Kansas forward Dwight Coleby (22) pushes his way through Washburn forward Brady Skeens (22) and guard Isaac Clark (15) during the first half, Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2016 at Allen Fieldhouse.

Calling all rebounders. Calling all rebounders.

Kansas men’s basketball coach Bill Self would like any and all players on his roster able and willing to provide rebounding the attention it deserves to report to Allen Fieldhouse as soon as possible for Sunday’s 7 p.m. exhibition finale against Emporia State.

“I think we’re a pretty poor rebounding team right now,” Self said earlier this week, admitting that hitting the boards was something that had plagued his team throughout the preseason. “I don’t think we’re very explosive going after the ball.”

The numbers from Tuesday’s exhibition opener certainly indicated that. Not only were the Jayhawks out-rebounded by Washburn, 45-44, but the Ichabods also snagged 19 offensive rebounds compared to just 11 for the home team.

“We had two guys actually (get) a rebound the other night that was within one foot of the rim,” Self said. “And that was (guards) Frank (Mason) and Devonte’ (Graham). Nobody else got a rebound within one foot of the rim.”

In Self’s eyes, that statistic was the most embarrassing for KU’s top three big men, who combined for just four boards in 39 minutes.

Reserves Mitch Lightfoot (7) and Dwight Coleby (6) more than held their own on the glass, but Self has not been shy about the fact that neither player figures to factor into KU’s regular rotation that prominently this season.

“We’re going to play three bigs for the most part,” Self said. “And then we’ll go small.”

Doing so will force KU to rely on 6-foot-8 wings Josh Jackson and Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk and 6-5 guard Lagerald Vick for production beyond points and assists, and Self was less than pleased with the rebounding performance of that trio in the opener.

“He’d better (rebound),” Self said of Jackson, who tallied four boards in his KU debut. “That’s what he does. He’s a 6-8, 6-9 with hair, 6-7 maybe without. But that’s what he is. He’s a rebounder, extra-possession guy. That’s what he’s known to be. So he’s got to do more of that.”

Self continued: “Guys aren’t really exploding and going after the ball, kind of waiting for the ball to come to them. That’s something we can definitely improve on and get better at, but certainly our big guys and Josh and Lagerald more so than anybody. They have got to rebound the ball better.”

That will be at least one of the primary focuses in tonight’s final tune-up for the regular season against Emporia State.

Vandiver’s veterans

Four of the five Emporia State starters are seniors for head coach Shaun Vandiver, the former Colorado standout who is 65-77 in five seasons in charge of the Hornets.

This season, Emporia State was picked to finish 11th in the 14-team MIAA.

Vandiver played one season at Hutchinson Community College before transferring to CU prior to the 1988-89 season. He earned Big Eight rookie of the year honors that season and was a two-time, first-team all-Big Eight selection the following two seasons. He finished his career third on Colorado’s all-time scoring list.

Series history

KU leads the overall series with Emporia State, 20-3, including a 7-0 record in exhibition play. The series dates back to 1904, when the Hornets won the first meeting in Emporia. ESU’s three wins came in 1904, 1916 and 1947. Since 1992, Kansas has won 10 consecutive games in the series, with all of those meetings in Allen Fieldhouse, including a 109-56 victory in November of 2014.

Prep for the opener

Self said Thursday that his coaching staff was well into the process of preparing for the team’s regular season opener — Nov. 11 vs. Indiana in Honolulu — but that neither he nor his players had yet jumped into the scouting report.

“I’ll get on that this weekend,” Self said. “We’ll start working on some things that we anticipate Indiana doing, a little bit Friday, a little bit Saturday. And then beginning Monday, that will be, you know, all we’ll talk about besides trying to improve ourselves.”

The Jayhawks will travel to Hawaii on Tuesday and arrive around 9 or 10 p.m. Central time. The travel day will be the final of 12 days off required by the NCAA between the start of practice and tip-off of a team’s first game.

Third-ranked KU and No. 11 Indiana are slated to meet at 8 p.m. Friday on ESPN.