photo by: Kansas Athletics

Luke Barnett practices shooting during practice on Thursday, June 4, 2026, in Lawrence.

When analysts discuss Kansas’ highly touted freshman forward Tyran Stokes, they tend to focus on his size, his athleticism and his competitive attitude.

The KU coaches, for their part, have spent plenty of time over the summer praising his passing as potentially his top overall attribute.

But his shooting — a question mark, or as his 247Sports scouting report terms it, a “swing skill” — may well be better than expected.

“If that’s a weakness, we’re going to be in pretty good business,” head coach Bill Self said on Wednesday. “He can shoot the ball.”

One estimate from analyst Ben Pfeifer, compiling data from 53 high school and EYBL games, put Stokes at 35.1% on 194 3-point attempts — 46.8% on catch-and-shoot, 24% on off-the-dribble. Self’s comments suggest it won’t be far-fetched for him to approach those numbers in college, too.

In fact, Self had positive things to say in his post-summer press conference about how plenty more of his charges fared from beyond the arc: “We shot it a lot better this summer than what I probably even projected going into the summer,” he said.

Leroy Blyden Jr., who shot 40.7% on high volume as a freshman at Toledo, was always a given to be one of KU’s top marksmen.

So too was freshman Luke Barnett, a 6-foot-4 guard from Laguna Niguel, California. He holds the career records at Mater Dei High School for scoring (2,244), 3-point field goals (419), points in a single game (55), and 3s in a single game (12). But as he arrived at KU as a relatively unheralded prospect — outside the top 100 — and with work to do on other elements of his game, there was no guarantee he was going to be on the floor at any point early in his career to display the skills that allowed him to reach those marks.

“Really, we knew Luke could really shoot, but Luke — it’s great to be able to really shoot, but you still got to be in the game to make shots,” Self said. “Luke’s plenty good enough to be in the game.”

He has in fact, Self said, been a “pleasant surprise,” not just solid but “terrific.”

The 24th-year head coach also had positive things to say about the shooting of Utah transfer forward Keanu Dawes, whose ability to space the floor from the power-forward position could be particularly valuable — associate head coach Jeremy Case has said he thinks Dawes could shoot in the range of 38% next year — and of freshman point guard Taylen Kinney.

Sophomore wing Kohl Rosario, too, is “not the same shooter as he was last year,” Self said.

As a freshman out of Overtime Elite, Rosario’s combination of athleticism, hustle and shooting acumen impressed to such an extent that he earned a day-one starting spot last fall, even as a recent reclassification. In retrospect, Self said it might have been hasty. Rosario found himself confined to the fringes of the rotation and finished the year averaging 3.4 points in 11.6 minutes per game while making just 18 of 63 3-point attempts (28.6%).

“Guys, he wasn’t good, he was terrific early-season, and you put him in a situation that he should be a high-school senior and it was a little too much too quick,” Self said. “We won’t have that issue this year. You talk about leadership, he’s probably as good a vocal leader, and he’s about all the right stuff. So I think he’ll be better from a confidence standpoint, no question … He needs to see some good things happen and he needs to know that we have confidence in him.”

Self, for his part, certainly seems to.

“People last year are saying you’re going to have him one year, and it just didn’t kind of work out this way,” Self said. “I’m hoping people by midseason are saying that you’re only going to have him two.”

He went largely unmentioned on Thursday, but KU also has high-scoring Radford transfer Dennis Parker Jr. The key for the Jayhawks will be getting him closer to the 37.7% mark from his year from the Highlanders than the 28.0% (albeit on lower volume) from his two seasons at N.C. State.

In any case, since leading the Big 12 in 3-point percentage during the 2021-22 national championship season, the Jayhawks have ranked fifth, 11th, sixth and ninth among their league peers. The early above-expectation displays of players like Stokes and Dawes, the emergence of Barnett and improvement of Rosario could all combine to yield a solid performance in this realm during the 2026-27 season.

photo by: AP Photo/Gregory Payan

Rainier Beach’s Tyran Stokes (4) warms up before a game against Bishop McNamara during a high school basketball game at the Hoophall Classic, Sunday, January 18, 2026, in Springfield, Mass.

photo by: AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

Utah forward Keanu Dawes shoots during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Kansas State, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, in Manhattan.

Kansas guard Kohl Rosario (7) lines up a three from the corner during the second half on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025 at Allen Fieldhouse. Photo by Nick Krug