photo by: Damon Young/Kansas Athletics

New Kansas forward Lilly Meister is pictured in summer workouts on Tuesday, June 10, 2025, in Lawrence.

When senior forward Lilly Meister transferred to Kansas this offseason from Indiana, she knew that the change in scenery meant that she would be playing a different role.

Yes, she knew that the move would put her in the good graces of her Jayhawk-loving father, but she also knew that with a new coach came a new system, and Kansas was going to be no different.

The Jayhawks struggled in the post at times last season. As a true freshman, Regan Williams took the majority of the playing time with seniors Nadira Eltayeb and Danai Papadopoulou coming off the bench in relief, and Kansas struggled to contain opponents like Iowa State’s Audi Crooks, who scored 33 points against KU, and TCU’s Sedona Prince, who dropped 30.

This year, with a reloaded roster, head coach Brandon Schneider is committed to playing more two-big basketball.

“When he told me they wanted to play double-big, I loved that idea,” Meister said on Wednesday. “I love playing double-big.”

KU hopes that the additions of Meister and other newcomers like Jaliya Davis will help the Jayhawks thrive in the post this season.

“One of the great things about playing double-big with someone like Jaliya or Regan is that if they’re on the inside, I can be on the outside and I can utilize my passing and shooting,” Meister said. “But then again, if it gets flipped and they’re on the outside, I know they’re great passers and shooters as well. So it’s kind of just, I don’t know, like combining all of our skills together, and it works out really well.”

As valuable of a role as Meister will have in limiting opposing centers on defense, KU brought her in to score — after she only averaged 6.7 points off the bench during her junior year as an Indiana Hoosier — and score in a wide variety of ways.

“It’s been really fun,” Meister said about her different role at Kansas. “It’s been really fun to be able to shoot again and just kind of play like I used to.”

Meister has a history as a top-tier scorer. She was the second player in her high school’s history to score 2,000 points in a career and had three 20-point games as a Hoosier, something the Jayhawks are hoping she can do for them, too.

“It definitely took some time to get used to (and) I wasn’t very willing to shoot at the beginning,” Meister said, “but I think the coaches just kept encouraging me and giving me the green light, so it’s been really, really fun.”

One more key reason why Schneider added Meister to the two-big equation was her ability to complement Williams, who was already on the roster, and Davis, who was set to join the fold.

“Lilly’s an exceptional passer, and I think that she’s proven to be a really good perimeter shooter and has shot the 3 really well in practice,” Schneider said. “So I just think that from a matchup perspective, teams are going to have some decisions to make as to who they’re going to play on our frontline players, just relative to what their individual skill sets are.”

Meister, Davis and the Jayhawks’ three other newcomers will get their first look at a packed Allen Fieldhouse on Friday during the 41st annual Late Night in the Phog.

• Journal-World Sports Editor Henry Greenstein contributed to this report.