photo by: Mike Gunnoe/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas forward Jaliya Davis looks to find an open shot against BYU in Allen Fieldhouse on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026 in Lawrence.

When the full results of the WBIT quarterfinals were not yet known on Thursday night, Kansas coach Brandon Schneider said he had enjoyed preparing for new opponents over the course of the tournament.

The second-seeded Jayhawks have handled a series of unfamiliar mid-major challengers with aplomb during the postseason, dispatching Troy, Rice and San Diego State, without even having to leave Lawrence in order to do so, since top-seeded Texas A&M went down early.

“I think when A&M lost in our bracket and our players were able to kind of forecast, ‘Hey, we could maybe stay in Kansas this entire time,’ it was a little bit more incentive, I think,” Schneider said.

Now, in a matchup that lacks the novelty of the Jayhawks’ first three, KU will have to face a past opponent, Big 12 foe BYU, in the semifinal round. The good news for the Jayhawks is that while they don’t get to remain at Allen Fieldhouse all the way through the tournament as they did in their successful run through 2023 WNIT, they also don’t have to go particularly far from home. They will take on the Cougars at 4 p.m. on Monday at Charles Koch Arena in Wichita.

“We’re going to have the home advantage, so just for our fans to come out and support us would mean a lot,” freshman forward Jaliya Davis said.

Added senior forward Lilly Meister: “What is it, end of March? What else are you doing right now? Come to Wichita.”

Columbia and Wisconsin will face off in the other half of the tournament’s final four, and the winners will play on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. Columbia was KU’s opponent in the 2023 WNIT final, which the Jayhawks won 66-59.

As for BYU, the Cougars finished a game ahead of KU in the Big 12 this year and won a pair of games in the conference tournament but still missed the cut for March Madness. BYU earned a No. 1 seed in its own portion of the WBIT bracket and beat Alabama A&M, No. 4 seed Missouri and No. 2 seed Stanford, all by at least 15 points.

That was a strong showing to be sure, but KU has already beaten the Cougars once this season, and done so quite convincingly. On the strength of one of the signature games of Davis’ memorable season, the Jayhawks won 81-60 at Allen Fieldhouse on Feb. 4. The teams were tied at 32 at halftime before Davis exploded for 23 points on 9-for-9 shooting in the second half on the way to the first double-double of her career. In the meantime, Sania Copeland, Laia Conesa and the rest of the Jayhawks limited BYU’s top scorer Delaney Gibb, a 5-foot-10 sophomore guard from Raymond, Alberta, to 10 points on 1-for-13 shooting.

Gibb has not experienced a lot of outings like that in her two productive seasons with the Cougars, and she is coming off efficient 29- and 27-point displays against Missouri and Stanford. She can get it done in multiple ways, having hit seven 3s in 11 tries against the Tigers but also having twice this season attempted 14 free throws in a game.

BYU’s secondary scoring option, all-freshman selection Olivia Hamlin, was not particularly effective either in the prior matchup against the Jayhawks (four points on 1-for-7 shooting), but recently entered the starting five after an injury to Marya Hudgins and is now averaging 12.5 points per game.

Wing Brinley Cannon and guard Sydney Benally join Gibb and Hamlin in the lineup as they play around center Lara Rohkohl, a 6-foot-3 Charleston transfer averaging 8.2 points and 6.6 rebounds. Rohkohl and Nigerian freshman Bolanle Yussuf, who played well against KU in February, helped make BYU one of the Big 12’s top offensive rebounding teams this season.

They will be tasked with slowing down Davis and the rest of KU’s frontcourt, which has gotten a lot of production from Meister and Regan Williams of late. BYU is generally a strong defensive team that ranks third in the Big 12 in opponent field-goal percentage (36.9%) and second in opponent 3-point field-goal percentage (27.3%).

The Cougars’ 21-point loss at KU came in the midst of a dire stretch that ultimately sank their NCAA Tournament hopes, one in which they lost six of eight games between Jan. 24 and Feb. 14 — not unlike KU’s 1-6 start to league play. Both teams have fared much better since, with BYU now having won eight of its last nine entering Monday’s elimination game in Wichita.