Kent State added to slate

Kansas' Sherron Collins steals the ball from Georgia Tech with seconds left in the game at the Alexander Memorial Coliseum on Tuesday in Atlanta, Ga.

Gary Bedore’s KU Basketball Notebook (06-06-08)

Kent State, UMKC, Washington (in K.C.), Syracuse or Florida (in K.C.), Belmont, UMass (in K.C.), Temple, at Arizona, Tennessee, at Michigan State

Kansas University’s men’s basketball team will play defending Mid-America Conference champion Kent State next season in Allen Fieldhouse.

No date has yet been determined for the game, KU senior associate athletic director Larry Keating said Friday.

The Golden Flashes return three starters off last year’s 28-7 squad, including MAC player of the year Al Fisher, a 6-foot-1 junior from Pennsauken, N.J.

Kent State will have a first-year coach in Geno Ford, who replaced new TCU coach Jim Christian, who went 138-58 at Kent State the past six seasons. The Golden Flashes won at least 20 games in each of those seasons. Ford had been an assistant at KSU the past four years.

KU also will play Belmont on Nov. 21, Temple on Dec. 20 and Tennessee on Jan. 3 in Allen Fieldhouse. The Jayhawks will travel to Arizona on Dec. 23 and Michigan State on Jan. 10.

KU will meet Massachusetts on Dec. 13 in the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo. KU also will play Missouri-Kansas City on either Nov. 16 or 18 in an early-round College Basketball Experience Tournament game in Allen Fieldhouse. KU will meet Washington in a CBE semifinal on Nov. 24 in Sprint Center. Florida and Syracuse will play in the other semi, with the finals and consolation finals the following night.