photo by: College of Charleston

Charleston's Christian Reeves looks to the basket against Tusculum on Monday, Nov. 3, 2025, in Charleston, S.C.

In my time covering Kansas during an era of increased player movement, it has become quite apparent that KU men’s basketball fans covet virtually no one more in the transfer portal than a player who has thrived against KU specifically.

In fact, it often doesn’t matter what else that player has accomplished in the rest of his career or even if his usual play style and talent level remotely resemble what he put on display against the Jayhawks. A former adversary is always going to be the talk of the message boards this time of year.

The crimson-and-blue faithful were able to bring one of those into the fold this year with forward Keanu Dawes, who had 22 points and 12 rebounds for Utah in Allen Fieldhouse. But his performance wasn’t nearly as memorable because Utah lost that game.

The real prizes for this particular variant of Jayhawk fan would have been a pair of Senegalese centers: Moustapha Thiam, who embarrassed KU’s frontcourt in a 28-point showing as Cincinnati stunned the Jayhawks at Allen Fieldhouse, and Massamba Diop, who shone in his one right with 19 points and nine boards for Arizona State at Desert Financial Arena 10 days later.

Reeling in either of these promising upstarts — Thiam will be a junior, Diop a sophomore — would have made a big splash for the center-needy Jayhawks this offseason. But while KU reportedly had at least some interest in Thiam, he ended up at defending champion Michigan, while Diop picked Gonzaga.

So the former-tormentor category may have come up empty, but the KU staff still did plenty of work in the month of April to both retain Paul Mbiya after his dalliance with the transfer portal and to add some significant size and experience in the form of Christian Reeves.

Those two join Dawes and Davion Adkins, who has been somewhat overshadowed in the 2026 recruiting class but at the time he announced for KU was a borderline top-30 recruit. The Jayhawks also just added unheralded freshman Grant Mordini for more depth.

The flashy parts of KU’s roster — and, undoubtedly, a lot of the money — are in the backcourt and on the wing, where the Jayhawks have incoming McDonald’s All-Americans Taylen Kinney and Tyran Stokes. But while the group isn’t complete yet, it certainly seems like KU’s long-term potential could have a lot to do with the unproven players in the middle.

The fact that Christian Reeves started his career at Duke does a lot of work to make him seem like a suitable starting center for the Jayhawks, and he certainly looks the part at 7-foot-2 and 255 pounds. But in fact he was a three-star prospect who played a total of 57 minutes in 16 games across two seasons with the Blue Devils before season-ending right ankle surgery ended his tenure there. At Clemson he got into 29 games — for an average of five minutes. In short, KU is asking him to make significant contributions at the power-conference level for the first time in his career.

Even in his breakout season at Charleston — 11.1 points, 7.8 rebounds per game — he was splitting time with Chol Machot, who is now at Georgetown.

That might not be a mark against Reeves, though. For one thing, it’s impressive to have accrued those already solid stats in just 21.4 minutes per game; if he brings the same proclivity for rebounding and finishing strong in the paint to the Big 12, he could produce at an even greater level. Not to mention that as head coach Bill Self noted when he signed, he was doing all of that while playing through a shoulder injury. Or, looked at another way, his experience in a center-by-committee setup shows he might be well suited to split time with a new teammate, Mbiya.

Mbiya was already a fan favorite last season as a freshman without having accomplished much on the court, to the point that Allen Fieldhouse chanted his name on a number of occasions when he contributed in wins over Arizona and Kansas State.

But he really endeared himself to KU fans with what he did in March, when he chipped in tough post performances off the bench in a pair of NCAA Tournament games, and in April, when his attachment to KU was strong enough to keep him out of the portal as plenty of centers were earning big paydays by ditching their former homes. As his manager put it at the time, Mbiya was operating based on emotion and they wanted him to understand it was a business; emotion and business ultimately found common ground to ensure his return to Lawrence.

Those tournament showings, eight points and three rebounds against Cal Baptist and four points and six boards against St. John’s, as he altered one shot after another all the while with his 7-foot-8 wingspan, demonstrated the kind of player Mbiya can become if he continues to develop. If the Congolese sophomore can replicate in 15 to 20 minutes per game what he did in 16 and 13 in San Diego, it could be the best-case scenario for both him and Reeves.

Where does Adkins fit in? Self described him as a “prototypical power forward” when he signed while also noting that he has the size to play center. Indeed, Adkins is a 6-foot-9 lefty with a 7-foot-2 wingspan who plays above the rim and blocks shots, and all of those attributes evoke the recently departed former Jayhawk Flory Bidunga. He’s not rated nearly as highly coming out of school as Bidunga was — in fact, Adkins slipped to No. 70 on 247Sports in February — but he’s still been productive in his senior season at Prolific Prep. For example, he had 16 points and six rebounds as his team won the Grind Session title on March 22. He previously averaged 11.0 points, 5.8 boards and 3.3 blocks at the NBPA Top 100 camp last summer.

Adkins could get deployed in a couple ways next season. Right now the veteran Dawes projects as KU’s top choice at power forward. The 6-foot-7, 230-pound Stokes could slide down to that spot if the Jayhawks want to play small (perhaps with Dawes at center), but right now Adkins could be in line to serve as Dawes’ backup in most standard lineups. If he proves capable enough in that role he could even swipe some center minutes from the duo of Mbiya and Reeves — and as the 2025-26 season demonstrated, foul trouble can always become a factor.

When KU signed Mordini on Friday, Self emphasized that the Lake Forest, Illinois, native will “add depth at the center position and be a guy that makes us better every day in practice.” That certainly doesn’t read like the prep-school product, whose other Division I offer was from Kansas City, is going to immediately see the floor. But Mordini did tell Shay Wildeboor of JayhawkSlant.com that while he has “the option to redshirt,” he plans to put himself on the court. The son of former Bradley forward Bruce Mordini, he has the size at 6-foot-11 and can stretch the floor like a guard, but physical development would be key to any future role with the Jayhawks in the years ahead.

Whoever plays in the middle for KU, he will be playing more, at a higher level or at a different position than the one to which he is generally accustomed. How swiftly the new Jayhawk post players adapt to these circumstances will go a long way toward determining the ceiling of KU’s 2026-27 season.

Kansas center Paul Mbiya (34) goes up for a shot against California Baptist during the first half on Friday, March 20, 2026 at Viejas Arena in San Diego. Photo by Nick Krug

photo by: AP Photo/Gregory Payan

Prolific Prep’s Davion Adkins (25) takes a free throw against Dynamic Prep during a high school basketball game at the Hoophall Classic, Monday, January 19, 2026, in Springfield, Mass.

photo by: Avon Old Farms

Avon Old Farms’ Grant Mordini dunks during a game against Berkshire on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Avon, Conn.