photo by: AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley

Kansas guard Elmarko Jackson (13) attempts to shoot over Louisville guard J'Vonne Hadley (1) during the first half of an NCAA exhibition college basketball game in Louisville, Ky., Friday, Oct. 24, 2025.

The Kansas men’s basketball team will engage in its final tuneup ahead of the 2025-26 men’s basketball season when it welcomes a Division II foe, Fort Hays State, to Allen Fieldhouse.

Tipoff for the exhibition game is set for 7 p.m. on Tuesday, and it will be televised on ESPN+.

It hasn’t been all that long since Fort Hays State visited Lawrence, as the Tigers made the trip east for an exhibition just two seasons ago. They actually outscored KU in the second half of that one, a 73-55 victory for the Jayhawks, by draining a series of late 3-pointers.

FHSU’s most familiar player, and only returning starter, is Kyle Grill, who averaged 11.6 points and 4.6 rebounds while shooting 38.0% from deep during the 2024-25 season. The 6-foot-6 junior guard, a Maize native, is the brother of former Iowa State, UNLV and Missouri guard Caleb Grill.

The squad is very heavy on reserves and redshirts from last season who are now looking to take on larger roles, as well as four freshmen and two transfers: Blake Danitschek (did not play last year at Northwest Missouri State) and Juju Ramirez (12.3 points and 6.0 rebounds at another Division II school, Saint Anselm College).

Ramirez is a Lawrence native with an interesting backstory: He is the son of a former KU volleyball player who attended Bishop Seabury for two years before making the move to prep school in New Hampshire. He actually received a KU offer early in his recruiting process, but ended up starting college at Northern Colorado, where he spent a pair of seasons as a reserve before going back to New Hampshire for his junior season at Saint Anselm. Now he’s in his home state again.

The Tigers were picked to finish fourth in the MIAA coaches’ poll and second in its media poll. This is their lone exhibition game, and it comes more than two weeks before they open their season.

The Jayhawks, meanwhile, are fresh off a solid showing in their 90-82 road exhibition at No. 11 Louisville on Friday.

“I was surprisingly pleased, because I thought we actually reacted to some situations better than what we had prepared to react to them,” KU coach Bill Self said on Monday, “just because we hadn’t gotten through enough situations yet.”

Freshman phenom Darryn Peterson led the way with 24 points in the first half with six 3s and finished with 26 points after dealing with cramps in the second. Self said those cramps have been bothering Peterson off and on for a while. He practiced Sunday but sat out Monday due to soreness.

“I don’t think we’ve quite remedied the situation yet,” Self said. “And that’s going to be a big deal if your best player can’t finish games because of cramping or whatever it would be, so we’ve got to figure that out.”

Five other players reached double figures at Louisville as a result of a free-throw-laden second half. Redshirt freshman forward Bryson Tiller impressed with 12 points, seven rebounds and four blocks off the bench.

“He’s really a good player,” Self said, “but he doesn’t play to his size all the time because sometimes he settles, but I thought he was much better the other day.”

Only eight of KU’s 13 scholarship players (and 16 total players) saw significant playing time in the first contest. Loyola-Chicago transfer guard Jayden Dawson and international freshman Paul Mbiya made the briefest of cameos, and guards Corbin Allen and Nginyu Ngala and forward Samis Calderon did not appear. Everyone could conceivably take the court on Tuesday if the Jayhawks build a sufficient advantage over the Tigers.

(Self said of Dawson specifically that he is healthy, so his three-minute appearance didn’t have to do with his recent knee soreness — except in the sense that the knee issue “probably put him behind where he probably wasn’t as ready to play the other day.”)

However the game progresses, KU will certainly hope for a cleaner showing than the 16 turnovers and 29 fouls it committed against the Cardinals, and to play up to its potential a bit more on the glass against the largely undersized Tigers (whose tallest player is the 6-foot-9 Ramirez) after conceding 21 offensive rebounds to Louisville.

“I thought some guys played to their size for the most part blocking and altering, but I didn’t think we rebounded the ball worth a flip,” Self said. “So we got to get better at that.”

Following the conclusion of Tuesday’s exhibition, the Jayhawks will have five days between games as they prepare to begin their season on Monday against Green Bay.