The Kansas men’s basketball team learned quite a bit about its makeup in exhibition games against Louisville and Duke, even as neither went its way.
“For me personally, I view both those teams as national championship contenders,” center Christian Reeves said. “… I think we fought. I don’t think we lay down or anything like that. I think it just came down to execution and things that we can control, and that’s without playing our best basketball and making some shots. I feel good about where we’re at, and obviously you don’t want to lose, but I feel good about where we’re at.”
Added freshman wing Trent Perry: “We just needed to go back to the drawing board and kind of come together as a team and as kind of a family, and just get a good feel together of how to finish a game.”
Better not to finish before results start counting, and with its preseason schedule — a longer and vastly more challenging one than usual — in the rearview mirror, it’s now time for Kansas to turn its attention to games that really matter.
The Jayhawks will take on a couple mid-major foes at Allen Fieldhouse to start the year, beginning with Fordham on Monday at 7 p.m.
Fordham, which plays in the Atlantic 10, has had a rough go of it for the most part in recent years. The Rams had to vacate the wins from two of their better seasons, meaning that they have not had a winning record in league play since 2006-07; they have also failed to reach the NCAA Tournament since 1992.
That all made what Mike Magpayo accomplished in his first season rather impressive. Formerly of UC Riverside, where he was the first Division I men’s basketball coach of Asian descent, Magpayo led the Rams to a 17-15 record with an 8-10 mark in conference games.
This season, Fordham has been picked to finish seventh in its league in the A-10’s preseason poll, with Rikus Schulte, a 6-foot-9 forward from Germany, earning preseason all-defensive and second-team all-conference selections. Schulte averaged 10.7 points, 9.1 rebounds and 1.5 steals last season, and is the most prominent returning player for a team that lost its other double-digit scorers; he is joined in the frontcourt by another returning starter, 6-foot-10 Akira Jacobs, a high-volume 3-point shooter (33.3% on a team-high 132 attempts last year), as well as 6-foot-10 Abass Bodjia.
Fordham won both of its exhibitions, one at home against UMBC and one at Fairfield. Bodjia led the way in the matchup with the Retrievers; Amir Lindsey, a 5-foot-11 guard from Albany who was first-team all-league last year, scored 18 points against the Stags, and Lateef Patrick Jr., the Southland’s newcomer of the year at Stephen F. Austin, added 20 off the bench in that game.
It’ll be the first matchup between KU and Fordham since 1977 and a chance for the Jayhawks to start their season on the right foot.
NO. 17 KANSAS JAYHAWKS VS. FORDHAM RAMS
• Allen Fieldhouse, Lawrence, 7 p.m.
• Broadcast: ESPN+
• Radio: Jayhawk Radio Network (in Lawrence, KLWN AM 1320 / K269GB FM 101.7 / KKSW FM 105.9 / KMXN FM 92.9)
KEEP AN EYE OUT
Winging it: The freshman Perry made an immediate impression with his high-energy stint on the floor in the Duke exhibition, one in which he supplied four points, two rebounds, a steal and overall steady defense in 14 minutes, with head coach Bill Self saying on Wednesday, “I think he’s going to be hard to not play more minutes just because of his activity. He just plays so hard and he’s athletic enough and keeps balls alive. I’ve been really happy with him.” The question is exactly where he fits in the hierarchy of KU wings, a group that also includes the likes of Dennis Parker Jr., Kohl Rosario and Luke Barnett vying for playing time. Rosario may not play on Monday, depending on whether he still has lingering symptoms following his concussion and oral surgery. Where does Self turn first off the bench?
Poetry in motion: To this point, Self hasn’t been particularly pleased with his team’s ball and body movement. He had previously spoken of a tendency for the ball to stick in the hands of either Melvin Council Jr. or Tyran Stokes. On Wednesday he noted that Council and Taylen Kinney — two of the Jayhawks’ top ball-handlers — aren’t moving enough in the moments after they make a pass: “Every time that TK or Mel has it and they pass it, they just stand or go get it right back. That’s how we played last year with Mel.” There were indeed some stagnant late-game possessions in exhibition play that bore a substantial resemblance to some of the lesser showings of the 2025-26 Jayhawks, particularly in the extent to which they depended on Council to make magic late in the shot clock. KU will hope those don’t develop quite as often in real games this season.
Nothing to see here?: Self gave a somewhat oblique answer about the prospective debut of former Purdue forward Trey Kaufman-Renn, KU’s final addition of the offseason, in which he said he planned to play him against Fordham but first had to address “unknowns that I need to visit with to make sure that the way I see it is right.” Kaufman-Renn has been working his way into playing shape and also dealt with a minor ankle issue, but if everything is in order for Monday, the former Boilermaker could have a chance to display why it was so important for the Jayhawks to bolster their frontcourt by acquiring him in the first place.
OFF-KILTER OBSERVATION
Fordham guard Kelvin Odih was on the St. John’s team that knocked KU out of the NCAA Tournament last season, though he did not appear in the game.
