SAN DIEGO — It took just two weeks for one of Kansas head coach Bill Self’s senior-day proclamations to bear fruit. After freshman forward Paul Mbiya threw down a couple of dunks on March 7 in the Jayhawks’ dominant home win over Kansas State, Self declared that Mbiya — the 7-foot “Big Paul” with a 7-foot-8-wingspan — had been “no question our most improved guy, just in the last three or four ...
SAN DIEGO — The player most familiar with Kansas on the St. John’s roster is quite clearly Zuby Ejiofor. That’s not a surprise. Ejiofor played for the Jayhawks as a freshman during the 2022-23 season, transferred out in search of greater opportunities elsewhere and has since blossomed into arguably the top player in the Big East Conference. But when it comes to knowing KU well, Dillon Mitchell might be a ...
SAN DIEGO — The fourth-seeded Kansas men’s basketball team escaped No. 13 seed Cal Baptist in the Lancers’ NCAA Tournament debut, as the Jayhawks earned a 68-60 win at Viejas Arena to advance to the Round of 32. “They say survive and advance," KU coach Bill Self said. "And that's what we did. I actually thought we were pretty darn good for about 25 minutes, and then went stale for about eight and then ...
SAN DIEGO — Though they had not previously been acquainted, Jamari McDowell became very familiar with the small Alabama-based Christian university Samford very quickly in March 2024 when the Bulldogs pressed relentlessly and made the Jayhawks work for 40 minutes to earn a 93-89 NCAA Tournament victory in Salt Lake City. “How intense, and how much joy they played with, it was amazing,” McDowell recalled on ...
SAN DIEGO — Kansas had an unusually accomplished water boy at Sunday’s practice back in Lawrence. Fifth-year senior guard Melvin Council Jr., given an unexpected day off by head coach Bill Self, found other ways to make himself useful: besides handing out water, of course, he was “rebounding, clapping, keeping the energy alive and stuff like that,” he said on Thursday. As Self explained on Sunday, he ...