennis Parker Jr. filled up the stat sheet — at one point scoring 53 points in a game — while at Radford. “I also think we have a collective group of better and willing passers,” Self said. “And of course Tyran’s the key to that. He’s about as good a passer as I’ve ever been around.” Can Stokes play like a No. 1 recruit?
Darryn Peterson’s season at KU was fraught and strange, with the top-ranked high school guard beset by cramping episodes that caused him to miss large portions of games from the start of the year until late February. By the time he started to resemble, on a fulltime basis, the player that was promised, it was too late for the Jayhawks to jell and to fully fit into their roles around him. “If we’d been whole the
whole year, I think that that would have been certainly a fun team to watch and be a part of on a daily basis, more so than the abilities that we played to last year,” Self said over the summer. One of the ironies of the 2025-26 season was that for all the hand-wringing about Peterson’s inconsistent availability in the early stages of Big 12 play, KU was actually at its best during a period — its eight-game winning streak — when he was repeatedly exiting games shortly after halftime. The Jayhawks will never get a chance to do over their lone year with the player Self called the best he had ever recruited, who ultimately went No. 2 to the Utah Jazz in the 2026 NBA Draft, but they get something close to another try this year with another top-ranked high school recruit in Stokes. In the Rothstein interview in August, Self compared him to Josh Jackson and Andrew Wiggins and wondered if Stokes could potentially “do something like Melo did with Syracuse.” Carmelo Anthony, of course, was a national freshman of the year who averaged 22.2 points and 10.0 rebounds for an Orange team that beat KU for the national title. By all accounts, Stokes has the well-rounded play style that could allow a team to orbit around him. His physicality and inside scoring grab headlines, but coaches have heaped plenty of praise on his passing and outside shooting as well. For KU to get anywhere near its ceiling, he needs to excel in all those facets, but also draw enough attention from opposing teams to allow the Jayhawks’ complementary pieces to play up to their potential. Does the center strategy work?
After a season in which he was named the Big 12’s defensive
player of the year, Flory Bidunga left in the offseason and became the consensus top player in the portal, ultimately opting for Louisville. As Self said in June, without making any specific reference to Bidunga or Bryson Tiller (who transferred to Missouri), “When you make a decision to go in on Tyran, then that automatically eliminates you with retaining some other guys, and they can obviously make significant real money somewhere else.” In any case, that left KU with a significant void in the middle of its lineup. And while at least some Jayhawk fans may have been pining for one of the bigname transfer centers — former Big 12 adversaries Massamba Diop (Arizona State) and Moustapha Thiam (UCF and Cincinnati) ended up moving to Gonzaga and Michigan, respectively — KU itself had other ideas. It happened in the span of a few days: Mbiya, a deep-bench reserve from the 2025-26 team who showed flashes in the 2026 NCAA Tournament, announced his return to Lawrence, and then KU earned the commitment of well-traveled transfer Christian Reeves, previously of Duke, Clemson and Charleston. Mbiya’s situation was an interesting one because multiple outlets had reported he would enter the transfer portal but he never actually did so, and even in the hours leading up to Mbiya’s announcement, his manager Yacine Fylla was calling reporters to express frustration that he felt his client could be making more money than KU was offering. As for Reeves, he was a bit of an under-the-radar addition but put up solid numbers of 11.1 points and 7.8 rebounds in just 21.4 minutes at Charleston in 2025-26 — while playing through a shoulder injury. CONTINUED >>>
Kansas Hoops Preview Unfortunately for KU, that shoulder injury required offseason surgery that caused Reeves to miss the summer. And a latesummer recruitment of Serbian big man Mihailo Mušikic didn’t actually bear fruit (which might have been a blessing in disguise as it allowed KU to add Council and White). Now the question is whether this pairing — one veteran, one young player, but neither with experience as a full-time starter — can combine to provide functional Big 12-level center play at the most suspect spot in the Jayhawks’ lineup. Neither needs to be a significant offensive presence with the likes of Stokes and Blyden, Dawes in the post and an array of potential wing contributors headlined by White, but they will need to go toe to toe with a host of talented centers this season.
5 Is playing small that objectionable?
The alternative to pinning a considerable portion of KU’s hopes on improvement from Mbiya and Reeves is that the Jayhawks could just slide Dawes into the center spot with Stokes alongside him, allowing an additional wing — ideally White — to join some combination of Blyden, Council and Kinney in the backcourt. As much as that might make for difficult matchups against some teams, it could also yield the Jayhawks’ highestquality group of five players, at least in a vacuum. At the start of summer workouts, Self said of playing small, “I’d rather not do that.” By the end, after having seen small lineups up close and personal for much of the summer given Reeves’ absence, he said his feelings hadn’t changed — of
course, this was all before White’s return. But Self also pointed out that KU was fairly small during the 2025-26 season with Bidunga at center. “I think, in my time here, in a perfect world, yeah, I’d like to play bigger and I’d like to play through the post more,” Self said, “but the reality of it is, I think that this team could be unique enough that playing Dawes and Stokes at the 4 and the 5, who’s going to guard the 5?” He suggested that some ballscreen situations with that lineup could challenge defenses: “Those guys are all capable of coming off and making plays, so I think it’ll be fun, because the skill level from a ball-handling standpoint is different. They’re not bigs, even though their standing height is pretty tall.” In short, it sounds like a group
that will see the floor at least at certain points during the 202627 campaign. And Self has been known to change his outlook on particular lineups over time, like how he initially shrugged off the possibility of playing Bidunga alongside Hunter Dickinson in 2024-25 before that became the team’s primary lineup down the stretch. Will KU get a sufficiently improved Rosario?
Self has said that the Jayhawks will spend a lot of time playing with their two small combo guards, Blyden and Kinney, and so with Council, Dawes, Stokes, White and a center all in the mix, it’s pretty easy to form some probable starting lineups. CONTINUED >>>
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Journal-World File Photo
But there will be plenty of opportunities, especially against opposing teams with size in the backcourt, for players like Rosario and Parker to shine. Of course, Rosario was supposed to shine last year when he reclassified in order to join KU out of Overtime Elite — and when he made it to Lawrence, he was, as Self put it, “too good too fast.” He dazzled the KU coaching staff over the summer with his combination
of athleticism, shooting and work ethic, to the point that he began the 2025-26 season as a starter when he could still have been in high school. Self has said that people were telling him Rosario would be a one-and-done player. “I’m hoping people by midseason are saying that you’re only going to have him two (years),” Self added. What would that take? Of course, last year Rosario ended up averaging just 3.4 points and 1.3 rebounds in
11.6 minutes per game. He doesn’t lack maturity, and that was on display throughout his challenging freshman season; it’ll be even more useful this year as he grows into more of a team leader given he’s one of the few returning players. His work ethic has never been in question, and combined with his athleticism, it makes him a willing and quite competent defender and rebounder — qualities that will encourage Self to keep him on the floor,
and will mesh well with the rest of this season’s team. That said, the reunion with White will be an obstacle to Rosario’s potential playing time. Really, he just needs to shoot considerably better. Self has talked about growing his confidence, but it’s not like Rosario hesitated to put up shots, even as his minutes waned after the early stages of the season. CONTINUED >>>
Kansas Hoops Preview The problem was that even though shooting was one of his purported skills, and reporters often noticed him working on it on James Naismith Court before and after games, he at one point went nearly two months without making a 3-pointer. He finished the year 18-for-63 (28.6%) from deep, an area in which a substantive improvement could make him a highlevel contributor for the Jayhawks this season. Who will stay eligible, and for how long?
The flood of eligibility-related lawsuits against the NCAA this offseason, largely but not exclusively related to the association’s transition to a new
7 model that allows athletes to play five seasons in the span of five years, made for an interesting August and September. Select players, many quite successful in college basketball careers they previously believed had already concluded, returned to teammates they thought they had left behind. Some unexpectedly went on the market in the transfer portal late in the summer, when many coaches believed their rosters were set. Some gained eligibility only to lose it soon afterward as a result of the caprices of the justice system. There is little to no universality in terms of how these fifth-year players’ offseasons have progressed. In any case, quite a few of KU’s opponents this season
HENRY IN THE HUDDLE
have taken advantage of opportunities to patch up holes in the rosters they had assembled. Missouri brought back star forward Mark Mitchell. BYU added forward Jaxon Kohler from Michigan State. Texas Tech welcomed back Donovan Atwell, added Jamichael Stillwell from UCF and reunited with longtime KU nemesis Darrion Williams. All of these acquisitions will need to remain eligible to maximize the potential of their respective teams. It’s much the same with Council and White. KU waited patiently until Sept. 25, two days after White had earned an injunction in Indiana, to announce White’s return to the roster, and Oct.
4 to bring back Council, five days after he got his own in New York. But even as part of those announcements Self acknowledged that White would “hopefully” be able to play in games. The terms of those injunctions mean that KU isn’t risking punishment if it does deploy these players. However, at press time the NCAA had an active appeal of White’s injunction in progress — and the injunction only lasts anyway until the Indiana lawsuit actually goes to trial. It’s very possible the Jayhawks could lose one or both of Council and White during the season (and potentially even regain them afterward).
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Kansas Hoops Preview
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P R E PA R E F O R B L U E B L O O D B AT T L E S I N N O N C O N F E R E N C E P L AY By Henry Greenstein l hgreenstein@ljworld.com Kansas vs. Kentucky
Nov. 10 at the United Center in Chicago A matchup between these two historic powerhouses is always going to be must-see TV, and this year perhaps even more so given that it will be the first major showcase for Kansas’ star forward Tyran Stokes — a Kentucky native — after he picked the Jayhawks over the Wildcats at the conclusion of a drawn-out and enigmatic recruiting process. That will undoubtedly be the predominant storyline in the
lead-up to this Champions Classic showdown, which is the first matchup between the teams since the last one at the United Center in November of 2023, an impressive 89-84 victory for the Jayhawks in which Kevin McCullar Jr. compiled his first of back-to-back triple-doubles, Hunter Dickinson went off for 27 points and 21 rebounds and Dajuan Harris Jr. scored an uncharacteristic 23. CONTINUED >>>
Kansas Hoops Preview KU and UK will be seeing each other somewhat more often moving forward because they are also both now part of the CBS Sports Classic. This particular game will find both programs looking to make an early-season statement after each lost in the second round of the tournament in March. Even beyond the Stokes recruitment, Kentucky endured a roller-coaster offseason in which it missed out on some primary transfer targets like Robert Wright III (who returned to BYU) and Syracuse’s Donnie Freeman (who went to St. John’s). But the Wildcats did retain promising 7-footer Malachi Moreno and added the likes of guards Zoom Diallo (Washington) and Alex Wilkins (Furman) and, most familiarly for KU fans, forward Milan Momcilovic from Iowa State, one of the most
9 prolific shooters in recent college basketball history who picked Big Blue over the NBA. Kentucky still holds a commanding 24-12 lead in the alltime series, but KU is 9-5 against the Wildcats under head coach Bill Self. This will be Self’s first meeting with Mark Pope since Pope’s BYU team upset the Jayhawks at Allen Fieldhouse in February 2024. Kansas vs. Villanova
Nov. 27 at Allen Fieldhouse This Black Friday clash is the marquee home game on this year’s nonconference schedule for KU, and it forms the first half of a home-and-home series that will send the Jayhawks to Philadelphia in 2027. The Villanova brand is not necessarily at its strongest right now, as the Wildcats have struggled
to find their stride since the retirement of Jay Wright, who led them to four Final Fours and two national titles. They proceeded to miss the NCAA Tournament in all three seasons under longtime assistant Kyle Neptune before firing him in favor of Maryland’s Kevin Willard, who led them to a more impressive campaign in which they started 24-7 and 15-5 in Big East play before going one-and-done in both the conference and national tournaments. Willard brings back the top scorer from that team, veteran guard Tyler Perkins (13.7 points, 5.4 rebounds per game), and adds a bevy of transfers as part of 247Sports’ No. 24 class. Joining returning frontcourt starter Matt Hodge are stretch forwards Kwame Evans Jr. (Oregon) and Devin Royal (Ohio State). Guards Elijah Crawford
(Illinois-Chicago), Jake Fiegen (Cornell) and Darryl Simmons II (St. Bonaventure) each scored at high volume during the 2025-26 season, with Crawford and Simmons leading their teams. Luigi Suigo, a 7-foot-3 Italian center, was at one point a prospect for last spring’s NBA Draft, and wing Adam Oumiddoch averaged 28.2 points in Overtime Elite last season. KU and VU have played no shortage of consequential games in years past. The Jayhawks beat the Wildcats in the postseason during each of their two recent national-title runs, and the same is true the other way around. The two legs of the last home-andhome series were decided by a combined four points. CONTINUED >>>
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Kansas Hoops Preview
10 Journal-World File Photo
Kansas vs. Missouri
Dec. 6 at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri The Border War has not been much to write home about in recent seasons. Missouri got its moment in the sun when it beat a then-No. 1-ranked KU team at Mizzou Arena in December of 2024 — a team that went on to the worst season of Self’s tenure — but otherwise KU has won in blowout fashion several times since the series was rekindled. It’s still too early to say, but this year’s rivalry matchup could be the most anticipated since the Tigers left the Big 12. That has a lot to do with one Bryson Tiller, whose promising freshman season at KU took a
sour turn when he was benched in the Big 12 tournament and struggled down the stretch, before he entered the transfer portal and made the essentially unprecedented decision to join the Tigers. (He is the first player to transfer directly from one rival to the other. Parker Braun played for both schools with Santa Clara in between.) The on-court intrigue is even greater because Missouri might have its best team under Dennis Gates. The Tigers lost in the first round each of the last two years and haven’t made the second weekend since 2009, but have loaded up with the impressive freshman duo of guard Jason Crowe, the all-time leading scorer in the state of California who racked up 43.6 points
per game during his senior year, and forward Toni Bryant, another McDonald’s AllAmerican. Tiller and Jamier Jones, an all-freshman selection at Providence, are the most notable transfers. For a long time it seemed like wing Trent Pierce, a parttime starter who averaged 10.4 points per game, would be the biggest-name returner, but now star forward Mark Mitchell, after a brief dalliance with Kentucky, is poised to return if he can retain the fifth year of eligibility that he has gotten via the courts. Finally, this year’s game will receive additional scrutiny because it is the last in the current edition of the series. Gates has expressed a fervent desire to renew it, while Self
has been more lukewarm in interviews over the years, as nonconference commitments have continued to pile up on KU’s calendar. Kansas at UConn
Dec. 12 at Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, Connecticut It should be noted that the location — Gampel as opposed to, for example, PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford — has been reported by CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein, though not yet officially confirmed by either team. It will be a home game for the Huskies, and seemingly their first time getting the Jayhawks on campus, after the two teams faced off at the Hartford venue in 1997. CONTINUED >>>
Kansas Hoops Preview Until last season, UConn had never beaten KU. But the Huskies took advantage of the Jayhawks’ offense’s stagnation without Darryn Peterson and seized control on the glass on their way to an impressive 61-56 victory at Allen Fieldhouse last December. Their season eventually produced one of the most memorable moments in March Madness history when then-freshman wing Braylon Mullins nailed a deep 3-pointer to beat Duke after a late blunder by the Blue Devils in the Elite Eight. The Huskies had at one point trailed by 19 points. They went on to beat Illinois in the Final Four before falling to Michigan in the title game, depriving them of a third title in four years.
11 UConn certainly looks like it can contend again next March, even after losing a couple of foundational pieces in Alex Karaban and Tarris Reed Jr. Retaining Mullins, who scored 12.0 points per game and opted against going to the NBA, was a big win in its own right, and Silas Demary Jr. (10.1 points, 5.9 assists, 4.5 rebounds) will also be back. Fellow guard Solo Ball is expected to sit out the season after wrist surgery, although he made that announcement before the elimination of medical redshirts. Not every player who averages 6.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per game receives the acclaim of Seton Hall transfer Najai Hines, but the 6-foot10, 265-pound forward is a dominant paint presence. The
Huskies also added former five-star Nikolas Khamenia from Duke. Honorable mentions
Exhibitions: New NCAA rules have allowed for a quantity and caliber of marquee exhibition matchups that were never before possible. KU no longer just hosted Pittsburg State on Oct. 16 — which, by the way, was also declared Late Night in the Phog this year as the event has been reimagined — but also welcomes Louisville (Oct. 21) and Duke (Oct. 25) to Allen Fieldhouse before the games even start to count. The Cardinals’ offseason acquisition of Flory Bidunga should make the matchup on Oct. 21 feel like it means something, and it will be the Blue Devils’ first time in
Allen Fieldhouse since 1988. Players Era: KU has not exactly endured the most challenging opponents in its first two years of participation in the steadily expanding Players Era tournament in Las Vegas. Last year it started out with Notre Dame and Syracuse, and this year’s bracket play format gives it UNLV to open things up on Nov. 17. That should still be reasonably interesting because of the Rebelfriendly crowd and the presence, if the courts ultimately make him eligible, of former Jayhawk AJ Storr on the Rebels’ roster. But higher-quality matchups should begin on successive days against either Auburn or West Virginia and then either Florida, Houston, Notre Dame or Rutgers — and the name, image and likeness payouts on the line always add some intrigue.
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12
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A L OO K ARO U N D T H E
BIG 12 By David Rodish l drodish@ljworld.com
The Big 12 spent another year among the best of the college basketball world in 2025-26, producing eight teams that made the national tournament, six in the Round of 32, three in the Sweet 16 and one in the Final Four. The 2026-27 college basketball season could be another banner year for the conference with numerous title contenders and March Madness hopefuls. Here is how the conference looks in the preseason outside of Lawrence. Arizona
The top job at UNC reportedly wasn’t enough for Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd to leave Tucson, as he signed a five-year contract extension with Arizona amid the program’s Final Four season. Lloyd and the Wildcats are now set to defend their Big 12 title en route to another deep postseason run. Arizona will have one of the top rosters in the country, albeit one
that is much different from last year’s team. Veterans Motiejus Krivas and Ivan Kharchenkov are both coming off seasons averaging over 10 points per game for Arizona after finishing fourth and fifth on the team in that statistic, respectively. Krivas earned firstteam All-Big 12 and Big 12 alldefensive team honors last year and will continue to be one of the top centers in the conference. The Wildcats lost their top three scorers to the NBA and replaced the production with a mix of transfer portal additions and high school signees. Caleb Holt headlines the high school class as the No. 2 player in the country according to On3 and the No. 3 player according to 247 Sports. Scouts have praised Holt for his size and physicality on both ends of the floor, and he can provide a scoring threat driving in the lane for Arizona. Arizona brought in Clemson power forward RJ Godfrey and
UNC guard Derek Dixon, who appear poised to fill out the starting lineup. Godfrey’s eligibility remains in flux because Georgia’s appeals court granted the NCAA a stay request after Godfrey sued and won a fifth year of eligibility. With or without Godfrey, the Wildcats will still contend with the best in the country and have landed in the top five of numerous preseason polls. Kansas will face Arizona just once in the regular season on Feb. 20 in Tucson. Last year, Kansas went 1-1 against Arizona, defeating the then-No. 1 Wildcats 82-78 at Allen Fieldhouse before falling 84-61 to Arizona on the road. Arizona State
After 11 years leading Arizona State, head coach Bobby Hurley reached the end of his contract and the two sides agreed to separate, and the Sun Devils tabbed longtime Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett to take over.
The cupboard was bare for Bennett when he arrived in Tempe, leading him to attack the transfer portal and sign eight players, which led the conference. The biggest fish he brought in was Paulius Murauskas, who played for him at Saint Mary’s. The power forward averaged over 18 points and seven rebounds a game, while leading the Gaels to a No. 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Most of the other transfers Arizona State brought in came with some connection to Bennett. He either coached them at Saint Mary’s or coached against them in the West Coast Conference, or they were coached by his assistants in their last stops. Kansas lost its lone matchup against Arizona State last year 70-60 in Tempe. The Jayhawks will host Arizona State on Feb. 9 for the only scheduled game between the teams. CONTINUED >>>
Kansas Hoops Preview Baylor
The Baylor Bears finished without a winning record for the first time since the 2005-06 season, which was Baylor coach Scott Drew’s fourth year with the team. It was also only the second time since the 2011-12 season that the Bears didn’t make the NCAA Tournament, with the other year being 2017-18. Yet Baylor isn’t undergoing a massive roster reconstruction like most other teams in the Big 12 — it is only bringing in seven new players through the high school signing class and the transfer portal, which is tied for the fewest in the conference. Those seven, though, are in line to contribute right away. The big newcomers to the team are brothers Dylan and Kayden Mingo. Dylan, a fivestar guard, is one of Baylor’s three high school signees, and Kayden is a Penn State transfer who will come in at the point guard spot. Other shooters in the transfer portal should help the Baylor offense rise from 13th in the Big 12 in 3-point percentage. The Bears lost their two top scoring guards, one to the NBA and the other to the portal. Isaac Williams is Baylor’s highestscoring returner at over 10 points per game. Williams came on late in the year, starting the last 13 games of the season. Kansas plays Baylor twice, first at home on Feb. 17 and again
13 on March 6 on the road. KU won its only game against the Bears last year 80-62 at home. BYU
Last season, BYU’s squad was headlined by AJ Dybantsa, the school’s biggest recruit under Kevin Young, but Dybantsa’s time there ended in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. This year, though, Young has gotten another top recruit in the high school class with forward Bruce Branch III. Branch is a wing player with the shooting skills of a guard, an important attribute for a BYU team that was fifth in the conference in 3-point attempts per game last year and first the year before. Branch joins Kentucky transfer shooting guard Collin Chandler and returning Cougar Rob Wright III to create one of the more formidable backcourts in the Big 12. Wright turned down Kentucky and others to return to BYU after averaging 18 points, almost five assists and more than a steal per game. Chandler averaged nearly 10 points per game while shooting over 41% from 3. For the rest of the newcomers, Young went after wings and forwards. All three high school signees are forwards, and three of the four transfers are power forwards. Jaxon Kohler is the highlight of the transfer group after averaging 12 points per
game at Michigan State last year. The hurdle for Kohler is eligibility with the ongoing court cases being argued out. The Cougars should have another tournament team this year, but their defense is something to monitor. Khadim Mboup will be the anchor for the BYU defense after showing high-level potential on that side of the floor last year. His ability to guard all five positions on the perimeter will be a starting point for the Cougars every night in the Big 12. Kansas beat BYU 90-82 last year in Lawrence, which was the only matchup between the two teams. This year, the Jayhawks will travel to Provo for the only scheduled game on Jan. 9. Cincinnati
The Wes Miller era at Cincinnati is over, and in comes Jerrod Calhoun from Utah State with a dramatically new roster. Calhoun brought in 13 new players to Cincinnati, the most in the Big 12. Even more unusual is that all 13 are transfers — Cincinnati has no high school signees in 2026, though Calhoun has secured a top 2027 local commitment. Four of Cincinnati’s 13 transfers are coming from Utah State. Center David Iweze, power forward Adlan Elamin, point guard Elijah Perryman and shooting guard MJ Collins
Jr. will all bring their experience leading the Aggies to the ninth seed and a win in the NCAA Tournament. Collins led the team with 17.5 points per game and was the only new Bearcat to average over 10 points per game with the Aggies. Along with these players he’d worked with before, Calhoun brought in two other scoring guards to build the offense around. Tulsa transfer Tylen Riley averaged 15.0 points and 4.4 assists per game, and Wake Forest transfer Myles Colvin averaged 11.6 points and 4.4 rebounds per game. Under Calhoun, the Aggies had a fast and efficient offense, leading the Mountain West in scoring and fastbreak points. The trio of Collins, Colvin and Riley can help the Bearcats have a dynamic offense in Calhoun’s first year with the team. Kansas plays Cincinnati on the road on Jan. 19. Last year, the Bearcats defeated the Jayhawks in Lawrence 84-68. Colorado
Tad Boyle’s Colorado Buffaloes have had a rough go of it since the program rejoined the Big 12 with back-to-back losing seasons. Expectations for the Buffaloes aren’t high this season, either, in Boyle’s 17th year leading the Buffs. CONTINUED >>>
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14 The Buffaloes did improve upon their 2024-25 record last year, and CU brings back four members of its 2025-26 roster. One of those returners is Barrington Hargress, who averaged 14.7 points per game while starting all 33 games. Boyle stuck to high school recruiting to fill out his roster, signing seven high school graduates. Rider Portela leads the group; he’s a four-star forward from Phoenix. CU brought in just four transfers, all in the frontcourt. The Buffaloes struggled defensively last year, allowing the highest 3-point shooting percentage and what tied for the second-highest field-goal percentage in the conference. Rebuilding the frontcourt is a step toward the Buffaloes addressing their defensive woes. Kansas beat Colorado 75-69 in Boulder last year and will host the Buffaloes on Jan. 13 this season. Houston
Kelvin Sampson’s Houston Cougars reached the Sweet 16 last year after going all the way to the championship game in 2025. Houston rebounded in the transfer portal, bringing in five players for one of the best hauls of the offseason. A trio of guards lead the way for the portal class: Dedan Thomas Jr. from LSU, Corey Hadnot from Purdue Fort Wayne and Chendall Weaver from Texas. Thomas averaged 15.3 points and 6.5 assists per game and will replace the hole left by Kingston Flemings, who was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks. Hadnot was a 20.4-point-per-game scorer, and Weaver is dominant defensively and will fit in with Houston’s style. The Cougars also added former Kent State forward Delrecco Gillespie, who appears in line to start at power forward. Those newcomers will be joined by returners Chase McCarty and Mercy Miller, and all together they form a formidable backcourt that can challenge the Big 12. The Cougars weren’t the most efficient of offenses last year but made up for it with defense. A slew of new
scorers in the backcourt and wing can help Houston improve its offense. Defense will be tough to replicate, though, as Houston finished with the highest defensive rating in the country, according to Kenpom. com. JoJo Tugler is back to anchor the group, and he is college basketball’s premier defender, winning Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year as a sophomore and Naismith National Defensive Player of the Year in both his sophomore and junior seasons. He averaged 1.5 blocks per game last year and 1.9 blocks per game the year before. Kansas beat Houston 69-56 at home in the regular season but lost 69-47 to the Cougars in the Big 12 tournament. Iowa State
Iowa State enters the 2026-27 season on the heels of a 29-8 season that lasted until the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. This year, the Cyclones are bringing in eight new players, which is tied for the second-fewest newcomers in the conference, showing a trust in the team’s returns and developmental pieces. The Cyclones brought in five players through the transfer portal, two of which come from power conferences. Taj Manning, a power forward transfer from Kansas State, and Tre Singleton, a forward who transferred from Northwestern, are the two names that headline the group. Jaquan Johnson transferred from Bradley, where he averaged 16.9 points per game. The defense for the Cyclones under coach T.J. Otzelberger has been a constant, and that should continue to be the case. Killyan Toure will be a focal point of that defense, but with a shoulder surgery in August, Toure could make his debut as late as February. Veteran guard Tamin Lipsey is eligible under the same injunction as KU’s Tre White. Jamarion Batemon will have to shoulder a larger load as one of the main returners on the Cyclones
after he averaged 6.6 points per game and shot 37% from distance. Kansas went 1-1 against Iowa State last year, winning in Lawrence and losing in Ames. The Jayhawks and Cyclones will have another home-and-home series this year, first in Ames on Feb. 13 and in Lawrence on March 1. Kansas State
The Jerome Tang era of Kansas State men’s basketball ended unceremoniously during the 2025-26 season when he was fired for cause just three years after leading the Wildcats to the Elite Eight. In comes Casey Alexander to lead the program, who arrived in Manhattan after leading Belmont for seven years. Alexander led the Bruins to four conference titles in that time and has coached his teams to 20 or more wins every year since 2016-17, when he was the head coach of Lipscomb. Alexander’s teams at Belmont were fast and shot a lot of 3-pointers. Last year’s team led the Missouri Valley Conference in 3-point shooting percentage, which helped the Bruins lead the conference in scoring per game. K-State was one of the worst 3-point shooting teams a season ago, so the 12 new Wildcats that Alexander brought in during the offseason will have to give the team a makeover. Ten of KState’s new players come via the transfer portal, while the other two are high school signees who play guard. Jaden Schutt is one such transfer, and he comes to K-State after a couple of years at Virginia Tech. He averaged 7.7 points per game in both years but has improved his 3-point shooting percentage every year in college. Brandon Rechsteiner, a Colorado State transfer who averaged 12.0 points per game, appears in line to start alongside Schutt in the backcourt. Kansas will face K-State at Bramlage Coliseum on Jan. 23 and will host the team on Feb. 27. Last year, KU won both games,
first in an 86-62 win on the road and again 104-85 at home. Oklahoma State
Oklahoma State had one of the best and biggest roster transformations in the conference this offseason, bringing in 10 new players. The Cowboys certainly needed it after a 6-12 record in Big 12 play put them 13th in the 16-team league. Oklahoma State was a bad defensive team a season ago, allowing the most points per game in the conference, but the offense made things interesting as the second-best scoring team behind only Arizona. Latrell Allmond is the biggest high school signee, a high fourstar power forward at 6-foot-8, 225 pounds, though small forward Anthony Felesi is right there with Allmond. They are two of three frontcourt signees out of high school, with the fourth signee being guard Parker Robinson. In the transfer portal, the Cowboys brought in a little bit of everything. Center Julius Halaifonua transferred from Georgetown after averaging 9.5 points and 4.4 rebounds per game, and Halaifonua brings some size and heft to the paint that the Cowboys need after a lacking presence defensively. The Cowboys allowed the fourth-most offensive rebounds, and teams shot 45.3% from the field. Small forward Jordan Burks transferred from UCF after averaging 13.3 points and 4.8 rebounds per game, and shooting guard Luka Bogavac comes from UNC where he averaged 9.8 points per game. The two will join returning guard Kanye Clary, who scored 10.6 points per game and had 4.6 assists per game. Kansas beat Oklahoma State 81-69 on the road last year, and the Jayhawks will host the Cowboys on Jan. 30. CONTINUED >>>
Kansas Hoops Preview TCU
Last season, TCU men’s basketball reached the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time in the last five years under coach Jamie Dixon. This year, the Horned Frogs have one of the lighter roster overhauls in the conference with just seven newcomers, only three of which are transfers. That’s because they have a strong contingent of returning players in forward Xavier Edmonds, who averaged 12.7 points and 6.5 rebounds per game, and forward Micah Robinson, who averaged 10.9 points and 1.2 steals per game. Of the newcomers, Gavin Sykes was the top scorer with 19.4 points per game at Long Beach State. Luke Bamgboye started 12 games at center for Texas Tech last year but brings his blocking ability to Fort Worth in 2026. For the signees, Trent Lincoln highlights the group as the top junior-college player in the country. The point guard averaged 19.4 points, 4.5 rebounds and 6.1 assists per game at Gulf Coast State College last year. TCU will have another solid team that will be among the teams in contention for a March Madness bid late in the season. Kansas will face TCU on the road on Feb. 24 after having defeated TCU 104-100 in overtime in Lawrence on Jan. 6 and again 78-73 in the Big 12 Tournament.
15 in that, but he is one of several Tech players with questionable eligibility. What is solidified is LeJuan Watts being back in Lubbock after averaging 11.8 points and 6.0 rebounds a game for the Red Raiders. Josiah Moseley will also be back after averaging 5.5 points per game and 1.1 blocks per game. A number of the projected starters are arriving this year through the portal. Texas Tech did sign five-star guard DaKari Spear, a lengthy, athletic perimeter player. Texas Tech brought in five transfers, headlined by the guards. Cruz Davis arrives from Hofstra, where he averaged 20.1 points and 4.7 assists per game. UNLV guard Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn also arrives with a good scoring pedigree, having tallied 20.7 points per game with the Runnin’ Rebels. KU beat Texas Tech on the road 64-61 on Feb. 2 last year. The Jayhawks will host the Red Raiders on Feb. 6 this year.
UCF
Johnny Dawkins is now in his 11th year leading UCF men’s basketball and is coming off of the Knights’ highest win total since 2018-19, when UCF also reached the NCAA Tournament. But it’ll be a new group leading the Knights this year after their top two scorers exhausted eligibility and the next three scorers all left in the transfer portal. John Bol, a junior center, is the team’s leading returning scorer at 5.9 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. The Knights reloaded with eight transfers and one high school signee this offseason. Dior Johnson highlights the group after averaging 24.0 points at Tarleton State while playing as the sixth man. Johnson is a familiar face around Orlando, having played in 35 games for the Knights in 2024-25 before transferring away. Johnson dramatically improved his shooting in his year away from
UCF, bumping his 3-point shooting from 30.4% to 53.8%. Dawkins and the Knights are banking on bringing successful transfers from lower levels up to the Big 12. Of the eight transfers, only two come from high-major teams: point guard Arturo Dean transferred from Oklahoma State and small forward Jason Asemota transferred from Boston College. Dean started 21 games for the Cowboys and averaged 7.6 points per game, while played sparingly for the Eagles. UCF has been one of the highest-scoring offenses in the Big 12 over the last two years but will need to improve a defense that allowed the fifth-most points per game in the conference. Kansas will host UCF on Jan. 16 and will look to avenge last year’s 81-75 road loss to the Knights. CONTINUED >>>
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Talk of Texas Tech men’s basketball centers on forward JT Toppin, who is recovering from an ACL injury. Toppin averaged 21.8 points and 10.8 rebounds a game for the Red Raiders last year in 25 games. How Toppin recovers and when he comes back will play a big role in Texas Tech’s season. It’ll be up to the other Red Raiders to keep the team going in Toppin’s absence on both ends of the court. Potentially getting Donovan Atwell back for a fifth year would go a long way
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Kansas Hoops Preview
16 Utah
Utah had a down first year under Alex Jensen and finished 10-22 overall and 2-10 in Big 12 play. The Utes scored the third-fewest points per game in the conference and allowed the fourth-most points per game. The Utah Utes lost a good amount of production from its season with eight players transferring and four going to other high-major schools. Kansas’ incoming power forward Keanu Dawes is among that group. Utah brought in an equal number of transfer and high school signees to replenish the roster. Five of the eight newcomers are guards, and the other three are power forwards. Shooting guard Taison Chatman is the lone newcomer with major college basketball experience, as he transfers in from Ohio State, though he only averaged 4.3 points per game while coming off the bench for the most part. Chatman was a good 3-point shooter in limited opportunities. With the Utes losing talent on a struggling team, Utah will have a hard time competing in the Big 12 once again this season. Kansas beat Utah 71-59 in Lawrence last year and will take on the Utes on the road on Jan. 6. West Virginia
West Virginia had a strong first year under coach Ross Hodge, going 21-14. Despite the record, the Mountaineers didn’t get into the NCAA Tournament. But this season, the Mountaineers will have a squad that should contend for a tournament bid, with an athletic team that pushes
the pace on both ends of the court. Hodge brought in a strong transfer portal group to add to the team and signed fivestar point guard Miles Sadler among four high school signees. Sadler is joined in the backcourt by transfers Joson Sanon, who comes to West Virginia via St. John’s, and Finley Bizjack, a transfer from Butler. Sanon averaged 7.9 points per game and Bizjack averaged 17.1 points per game. The frontcourt will have new faces as well, with Georgia Tech center Mouhamed Sylla coming in averaging 9.6 points and 7.2 rebounds per game and Utah power forward Seydou Traore having averaged 9.0 points per game. Including the high school class, the Mountaineers brought in three centers. The new additions will join Brenen Lorient, who scored 11.9 points per game and shot 54.1% from the field. The Mountaineers have no other returning double digit scorers this season. The Mountaineers were a better defensive team than offensive last year, and with Hodge’s defense-first attitude, that side of the court will continue to be a focus for the Mountaineers and a determinant of whether West Virginia can beat enough Big 12 teams to get in the tournament. Kansas will host West Virginia on Jan. 2. The Jayhawks lost to the Mountaineers 86-75 in Morgantown last season.
Luke Barnett
Davion Adkins
Melvin Council Jr.
Leroy Blyden Jr.
Taylen Kinney
Keanu Dawes
Grant Mordini
Paul Mbiya
Trent Perry
Dennis Parker Jr.
Atticus Richmond
Christian Reeves
Tyran Stokes
Kohl Rosario
Tre White
& Walk-on Will Thengvall Junior guard; 6-foot-4, 185 pounds; from Wichita
Kansas Hoops Preview
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Last season: Playing for Prolific Prep, the wellregarded program that has produced several recent Jayhawks and recently relocated to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Adkins averaged a double-double with 13.5 points and 10.5 rebounds per game as a senior. He committed to the Jayhawks over Houston and Rutgers on Oct. 5 and signed on Nov. 13. At one point ranked as high as No. 23 on 247Sports, he was No. 70 by his arrival in Lawrence. This season: The athletic lefty’s most likely role in his first season will be as a backup to Utah transfer Keanu Dawes at the powerforward position, which should earn him a few minutes per game at the back end of the rotation, depending how deep head coach Bill Self wants to go. He could also potentially slide in as an undersized center, a position at which KU is rather thin. Adkins might not be the most buzzy player on the Jayhawks’ roster, and he was inhibited a bit by lingering knee issues over the summer according to Self, but he still earned his fair share of compliments from the KU coaches. Associate head coach Jeremy Case, on an episode of “Hawk Talk,” said his ball skills and shooting had exceeded expectations, while assistant coach Jacque Vaughn lauded his intellectual curiosity.
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Last season: Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, California, might be best known for its football program, but its basketball record books now heavily feature Barnett’s name after he set career records for points (2,244) and 3-pointers (419), not to mention the single-game marks he set as a junior when he made 12 3s and scored 55 against San Diego’s Hoover High School. According to MaxPreps, as a senior he tallied 19.2 points and 4.8 rebounds per game. A four-star ranked outside the top 100, he was the fifth addition to KU’s 2026 class when he committed on Oct. 24. This season: Barnett might have been the story of the summer for the Jayhawks. KU certainly knew his catch-and-shoot abilities, but as Self put it, “You still got to be in the game to make shots. Luke’s plenty good enough to be in the game.” He also called the freshman not just good but “terrific.” Barnett faces a lot of competition for minutes on the wing, primarily from more experienced players like Dennis Parker Jr., Kohl Rosario and Tre White. But his shooting acumen, which puts him up with Leroy Blyden Jr. among the best long-range threats on the team, should be enough to keep him on the court. It might just be a matter of getting off to a strong start, something Rosario was not able to do last season.
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Kansas Hoops Preview
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Last season: The versatile forward made a significant jump in his second season at Utah, and third overall of college basketball, after he began his career at Rice. Under new Utes coach Alex Jensen, Dawes grew into a consistent starter who racked up 12.5 points and 8.8 rebounds, both career highs, on 54.6% shooting from the field, while significantly increasing his volume of 3-point attempts. In a loss to KU at Allen Fieldhouse, he posted a 22-point, 12-rebound double-double on 10-for-13 shooting. He announced he was entering the portal on March 29 and became the Jayhawks’ first transfer commitment on April 16. This season: Dawes, who like his teammate Parker is no longer entering his final year of eligibility as a result of the NCAA’s new fiveyear model, will bring his veteran experience, physical presence and rebounding prowess to a revamped KU frontcourt. He enters as one of the few proven collegiate performers on the Jayhawks’ roster, and one who has shown an ability to produce consistently when he is not the primary option — as he will again not be at KU. Case has mentioned that KU believes Dawes can elevate his 3-point percentage to the 38% range; he has hit 31.1% of his 3s in his career. That could add a potent element to a group of forwards and centers that outside of White (if eligible) and Tyran Stokes doesn’t pose much of a perimeter threat otherwise.
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Last season: Bryson Tiller emerged early enough last season as a consistent starter alongside Flory Bidunga in the Jayhawks’ frontcourt that Mbiya didn’t really find his way into the rotation for much of the year except in instances of significant foul trouble. The former French pro, who joined KU after initially signing with N.C. State, had plenty of work to do to adapt to the college game and for much of the year looked ungainly and uncertain in his brief appearances. But then, not long after Self declared him on senior night to be one of the most improved Jayhawks in recent times, and with Tiller struggling, Mbiya shone off the bench in both of KU’s NCAA Tournament games with eight points and three rebounds against Cal Baptist and four points and six rebounds against St. John’s. Amid a variety of other departures from KU’s roster, multiple outlets reported Mbiya would enter the portal, but after his manager said he was trying to “help him understand it’s also a business,” he stayed at KU regardless and issued a statement declaring his loyalty. This season: The reward for that loyalty is a change to potentially start at center after playing a minimal role last season. As Self has acknowledged, the spot has been there for the taking, with Charleston transfer Christian Reeves recovering from offseason shoulder surgery that has limited his participation in practice for much of the offseason. Self has said Mbiya is playing with a higher level of confidence — no surprise — and taking greater advantage of his size. The question is whether Mbiya, who is now listed as a junior even though he has played just one collegiate season, can beat out the more experienced Reeves for minutes in the long term.
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I N I D R O M
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Last season: Parker in some sense revived his career at Radford after two relatively undistinguished seasons coming off the bench at N.C. State. The John Marshall High School alumnus garnered second-team All-Big South recognition after averaging 18.3 points and 5.9 rebounds for the Highlanders; he shot 37.7% from beyond the arc on five attempts per game after he had previously been 21-for-75 (28.0%) in his career and also improved his free-throw percentage from 49.2% with the Wolfpack to 65.7% at Radford. Perhaps most famously, in a performance often referenced by Self, Parker scored 53 points on his 24 shots in a blowout win over Coppin State, the most recorded in a Division I game in seven years. This season: Parker entered the portal in April and joined KU in May, stating he felt he was following in the footsteps of other players from Virginia like Frank Mason III and David McCormack. The big question is whether he can maintain the efficiency of his Radford tenure when he is likely going to be reduced to a role that more resembles what he had at N.C. State. With two of Blyden, Council and Kinney in the backcourt and Stokes, Dawes and either a center or White likely filling out the starting lineup, Parker will probably be expected to provide a spark off the bench. To earn those minutes, he’ll also need to show he can keep up at the defensive end as well, similar to what Self alluded to with Barnett.
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Last season: After Duke and Clemson only used him sparingly, Reeves found a bit of a groove at a top mid-major program in Charleston, when despite playing through a shoulder injury and splitting time with another 7-foot center he was able to accrue 11.1 points and 7.8 rebounds per game in just 21.4 minutes, as he started 18 of the 31 games in which he appeared. The product of Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, Virginia, really found his groove and earned increased action down the stretch in conference play, with his top performance a 29-point, 18-rebound showing against Elon on Jan. 24. KU didn’t take long to acquire him after he entered the portal in mid-April. This season: “When he gets healthy,” Self has said of Reeves, “God, we’ll go from being a small team to one of the biggest teams around.” The question is just how soon that will come to pass. Self has asserted that Reeves — who also had one of his seasons at Duke cut short by an ankle injury — will be ready to go by the start of the season (Nov. 2 against Fordham) but had also said that he wouldn’t be ready for full-contact practice until October. That has given Mbiya plenty of time to stake his own claim for a significant role at center. KU did not splurge for a marquee post player in the portal, and a potential international commitment over the summer didn’t pan out, so it will likely need the combination of Reeves and Mbiya to eat up most of the minutes in the middle, at least when it doesn’t go small. As the season progresses, with plenty of scorers elsewhere on the floor, this duo doesn’t need to be flashy but should provide consistent rebounding and some level of rim protection. One bonus for Reeves is that he is already used to functioning in a by-committee role College of since he just did so at Charleston Charleston last season.
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Kansas Hoops Preview
27 The Newman School
, 235 Freshman forward; 6-foot-8
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h school Richmond started out in hig High Last season: Like Mordini, son ven Ste E. oland area (at Adlai close to home in the Chicag Berkshire School in Sheffield, Massathe at yed pla School). He also r, in his case nt on to a postgraduate yea chusetts, and eventually we ton. It was a memorable year for the at The Newman School in Bos won their first-ever National Prep Cardinals, who went 39-3 and raged 9.0 points and 6.8 rebounds Championship. Richmond ave spot. He had an offer from Lerd for that team from his forwa ted to Columbia for almost a year mit com s wa and high ted itself to before the opportunity presen members of ny ma t tha ool play at KU, a sch his family have attended. ly won’t This season: Richmond like utes as min p p-u mo t spo n tha re see mo is able to do a freshman — something he eligibility his without jeopardizing any of five rules. -indue to the NCAA’s new five comparison He did receive a flattering equated him to f Sel upon signing in which same height the s wa o wh , oot htf Mitch Lig Lawrence. in d ive but lighter when he arr played in tely ma ulti , rse cou of Lightfoot, hawks Jay the for 168 games with 11 starts title al ion nat 22 20 the of er and was a memb the in lies t tha anything like team. Time will tell whether certainly demonstrates some film ose wh , ond hm future for Ric . explosiveness around the rim
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Last season: A fast riser over the summer who reclassified to join the Jayhawks, Rosario made a strong enough offseason impression to enter KU’s starting five at the beginning of the season. But outside of a 16-point showing against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, it didn’t really work out. He was out of the lineup by Nov. 25 and received single-digit minutes for most of Big 12 play. He provided a spark off the bench in the late stages of KU’s second-round matchup with St. John’s, scoring on a 3 and a putback, but subbed out for Elmarko Jackson in the final seconds as the Jayhawks gave up a buzzerbeating layup to Dylan Darling. This season: Rosario is back at KU with little drama as one of the few returning players. Self has been complimentary of the leadership he has offered in that role. The Jayhawks will hope to receive a more confident and consequently more consistent version of their promising young wing during the 2026-27 season. It’s not clear exactly how many minutes he will receive to open this year — he doesn’t look likely to be a day-one starter like he was last season, and there are only so many to go around between him, Parker, White and the freshmen — but he has certainly made clear in limited action to this point that he will go full throttle from the moment he steps on the court. Self has made it clear he still sees Rosario as a future pro, potentially as soon as one year hence.
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Last season: Stokes, a thre States and more recently a Mc e-time gold medalist at the youth level for the United Donald’s All-American, proved consensus No. 1 ranking in the him class of 2026 (making him KU’ self worthy of the prospect in a row after Darryn s Peterson). After moving to Rai second top-ranked in Seattle, Stokes averaged 31.0 nier Beach High School quite straightforwardly guided points, 13.0 rebounds, 6.0 assists and 4.0 steals and was his recruitment, a three-te the team to a state title. Not nearly as straightforward Jayhawks and Wildcats at the am race between KU, Kentucky and Oregon with the helm tha April, when Stokes finally pledge t took a number of twists and turns into late Tip-Off,” declaring that he wa d his services to KU on the set of ESPN’s “NBA s “rea This season: In pursuing Sto dy to go put on a show.” team, even potentially alienat kes, KU set out a clear vision for its 2026-27 ing said. Like Peterson, Stokes will some other players in the process, as Self has body around which the rest of in many ways be the focal point of his team, the ways. For one, he’s a different it orbits. But it might look a bit different in a few sor a straight-up scorer, and in fac t of player, more all-around and perhaps less of t coaches have complimented the ball as much as anything, his ability to share wit ing that “he can see passes thre h associate head coach Jeremy Case proclaimdifferent personality, fiery wh e plays ahead of time.” In addition, he’s a wildly ere competitive. As for his play sty Peterson was reserved, even as both are hyperbut hardly deficient in terms le, he’s an adept slasher and physical post presence of to be in pretty good business,” outside shooting: “If that’s a weakness, we’re going Self has said. For KU to accom it will need to unleash Stokes plish its goals this year, on the rest of the country in a the chance to with Peterson and way it never truly got to see him play consistently at No. 1 ranking. a level befitting his
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Last season: After transferring to the program to which he had once committed early in high school, White flourished. Following fairly consistent performances among stints at USC, Louisville and Illinois, the senior took a notable step forward in what appeared at first to be his lone year with the Jayhawks. He played both small forward and power forward, starting every game while averaging 13.5 points and 6.7 rebounds. He proved extremely skilled at drawing fouls and perhaps most notably shot 40.3% from deep, offering a reliable outside shooter in a way KU might not have expected. White’s production took a slight dip in mid-February, recovered as he put together a pair of season-best scoring performances late in the season and then declined again in the postseason, when he hit an ill-timed cold streak. After the season, he took part in the Portsmouth Invitational for outgoing seniors and then went undrafted. This season: White garnered plenty of buzz during the NBA Summer League as he impressed while playing for the Miami Heat. He might have had a chance to compete for a roster spot or at least some sort of NBA G League opportunity this fall. But as lawsuits against the NCAA from high school class of 2022 athletes based on its new five-year eligibility policy began to grow, it seemed inevitable that White would get involved. He ultimately joined an ongoing action in Indiana and earned an injunction to become immediately eligible. That injunction lasts until the suit goes to trial, and the NCAA is trying to appeal it, but in the meantime, by bringing White back KU gets an extremely experienced player at the highest levels of college basketball who can slot immediately into the starting lineup and help take the 3-point-shooting burden off of Blyden. He will also help bolster what is already an extremely strong rebounding frontcourt. Now the question is whether KU will be able to keep him throughout the season.
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Last season: The hard-nosed, defensively minded guard arrived from St. Bonaventure and immediately rebuilt the Jayhawks in his image. Council became as much of a fan favorite as any KU player has in a single year on campus, in part because he relished opportunities to embarrass his rivals — he really rose to the occasion against Kansas State and Missouri — but also because he was a consistently excellent player on both ends of the floor. His clutch play helped KU earn narrow victories in precarious situations against teams like TCU and Colorado, and his 36-point display with nine 3-pointers at N.C. State was one of the best single-game performances of the Self era. Like his fellow fall returnee White, though, Council struggled late in the year, particularly in the Big 12 tournament. Ultimately, he was still the conference’s newcomer of the year, but like White he went unselected in the 2026 NBA Draft and took part in the NBA Summer League. This season: Arguing that neither of his years spent at Monroe College should count toward his NCAA eligibility, Council initially sued the NCAA for another year of eligibility in Douglas County, then dropped the suit and pivoted to his home state of New York, in part to broaden his options for next season beyond just KU. He earned an injunction on Sept. 29, and while it was not immediately clear whether he would be a Jayhawk once again, KU announced his return on Oct. 4. Council will provide veteran savvy and length to the young and undersized backcourt of Blyden and Kinney. He likely won’t play the exorbitant quantities of minutes that he has for much of his career, but he’ll be a factor all the same — Council has started 164 of his 170 games at the collegiate level and has not played fewer than 20 minutes in a game since March 9, 2024.
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Kansas Hoops Preview
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