WRITER: Henry Greenstein

KU women's basketball picked to finish third in Big 12

Just two years ago, the Kansas women's basketball team was picked to finish last in the Big 12 Conference in the league's preseason poll. After qualifying for the NCAA Tournament in 2022 and then winning the Women's National Invitation Tournament in 2023, head coach Brandon Schneider's squad is facing significantly higher expectations. In a preseason poll of conference coaches released Thursday, KU slotted in ...

Jackson, Franklin and Kersgieter earn preseason all-conference honors

The Big 12 Conference coaches expect the Kansas women's basketball team to pick up right where it left off. Seven months after center Taiyanna Jackson and guard Zakiyah Franklin earned first-team All-Big 12 honors and Holly Kersgieter picked up an honorable mention, those three players were honored again in the league's 2023 preseason poll of Big 12 coaches. All three players are super-seniors who have chosen ...

No rest for KU run defense against uptempo UCF

The Kansas defense and its coordinator Brian Borland were acutely aware last week that the Jayhawks had given up 427 rushing yards to Texas in 2022. When it came time to take on the Longhorns again, though, that awareness only meant so much. “We were 100 yards better than we were a year ago against Texas," Borland said Wednesday, "but that’s not saying much." This time around, KU gave up 336 yards on an ...

Jayhawks content fielding nine scholarship players — for now

Last year’s Kansas men’s basketball team had 13 players on scholarship, and its bench was widely considered one of its greatest weaknesses; the Jayhawks’ backups averaged just 10.89 points per game, one of the lowest marks in the country. This year, with Zach Clemence still slated to redshirt after his unexpected return from the transfer portal (in what coach Bill Self called a “very fair” ...

KU runner Chandler Gibbens named national athlete of the week

Fresh off his victory at Notre Dame's Joe Piane Invitational on Friday, Kansas senior Chandler Gibbens earned the NCAA Division I National Athlete of the Week award Monday from the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. Gibbens finished first in a field of 155 runners at Notre Dame, beating his personal record by more than half a minute and coming in just two seconds before runner-up ...

Self offers minimal comments following Morris' dismissal from team, citing legal proceedings

Three days after Arterio Morris was charged with rape and dismissed from the Kansas men's basketball team, KU coach Bill Self declined to comment Monday on how he weighed the decision to bring Morris to Kansas or when he first learned of the late-August allegation against his former player. Self, who was speaking to the media ahead of Friday's Late Night in the Phog exhibition, referred to the ongoing legal ...