Holiday Hawks: Wearing a holiday-themed hat, Andre Womack, a saxophonist with the Kansas basketball band, counts down as the band performs prior to tipoff against Omaha, on Monday, Dec. 18, 2017 at Allen Fieldhouse.

Kansas Jayhawks (0-0) vs. Emporia State Hornets (0-0)

Time: 7 p.m. | Location: Allen Fieldhouse, Lawrence, Kansas

TV: Jayhawk TV/ESPN+ | Radio: IMG Jayhawk Radio Network

Log on to KUsports.com for our live game blog coverage and follow the KUsports.com staff on Twitter: @KUSports @mctait @TomKeeganLJW @bentonasmith @SJacksonLJW & @nickkrug

Keys for Kansas

1. Execution, execution, execution

These exhibition games are rarely about the final score and almost always about seeing where a team is at at this stage in the season.

In order to gauge that with the 2018-19 Jayhawks, Kansas coach Bill Self no doubt will be looking at things like effort, intensity, toughness, etc. But one of the biggest areas he figures to focus on tonight is execution.

With so many new faces and guys playing together in a live-game setting in front of 16,300 fans for the first time, who is able to best focus in the huddle, execute the game plan, pay attention to scouting report and take what they’ve worked on in practice and talked about on the sideline and execute it on the floor when it really counts?

The answer to that question will be one Self is eager to discover and it figures to go a long way in helping Self figure out his rotation.

2. Time to look at lineups

Self said Wednesday that he might start one lineup tonight and a different one in KU’s second exhibition game next Thursday just to see what how the Jayhawks react.

But that’s just with the starting five.

There’s no doubt that Self and his assistant coaches are curious about how certain groups, looks and lineups will perform together when the lights are on and these exhibition games are the perfect way to experiment with different combinations in a safe environment.

Some will work, others won’t and they might not even get to all of them. But now is the time to take a look at what works and what doesn’t, even if it’s only for a possession or two and ends up being something that the Jayhawks hold on to and don’t utilize again until January.

The season can seem long and stretches from October into April. But in that six or seven months there still are only 35-40 games for Self and his coaches to really see how things look when the stakes are the highest.

Exhibition games or not, it’s important to capitalize on that ability to tinker any time you get the chance.

3. Any obvious leaders?

The roster includes just one senior (Lagerald Vick), a few juniors and only a handful of players who have played meaningful minutes at Kansas.

In and of itself, that would be a bit of a concern regarding leadership for this Kansas team. But when you add to that the fact that Self’s program is coming off of a three- or four-year stretch when it was led by guys like Frank Mason III and Devonte’ Graham, among others, the leadership piece of the puzzle is still very much a work in progress with the 2018-19 Jayhawks.

“That’s probably as big a concern as we have,” Self said Wednesday. “I think it can come from Lagerald some, although he’s not vocal. I think the majority of it will come from Dedric (Lawson). But from a guard standpoint, we’ve got some guys that don’t like to talk. So Quentin (Grimes) and Devon (Dotson) and Charlie (Moore) all have to get out of their comfort zone in order to be a vocal leader. Now, they can lead by example, but as far as being a vocal leader, we do not have a coach on the floor yet and that’s a big concern.”

The leadership conundrum will not be solved tonight. But Self and his squad can get some valuable information from the first exhibition game that might bring Kansas one step closer to knowing who its true leaders are.

Mega Matchup

KU’s young guards vs. ESU’s experience

It will be experience vs. inexperience in a lot of ways in this one and few positions better illustrate that than the perimeter, where KU will throw first-time Jayhawks Charlie Moore, Devon Dotson, Quentin Grimes and Ochai Agbaji at the Hornets, who feature a starting lineup of all seniors.

Included in that group are brothers Cooper and Sawyer Glick, who transferred to ESU from Division II Barry University and are two of nine new members of first-year coach Craig Doty’s first Emporia State squad.

Although the Hornets feature a host of new faces, many of them have played three and four years of college basketball, bringing a seasoned game to the floor to face the Jayhawks. Sawyer Glick, in an exhibition game at Auburn a year ago, poured in 32 points on the strength of 8-of-16 shooting from 3-point range, so even though his experience did not come at ESU, the veteran guard is no stranger to playing good competition in tough buildings.

While the Hornets may have the edge in overall college basketball experience, the Jayhawks boast some of the top prospects in the country and a couple of players — in Lagerald Vick and Marcus Garrett — who have played a lot of meaningful minutes for KU in some huge games.

When those two are not on the court, however, all eyes will be on Grimes, Dotson, Agbaji and Moore, to see how they handle their first real experience inside Allen Fieldhouse.

Jayhawk Pulse

It’s a new era for Kansas basketball, which will be playing its first game without either Frank Mason III or Devonte’ Graham since the 2012-13 season.

While that fact would figure to put a lot of attention on the point guards who will be asked to take the reins from Mason and Graham, a lot of the focus this preseason will be on KU’s plethora of big men. With five players standing 6-8 or taller and two of them on the all-Big 12 preseason lists, KU’s strength this season figures to be inside and that should benefit the Jayhawks a great deal in their matchup with Emporia State.

7-foot junior Udoka Azubuike is back as the team’s leading returning scorer (13 points per game last season) and he is joined by former Memphis standout Dedric Lawson, a preseason All-American. That duo will be bolstered by junior junkyard dog Mitch Lightfoot, freshman force David McCormack and maybe someday sophomore bruiser Silvio De Sousa, who will not play tonight because he is being held out while KU investigates his eligibility as a result of new information that surfaced in the recently wrapped college basketball trial in New York.

After two seasons of relying on the perimeter and 3-point shooting, it will be interesting to see how quickly Self remembers how to rely on his once-favored high-low offense and how many different looks — and players — Self will put on the floor to open the season.

With KU’s recruiting practices becoming a prominent part of the recent college basketball fraud trial in New York City, there still exists the same type of off-the-court cloud that hovered over the program for much of the 2017-18 season. And, as the regular season draws near, De Sousa’s playing status is still somewhat unclear.

But for a couple of hours tonight, inside a fired-up Allen Fieldhouse, none of those details will matter nearly as much to KU’s adoring fan base as figuring out who can do what and how it all looks for the team that enters the 2018-19 season with the No. 1 ranking in the Associated Press Top 25.

Probable Starters

Kansas

G – Devon Dotson, 6-2, 185, Fr.

G – Quentin Grimes, 6-5, 210, Fr.

G – Lagerald Vick, 6-5, 190, Sr.

F – Dedric Lawson, 6-9, 235, Jr.

C – Udoka Azubuike, 7-0, 270, Jr.

Emporia State

G – Malik Hluchoweckyj, 6-1, 175, Sr.

G – Kam Rowan, 6-0, 185, Sr.

F – Sawyer Glick, 6-5, 185, Sr.

F – Kooper Glick, 6-4, 201, Sr.

C – Hassan Thomas, 6-8, 215, Sr.