Believe it or not, the Kansas men’s basketball season is now just a few short weeks away.
This year, the introduction to the Jayhawks features actual on-court basketball action because Late Night in the Phog has been redesigned to center on an exhibition contest — namely, one against Division II Pittsburg State on Oct. 16 at 7 p.m.
Boot camp is now in the rearview mirror, and last week the full schedule was revealed with the announcement of the Big 12 Conference slate.
Here are a few of the most interesting games in that portion of the schedule.
Utah head coach Alex Jensen directs his team during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Kansas in Lawrence, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026.
Jan. 6: at Utah
A matchup against the Big 12’s worst team from 2025-26 might not appear an intuitive choice for this list, but where this one is positioned in the schedule could make it quite significant for the trajectory of the Jayhawks’ season.
In recent years, KU has gotten in the habit of sustaining surprising losses in the early stages of league play that have essentially forced it to play from behind in the league race for the following two months (generally these have involved UCF, West Virginia or both). Coming out strong in Salt Lake City in what will be just its second true road game of the season will be paramount if it wants to remain in the upper tier of Big 12 teams.
Complicating matters further is that this is the first installment in a two-game swing through Utah, with BYU looming soon afterward on Jan. 9 at the Marriott Center. These multi-game road trips, a necessary evil of the conference’s cross-country expansion, have not treated KU well in recent years. In 2025, they lost to an underwhelming Utah team and then suffered one of the worst losses in program history at BYU. In 2026, they sustained a grim, if not necessarily shocking, loss to eventual Arizona at the McKale Center, which was closely followed by a bizarre defeat at ASU in which head coach Bill Self got ejected in the first half, one that ultimately probably cost the Jayhawks a seed line in the NCAA Tournament. Will KU make any sort of logistical changes in order to handle this kind of trip differently than it has in years past?
The Jayhawks’ addition of Keanu Dawes, who spent two years with the Runnin’ Utes under two different coaching staffs, will add an entertaining storyline to the matchup as well.
As for the players who will be in Salt Lake City this season, it is an almost entirely new roster outside of returning reserve guards Obomate Abbey and Lucas Langarita. One of Utah’s big offseason acquisitions, Israeli-Danish pro Noam Yaacov, was deemed ineligible, and the Utes pivoted to accomplished former Northern Iowa guard Trey Campbell, who played in the NBA Summer League and whose own eligibility is not clear. Their biggest-name transfer otherwise is Jackson Holcombe, a 6-foot-6 guard who averaged 16.0 points and 7.0 rebounds at Utah Valley and was first-team All-WAC. Head coach Alex Jensen will be relying on contributions from a host of under-the-radar freshmen, international prospects and returned missionaries.
Arizona center Motiejus Krivas shoots free-throws during an NCAA college basketball game against Baylor in Waco, Texas, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026.
Feb. 20: at Arizona
Arizona waited patiently for the chance to host KU at the McKale Center — it was a big topic of discussion when the Wildcats didn’t get a home date with the Jayhawks back in their first year in the Big 12 — and ultimately took advantage of the opportunity last Feb. 28. KU allowed 19 straight points early and at one point fell behind by 18, cut its deficit all the way to two with 12 minutes remaining, then gave up 16 points in a row again and ultimately lost 84-61.
That followed a much more dramatic clash at Allen Fieldhouse earlier in the season, an 82-78 win for the Jayhawks — playing without Darryn Peterson — over the then-No. 1-ranked Wildcats in what will probably go down when all is said and done as one of the best regular-season victories of the Self era.
Needless to say, all eyes will be on Tucson, Arizona, for the lone meeting between the two teams this year. Because it again takes place late in the season — in a smart bit of scheduling by the Big 12 — this game will receive plenty of scrutiny for postseason seeding and will be a feather in the cap of whichever team comes out on top.
The Wildcats were so dominant last season in winning both the Big 12’s regular-season and tournament titles on their way to the Final Four that they may be more of the hunted than the hunter this time around. Motiejus Krivas, a 7-foot-2 Lithuanian center, was an absolute force in the paint on both ends last year for Arizona, and he’s back along with the versatile German wing Ivan Kharchenkov. While known for its defense, Arizona will have no shortage of firepower, and guard Caleb Holt will be one of the top freshmen in the country.
There are two big questions for this year’s Wildcats. One is at point guard, where they will need consistent production from the combination of transfers Derek Dixon (North Carolina) and JJ Mandaquit (Washington) after the graduation of Big 12 Player of the Year Jaden Bradley. The other, and most significant, is at power forward, where Tobe Awaka and Koa Peat are gone and the apparent replacement is Clemson transfer RJ Godfrey, but he’s in eligibility limbo. Otherwise, Arizona might be undersized with Kharchenkov at that position.
As they did last season, the Wildcat fans will understand the gravity of their KU matchup and it should make for a good atmosphere at McKale.
FILE – Iowa State guard Killyan Toure (27) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Arizona, March 2, 2026, in Tucson, Ariz.
March 1: vs. Iowa State
The 2026-27 schedule is advantageous for KU in some ways, but one way in which does not do the Jayhawks any favors is that they don’t get a lot of the projected top teams at Allen Fieldhouse. Arizona, BYU and Houston, all of whom suffered losses in the Phog last season, don’t have to make repeat trips — a quirk of a conference slate that now only has teams playing both home and away against three foes.
For the Jayhawks this season, those are Baylor, Iowa State and Kansas State. ISU is the most highly regarded of the three, and it draws the unenviable task of coming to Lawrence on a Big Monday, a situation in which Self is 41-0, and on senior night, when KU has won for 43 straight years.
The Cyclones haven’t beaten the Jayhawks at Allen Fieldhouse since 2017, but they have strung together some victories against KU at Hilton Coliseum in recent years and certainly won’t make it easy in this late-season matchup. As always from T.J. Otzelberger’s teams, KU can expect an opponent that plays stifling defense and forces turnovers while showcasing dynamic guard play at the other end.
The defense will be especially tenacious because Killyan Toure, a French guard who shone at that end of the court as a freshman, will surely have returned from shoulder surgery by then; he’s expected back in January. KU will already be well acquainted with the inside-out scoring of fellow guard Jamarion Batemon, who excelled off the bench in each of his two games against the Jayhawks last year.
Steady forward Blake Buchanan, who started 36 games for the Cyclones as a junior, is the other most prominent returning contributor. Otzelberger will have a variety of transfers to sort through as he attempts to assemble a new-look lineup. KU fans will recognize Taj Manning from Kansas State, but the biggest-name acquisitions might be Jaquan Johnson, a 5-foot-11 guard who was the MVC defensive player of the year and averaged 16.9 points per game at Bradley, and Tre Singleton, a 6-foot-8 forward who started 31 games for Northwestern with 7.6 points and 4.8 rebounds.
Could ISU get its stalwart point guard Tamin Lipsey back for yet another year? He’s in the same Indiana eligibility lawsuit as KU’s Tre White.
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