With the KU football team on a bye, it’ll be a big basketball week at Wave the Wheat and the University of Kansas, with the men’s and women’s hoops teams both slated to head over to Kansas City this week for Big 12 Media Day.
The women will go first, on Tuesday, with Brandon Schneider bringing his top three players with him — Zakiyah Franklin, Holly Kersgieter and Taiyanna Jackson — to break down and preview the upcoming women’s basketball season.
The Jayhawks were picked to finish third in the conference in the preseason coaches poll, but this group has made no secret of its plans to be contending for a Big 12 title by the time we get to March.
That trio, which will join Schneider in representing the Jayhawks at the season tipoff event, was also named to the preseason all-Big 12 team, with Franklin and Jackson earning first-team nods and Kersgieter receiving honorable mention love.
The KU men will be inside T-Mobile Center on Wednesday, doing their part to preview the season.
The Jayhawks, of course, were picked as the favorites to win this year’s Big 12 title, a few days before being named the preseason No. 1-ranked team in the country in the AP Top 25.
Right now, the schedule of events for the men’s tipoff only mentions Hunter Dickinson joining KU coach Bill Self in KC. But it’s impossible to imagine a scenario in which Dajuan Harris Jr., KJ Adams and Kevin McCullar Jr. aren’t there, as well.
If they can only bring three players, one of those guys will get cut. Either way, they’ll be a popular bunch, as the preseason favorites and nation’s top-ranked team.
We’ll be there for all of it, in search of interesting sights and sounds, so check in with us throughout the week for plenty of content from the men’s and women’s Big 12 tipoff event.
In other news this week…
• The KU volleyball team has another slow week ahead, with just one match scheduled — Sunday at TCU. The Jayhawks are still ranked and into the second third of their Big 12 schedule. What they do in the next few weeks could go a long way toward determining whether they will both make the NCAA Tournament (very likely) and if they can host first- and second-round matches (very possible). And we’ve got plans to feature a few more members of that team as the weeks roll by. The new AVCA rankings came out Monday afternoon and the Jayhawks jumped up two more spots, from No. 16 to a season-best No. 14, fresh off of a sweep of Oklahoma last week that moved them to 13-4 on the season.
• Both men’s and women’s cross country and men’s and women’s golf are entering the latter stages of their fall seasons and we’ve still got some stories planned from those teams, including stories on a couple of recent champions. The cross country squads just wrapped up pre-nationals last weekend — the women took 5th and the men 15th — and they are in the early stages of preparing for the Big 12 championship in Ames, Iowa, on Oct. 28. That will serve as the final tune-up for regionals (Nov. 10) and nationals (Nov. 18). In case you missed this story, check out the latest accomplishment by junior golfer Jordan Rothman, who set another school record and won her first collegiate tournament recently.
• There will still be plenty of football to keep an eye on this week, with the status of starting QB Jalon Daniels still up in the air, and the Jayhawks using their bye week to get healthy and ready for an Oct. 28 showdown with No. 6 Oklahoma at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium. Kickoff for that one was announced Monday — KU-OU on Oct. 28 will be an 11 a.m. kick on FOX.
— For tickets to all KU athletic events, visit kutickets.com
