The Kansas student section gets wild with Big Jay during the first half of an exhibition game against Fort Hays State on Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025 at Allen Fieldhouse. Photo by Nick Krug

Kansas coach Bill Self has in recent weeks characterized his team this year as one featuring much more uncertainty entering the season than the average KU basketball roster over the course of his 23 seasons at the helm.

Exhibitions at Louisville and against Fort Hays State provided the beginnings of some sort of clarity, as well as excellent showcases for key offseason acquisitions like Darryn Peterson and Melvin Council Jr. along the way. But the games on which the Jayhawks will truly be judged, and in which they will begin to display their true identity as a team, begin Monday when Green Bay visits Allen Fieldhouse for the season opener at 7 p.m.

When KU does take the floor, Self will be hoping for much better than what he’s seen from his team in practice of late. He said on Friday he didn’t feel great about its preparedness for the games ahead.

“We had a bad day this morning, not from an attitude standpoint or try-level standpoint, just from attention to details, carry-over,” he said. “A lot of slippage, a lot. I didn’t think we were good at all the other night against Fort Hays with the exception of Melvin … but we’ve got to be a heck of a lot better than what we have been in practice the last couple of days.”

The first chance for improvement comes against the Phoenix, a mid-major foe out of the Horizon League that is led by head coach Doug Gottlieb, the former Oklahoma State point guard who is better known these days for his national talk radio show on Fox Sports, which he continues to host along with his duties as the Green Bay head coach.

The arrangement did not lead to instant success during Gottlieb’s first year at the helm, as the Phoenix went 4-28. It didn’t help that Green Bay lost its top player, guard Anthony Roy, to a season-ending injury in December at a time when he had previously been averaging 27.2 points per game. Roy has since transferred to OSU, his sixth school in sixth collegiate seasons.

The Phoenix does bring back forward Marcus Hall, who started 31 games during the 2024-25 season and averaged 13.9 points and 4.2 rebounds while shooting 36.7% from deep. Guards Preston Ruedinger (who according to the Green Bay Press Gazette has already been offered a role to help coach the Phoenix next year), C.J. O’Hara and Mac Wrecke are also back and should figure in prominently this season.

LeBron Thomas is a two-time junior-college All-American selection who started for Green Bay in its exhibition against Bradley on Oct. 11, as did sophomore Ramel Bethea, another JUCO transfer from MiraCosta College who is 29 years old and spent five years in the Navy.

“Kudos to him for serving our country,” Self said. “That’s probably the coolest thing about it from my standpoint. The other thing I think about, collectively, if he and Gee (Ngala, KU’s 26-year-old point guard) go to dinner, you got 55 years of age eating food together, breaking bread together.”

The Phoenix lost that Bradley game 83-78 despite 15 points from Hall and 14 more off the bench from Rob Stroud, a forward who came from Division II Lewis University. Green Bay did beat Division III St. Norbert College 75-48 in another exhibition on Thursday, led by 13 points from another JUCO transfer, Josh Hines.

Gottlieb said during the offseason that he had always wanted to coach a game at Allen Fieldhouse and that in asking his players where they dreamed of playing, Kansas came up as a potential option.

It certainly isn’t an easy way for the Phoenix to start the year. KU has won 52 straight home openers, including all 22 under head coach Bill Self. Green Bay was picked last in the Horizon League’s preseason poll this fall.

No. 19 Kansas Jayhawks vs. Green Bay Phoenix

• Allen Fieldhouse, Lawrence, 7 p.m.

• Broadcast: ESPN+

• Radio: Jayhawk Radio Network (in Lawrence, KLWN AM 1320 / K269GB FM 101.7 / KKSW FM 105.9 / KMXN FM 92.9)

Keep an eye out

1. Peterson’s return: All signs point to KU’s highly regarded star freshman making his official debut Monday, after he was limited in the second half against Louisville due to cramps and then sat out the Fort Hays State exhibition with what Self called “a little bug.” Self said he practiced on Friday and may not be 100%, but “I certainly don’t anticipate holding him any more from this point forward, unless something else happens.”

2. Settling in: KU is counting on Kohl Rosario, a freshman wing from Miami who enrolled early over the summer, to serve as one of its top shooters, but in his first two tastes of collegiate action, Rosario went a combined 1-for-9 from the field. He demonstrated the athleticism and hustle that made him such an appealing prospect, but not the shooting quite yet. Self said Rosario is playing “too ramped up and too sped up” — perhaps understandable for such a young player adapting to new circumstances — and “hasn’t shot the ball well in a couple of weeks, but that’ll change.”

3. The promise of Paul: KU has a bit of an enigma in its frontcourt in Paul Mbiya, who at 7 feet tall with a 7-foot-8 wingspan has a level of size that is difficult to find at any level of basketball, let alone in college. Forward Bryson Tiller impressed in exhibition play, but Mbiya might be the truest center on the roster behind Flory Bidunga, and he had a productive nine points and nine rebounds in 12 minutes against Fort Hays State. Self offered his assessment of Mbiya at this early juncture on Friday, noting that he needs to improve considerably at playing without fouling and become a better rim protector and rebounder. That’s a long way to go for someone who will inevitably be on the floor at times as early as Monday, but also throughout KU’s schedule.

Off-kilter observation

Gottlieb has built a national profile as a media personality in the decades since he played for OSU, but he might still be best known to KU fans for wearing his shorts backwards during KU’s senior-night game on Feb. 22, 1999, and getting greeted with “shorts on backwards” chants from the Allen Fieldhouse crowd.