The event, which is slated to take place during the week of Sept. 26-30 — Late Night is scheduled to begin in the early evening on Oct. 1 — will wrap up with the final four teams — two men’s and two women’s — facing off for the title on the Allen Fieldhouse court in front of however many fans happen to be packing the stands waiting for their first glimpse of this year’s Jayhawks. The winners will be recognized during Late Night with a trophy presentation by Self.

Beyond creating yet another basketball-centric event for KU fans to go wild about, the new tourney also has helped KU’s standing as a trailblazer in college basketball.

“The three-on-three tournament is the first of its kind to this extent,” said Brandy Ammons, senior development manager for Coaches vs. Cancer. “A few other big schools around the country have done some other student-engagement events in the past, but nothing quite to the extent of what Kansas is doing with this.”

In many ways, that’s nothing new. Ammons said Coaches vs. Cancer, which, to date, has raised more than $87 million, has the utmost respect for the Kansas program and values its relationship both with KU and Self as much as any program and coach in the country.

“To have Coach Self and a powerhouse like Kansas basketball say they support Coaches vs. Cancer and give back in the way that he and his staff have, it is really unmatched,” Ammons said. “We have a lot of coaches who support Coaches vs. Cancer and will get involved, but this seems to be something that everyone associated with Kansas basketball gets involved in and supports. This school really goes above and beyond.”

The idea for the three-on-three tourney came about a year ago when Ammons was sharing with Self the campus-wide initiative that Bo Ryan and the Wisconsin basketball program organized in Madison, Wisconsin. Intrigued by the idea of doing more to get the student body and community involved, Self and others soon came up with the idea for the tournament. That KU was willing to butt it up against one of their biggest nights of the year was merely a bonus, Ammons said.

“Coach Self just said he wanted to do something more to engage the students,” said Ammons, noting that education is nearly as important to the Coaches vs. Cancer initiative as fund-raising. “From there, we kind of came up with the idea for the three-on-three tournament and, if anyone can do something like this and really make it a significant awareness piece for Coaches vs. Cancer, Kansas is the school that can do it.”

In fact, Ammons said Coaches vs. Cancer often uses the Kansas basketball brand as a selling point for other ideas across the country.

“Kansas, a lot of times, is kind of that school, nationally, that we use to tell other schools what’s being done,” Ammons said. “We’ve already pitched the three-on-three tournament to a lot of SEC schools and even some Big 12 schools by saying, ‘This is what Kansas is doing.'”

As of Friday, KU officials did not have an official number of teams that already had registered for the event that will cost $25 per team and include a 3-on-3 T-Shirt plus a reserved seat at Late Night for each team member. All proceeds raised will go directly to Coaches vs. Cancer.

Students wishing to register a team can do so at www.kuathletics.com/3on3.

“Hopefully, we’ll get about 1,000 teams to play,” Self said when announcing the tourney. “The winners will perform at Late Night, both men and women. It’s a good time. If you haven’t experienced it yet, you need to come. Because when you come, you’ll want to come back. I think it will be jumping this year.”