The Big 12 men’s basketball schedule is two weeks old, and now Kansas has some sense of the trials it will need to endure as it angles for a return to league-title contention.
The schedule as written features no shortage of twists and turns: a rare Friday night matchup against Baylor, a brutal stretch in which a Sunflower Showdown in Manhattan proceeds two battles with top conference contenders in a three-day span, a series of Big Monday tests and so on.
Here are the three games that stand out most from KU’s conference slate — and could go a long way toward determining the Jayhawks’ positioning in the league standings.
AJ Dybantsa of the USA team goes in for a dunk at the Nike Hoop Summit on Saturday, April 12, 2025, in Portland, Ore.
Jan. 31 vs. BYU: The lone Peterson-Dybantsa matchup
It’s still difficult to comprehend, even four months after league opponents for the 2025-26 season were first announced, why the Big 12 — which, like most athletic conferences, tends to appreciate and cultivate opportunities for high television ratings — only paired KU and BYU together once this season, despite the fact that the teams feature the potential top two picks in the 2026 NBA Draft.
Those would be Darryn Peterson and AJ Dybantsa, who battled off the court for the No. 1 ranking in the 2025 freshman class and, notably, on the court in high school competition, including in a game on Feb. 8 in which Dybantsa put up 49 for Utah Prep but Peterson tallied 61 and the game-winner for Prolific Prep. That existing proof of concept makes the Big 12’s scheduling decision all the more confusing.
In any case, we have to be grateful for what we have, which is surely the one and only Dybantsa-Peterson matchup that will ever be contested on a college basketball court (unless they meet in the Big 12 or NCAA tournaments, of course), and it will take place at Allen Fieldhouse. If each team delivers on its promise, this could be a big-time matchup between league contenders just before the halfway point of the conference slate. KU still hasn’t beaten BYU since the Cougars joined the Big 12 — under two separate BYU coaching staffs.
Iowa State guard Tamin Lipsey (3) handles the ball against Lipscomb during the second half in the first round of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Friday, March 21, 2025, in Milwaukee.
Feb. 14 at Iowa State: A marquee game in Ames
Hilton Coliseum is one of the best environments in the Big 12 in any circumstance, but it gets particularly electric when a team like KU comes to town. That’s worked well for Iowa State of late, as the Cyclones, who earlier in Bill Self’s tenure as KU coach lost to the Jayhawks at home seven straight times, have taken the last three meetings at Hilton. The 2023 edition was a borderline blowout, but each of the last two matchups have been high-intensity slugfests, with ISU holding off a furious rally in 2024 and then embarking on a dramatic late run of its own to put the 2025 edition out of reach.
ESPN is betting on another quality clash between Self and T.J. Otzelberger, as it recently selected this Valentine’s Day matchup as one of just five games all season to televise nationwide on ABC.
The Cyclones may not be the buzziest team in the Big 12 this offseason, but Otzelberger and his staff have shown a knack for crafting rosters well for their play style without necessarily having to splurge on the biggest-name transfers. Familiar names like Joshua Jefferson, Milan Momcilovic and (as always) Tamin Lipsey return, and ISU adds last year’s WAC player of the year from Utah Valley, Dominick Nelson.
Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against BYU, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025, in Tucson, Ariz.
Feb. 28 at Arizona: The first trip to the McKale Center and first half of a two-game swing
The fact that KU didn’t have to make the trip to Tucson, Arizona, in the Wildcats’ first year in the Big 12 was something of a controversy among Arizona fans. An article in the Arizona Daily Star a year ago featured this quote from Commissioner Brett Yormark: “It wasn’t easy when you think about the different matchups and the depth of the conference, but we’ve got to go back to the drawing board and think about that. That’s a marquee matchup, as we all know, and one the fans want to see.”
The Jayhawks and Wildcats ended up splitting a pair of matchups last season — KU eked one out to preserve its senior-night win streak, and then UA pulled away in the Big 12 tournament — and now Arizona fans can rejoice, as the Jayhawks have to visit McKale (but, for what it’s worth, not before the Wildcats play at Allen Fieldhouse again on Feb. 9). It will be KU’s first visit to Tucson since Dec. 23, 2008, and the Jayhawks are 2-1 there all time.
Neither team will bear much of a resemblance to last year’s iterations. KU returns one player in Flory Bidunga who played 14 minutes in the Big 12 tournament game against the Wildcats. Arizona at least has several starters back in Tobe Awaka, Jaden Bradley and Anthony Dell’Orso, but has rebuilt much of its rotation with freshmen.
This matchup is also interesting because of an entirely different dynamic: It’s the first half of a two-game swing through the state of Arizona (KU faces Arizona State three days later on March 3). These sorts of arrangements are becoming increasingly common in the Big 12 as it expands its footprint across the nation, and KU already had to experience one of these scheduling situations last season when it went to Utah for consecutive games against Utah and BYU. That trip, during which the Jayhawks stayed in the Beehive State over the weekend with an eye toward team bonding, was a bit of a disaster that featured one of the worst losses in school history and by the end had Self saying his team needed to “get away from each other.” It’ll be interesting to see this year, with a totally different team, how KU approaches the travel element of this year’s two-game swing. Some schools have chosen to go back and forth from their home campuses in between matchups, despite the logistical inconvenience.
Courtesy of Nike Hoop Summit
AP Photo/Kayla Wolf
AP Photo/Rick Scuteri