The Kansas men’s basketball team will open the 2026-27 season on Monday night against Fordham at Allen Fieldhouse on the heels of two of the toughest exhibition games in recent memory in the same week.
No. 17 Kansas lost to No. 11 Louisville and No. 2 Duke in the span of five days in late October, competing hard in both games but coming up short each time.
Asked last Wednesday if the tough competition and close battles helped bring this team of a bunch of newcomers together, KU coach Bill Self said it definitely didn’t hurt but the opponents and the losses may not have meant quite as much as one may think.
“The feeling of not winning does that help? I would say yes,” Self began this week. “But in the back of everyone's mind, you still know that there wasn’t the actual pressure to win those games as what there will be during the regular season.”
So, yeah, fighting to protect your home court, battling to be the supreme blue blood in the building and facing a former teammate who said goodbye in the offseason all mattered. And you could see it on the faces and body language of these guys as they exited the court and met with reporters after each of those losses.
But it’s easy to flush those feelings as long as they can learn from how, where and why they came up short and use the setbacks as a chance to grow both as a basketball team and as brothers.
And Self believes this group did exactly that during a rare high-intensity week of exhibition basketball.
“Oh, I like ‘em,” Self said of this team and the bond he has seen taking shape. “I like ‘em. I think they're great. They like each other, and I don't think it's coach speak; I've been really impressed with some of the improvements that have been made from that standpoint.”
He added: “I wouldn’t say this team is the most prepared team we've had (entering the regular season). I would say that the most prepared teams we’ve had are usually teams that return a lot of players.”
Still, this group, for better or worse, has now seen what elite level basketball looks like and, even more, these Jayhawks now have seen how they look together when competing against it.
Remember, the newest member of the group, forward Trey Kaufman-Renn, has yet to suit up for this team, but Self said Wednesday that he’s planning on playing him on Monday, adding that he did not want to “say anything for sure publicly just because there's still some unknowns that I need to visit with to make sure that the way I see it is right."
When asked in a follow-up question if those unknowns were concerning TKR’s conditioning or a recent minor injury that Self reported or if they had to do with his eligibility, Self said, “Conditioning, injury, and I think that it will be fine, but I’m not gonna say positively on his availability on Monday, but I’m planning on playing him.”
With that in mind, here’s a quick look at a few things we saw or learned from the Jayhawks’ exhibition schedule.
• Let’s start with TKR, assuming he stays eligible and is ready to roll as soon as Monday. I don’t think you’ll see him playing the 5. I think he’s a 4. I think he wants to be a 4. And, more importantly, I think he’s probably better as a 4. The guess here is the coaching staff knew and understood this when they brought him in and probably had no problem with that being the case. Why? Perhaps because, more than any Self team we’ve seen, this group is positionless up and down the lineup. Tyran Stokes’ versatility has a lot to do with that, but he’s far from the only Jayhawk who can play multiple spots and styles. So, Kaufman-Renn might find himself on the floor in lineups where he is the biggest Jayhawk, but that won’t automatically make him the 5. Stokes, Keanu Dawes or even Tre White could operate as the 5 in those instances, allowing TKR to do his thing in his more natural position.
• Self said on Wednesday that he would like to play 10 guys early on, adding that the time for tinkering with starting lineups was behind them. So, it’s time to get serious about both a starting five and a regular rotation and it seems to me that they may be there. I was asked on the radio last week who I thought might be left out of the rotation and, based on what we saw in the three exhibition games KU has had I see that being Davion Adkins, Paul Mbiya, Kohl Rosario, Luke Barnett, Atticus Richmond and Will Thengvall, with Grant Mordini already expected to miss the season with injury. That group of seven naturally trims the rest to a Top 10. I do think there’s still some room for a couple of these guys to play their way into the mix, with Mbiya and Rosario the most likely two to do it. But even Self playing 10 seems like it could be a stretch. I’d love to see it. And I think the 10 not mentioned here are a talented bunch with incredible versatility, strengths and the ability to play a number of styles. If he desires to get from 10 to 8 at some point, as many people expect based on his history with rotations, Dennis Parker Jr. and Christian Reeves might be the next two to watch, with Trent Perry possibly in that group with them.
• Speaking of Perry, he sure looked like the kind of guy Self loves having on his team — an all-out hustler who will do anything, anywhere, any time against anybody for the good of the team. That really showed up in the loss to Duke, where he really made a splash and wowed the crowd by showing his athleticism and elite energy. He’s not a shooter. But he does seem to know how to play the game, with spacing, ball movement and body movement, along with timing, being big time strengths of his. I don’t know how many minutes that will equate to when we get into the heart of this thing, but he has at least put himself into the mix.
• Leroy Blyden Jr. is one to watch. KU needs to find a way to get him going in terms of being comfortable and effective against tougher competition than he’s faced throughout most of his career. If he gets there, the back-court and ball-handling situation is fully solidified. But if he doesn’t — I’d bet he will — then you could be looking at a guy who is a candidate for the back end of the rotation. He’s small and has to knock down shots and be a play-maker to make sure he doesn’t get swallowed up out there.
• It’s hard to say what KU’s best lineup is right now since we haven’t seen how TKR fits in yet. But I do know that it has Stokes, White and Kinney in it. The rest of the fit around those three can be fluid, with a true big or a couple of wings or any combination of something like that. But Kinney has looked terrific — better than I thought or expected — like he belongs at this level and is already comfortable. And in Stokes and White you’ve got two guys who can play multiple positions, adding some lineup flexibility and versatility to the hot-hand approach or going big or small. This is the best roster, top to bottom, that Self’s had in a while. It should be fun to see the different ways he uses it.
• A couple of basketball X's & O's situations that I’ve loved seeing so far… Self’s classic high-low with Stokes as the passer in the high position could be lethal. He draws so much attention and is such a gifted passer, that this offense, however much they run it, could be as good as we’ve seen in a long time… It’s fun to see Luke Barnett check in at the end of halves with KU looking for a late 3-pointer before the buzzer. That’s a role. And while he won’t play 10-15 minutes on this roster — he probably would’ve without the late additions — he still can find himself in a few important positions this season, be it in those late-half scenarios or as a 3-point gunner wearing out the Jayhawks’ rotation guys while playing on the scout team… We’ve seen a little bit of the Jayhawks’ “4-game” staple offense under Self of late, that weave that allows wings and guards to pass and replace around the perimeter while waiting for passing and driving angles to break open in the defense and I think this team — largely because of Stokes — could be as equipped to run it as any we’ve seen since that Josh Jackson team. They’ve got length, athleticism, good passing and multiple ball-handlers and guys who aren’t afraid to go searching for paint touches. There are a few reasons Self is in position to love this team, and that’s definitely one of them.
Tonight’s game against Fordham is slated for a 7 p.m. tipoff on ESPN+.
— For tickets to all KU athletic events, visit kuathletics.com
