Kansas head coach Bill Self addresses the crowd during Late Night in the Phog on Friday, Oct. 17, 2025 at Allen Fieldhouse. Photo by Nick Krug

Late Night in the Phog, the traditional season-opening event for Kansas basketball, is at this point a bit removed from its period of greatest prominence.

The event was thriving, as KU coach Bill Self recalled over the summer, when he first arrived in the early 2000s. Even a decade later KU had to turn away thousands of fans eager to witness top prospect Andrew Wiggins’ unofficial debut in 2013.

It was an incredibly notable recruiting event, too, for some time. Self recently reminisced about bringing in a contingent that included De’Aaron Fox, Harry Giles and Malik Monk in 2015.

But as Late Night has changed with the times in college basketball — for many years it also included a performing artist — its significance in that regard has dwindled too.

“Not like that this year, and this year’ll be different because it’s just a game,” Self said. “But they’re still going to do all the same Late Night things during the game.”

Indeed, in a move that Self has described as providing “more of entertainment plus substance” amid a climate of budget cuts across college athletes, KU has scrapped Late Night’s musical component altogether (after forgoing a headlining artist in favor of “dueling DJs” in 2025) for its 42nd iteration and replaced intrasquad competition with an actual exhibition opponent.

That will be Division II Pittsburg State, coached by former Jayhawk Jeff Boschee, which will take on KU at Allen Fieldhouse in the preseason opener for both teams at 7 p.m. on Friday. It will be streamed on ESPN+. The Gorillas went 15-15 and 9-10 in the MIAA last year, and their top returning player is 5-foot-11 senior guard Connor Rogers, who averaged 18.0 points per game during the 2025-26 season.

As Self referenced, the game will contain many of the trappings of Late Nights past, such as pretaped skits that play during timeouts.

“And halftime will be longer and (we’ll) do the shots for money and all that stuff,” he said recently. “So we’ll still do a lot of it, but it won’t be quite the same. It’s also the biggest freshman-student-recruitment day of the year, high school/college relations or whatever that is, so that’ll give opportunity for some youngsters to come.”

The event, by the way, no longer contains both the men’s and women’s basketball teams on a single night. The KU women’s team will host its own Late Night on Oct. 29 against Washburn, although oddly the women play a different exhibition against Northeastern State before then (on Oct. 22).

In any case the presence of an actual opponent at each of these events should lead to more focused basketball than in years past.

“You know, we actually try to play well at Late Nights,” Self said over the summer. “You don’t say ‘Go just jack around,’ (but) ‘OK, we’re going to try to play the right way,’ and it never works out that way. I think this Late Night will probably allow us to not waste a day of practice, which will be good.

“… There’s only a few opportunities where people that don’t get a chance to watch us play can come, and hopefully there can be some creative things done in that regard that will make it a special night, but we’re not going to take away from interactions, we’re not going to take away from half-court shots, we’re not going to take away from personality, none of that.”

It’ll be the first Late Night experience for 11 of KU’s 16 players, with Paul Mbiya, Kohl Rosario and walk-on Will Thengvall having spent the offseason with the Jayhawks and Melvin Council Jr. and Tre White having recently returned to Lawrence after securing additional eligibility in the courts. All will surely receive warm welcomes, as will popular newcomers like freshmen Taylen Kinney and Tyran Stokes.

The players are set to enter Allen Fieldhouse on a “Crimson Carpet” between 5 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., according to a KU press release, before they receive more formal introductions at 6:35 p.m. PhogFest, with games and food trucks, begins outside the venue at 2 p.m. And yes, there will be a “Dream On” hype video after the game.

Another difference this year is what awaits the Jayhawks immediately after Late Night. As part of a more extensive exhibition season, KU will host Louisville on Wednesday at 6 p.m. and then Duke in the Blue Blood Classic the following Sunday, Oct. 25, at noon.