Kansas Jayhawks Unveil Big 12 Basketball Schedule

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• 🏀 KU Unveils Big 12 Hoops Schedule

• 🏀 Bill Self hypes Zeke Mayo, challenges AJ Storr

• 📝 Quick Links: KU Doesn’t Have a Contract with Arrowhead? (Yet)

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EVERYTHING IN THIS NEWSLETTER IS BASED UPON WHAT I AM HEARING FROM PEOPLE I TRUST. PLEASE DO NOT MISTAKE THIS FOR FACT OR FOR ACTUAL JOURNALISM, WHICH HAS VERIFICATION STANDARDS THAT I HAVE NOT ADHERED TO. I DO NOT GUARANTEE THE ACCURACY OF THE CONTENT.

KU Hoops Schedule and Quick Thoughts

The Jayhawks’ path to a Big 12 title has become clear. The conference announced its Big 12 basketball schedule.

You can see each team’s projected ranking from analytics site BartTorvik.com next to the team name. For example, Kansas is projected as the No. 4 team right now — so I’d write it as Kansas (No. 4).

This isn’t a definitive ranking, but I just included it to give you some sense of where the teams stand.

Dec. 31 (Tues.) – WEST VIRGINIA (No. 83)
Jan. 5 (Sun.) – at UCF (No. 61)
Jan. 8 (Wed.) – ARIZONA STATE (No. 69)
Jan. 11 (Sat.) – at Cincinnati (No. 28)
Jan. 15 (Wed.) – at Iowa State (No. 3)
Jan. 18 (Sat.) – KANSAS STATE (No. 29)
Jan. 22 (Wed.) – at TCU (No. 49)
Jan. 25 (Sat.) – HOUSTON (No. 1)
Jan. 28 (Tues.) – UCF (No. 61)
Feb. 1 (Sat.) – at Baylor (No. 14)
Feb. 3 (Mon.) – IOWA STATE (No. 3)
Feb. 8 (Sat.) – at Kansas State (No. 29)
Feb. 11 (Tues.) – COLORADO (No. 116)
Feb. 15 (Sat.) – at Utah (No. 78)
Feb. 18 (Tues.) – at BYU (No. 27)
Feb. 22 (Sat.) – OKLAHOMA STATE (No. 93)
Feb. 24 (Mon.) – at Colorado (No. 116)
March 1 (Sat.) – TEXAS TECH (No. 19)
March 3 (Mon.) – at Houston (No. 1)
March 8 (Sat.) – ARIZONA (No. 10)

Quick Thoughts:

• KU plays three Saturday-Monday turnaround games:

  • At Baylor —> Iowa State

  • Oklahoma State —> At Colorado

  • Texas Tech —> At Houston

    • It’s not that bad, but the Iowa State and Houston games will be really difficult.

• KU’s last three games are a brutal stretch in Texas Tech, Houston, and Arizona.

• Also… Arizona on Senior Night is gonna be a big one.

• Considering KU’s brutal non-conference schedule, it’s somewhat of a relief to see KU’s first four games present an opportunity to build its confidence and get off to a hot start. I like it.

You can view KU’s complete schedule by clicking here.

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Bill Self Interview with Robbie Hummel and Jeff Goodman

This is an awesome 46-minute interview with Bill Self. You can tell he’s really comfortable with Goodman and Hummel.

You can watch the entire video here.

Some highlights:

• Self said Zeke Mayo has been KU’s best player so far. He says Mayo will be hard to keep out of the starting lineup.

  • He said KU’s lineup today would include Dajuan Harris, Mayo, KJ Adams, and Hunter Dickinson.

    • Note: I’ve mentioned in VIP Hearings a few times I’ve Heard Mayo has looked really good — and I think Rylan Griffen has struggled a bit. Mayo is getting a ton of love right now. I’ll do a specific newsletter on him soon.

• Self said Flory is KU’s best prospect since Josh Jackson.

• Watch how Self talks about AJ Storr. You can hear his tone change the second he talks about the star transfer. Some quotes:

  • “You know, I don’t know how [he fits in with this group] yet. I know how we want him to fit in, but how we get him to do what we want… I think he should be the best offensive rebounder in the country. And I don’t think that’s how he’s thought.”

  • “[Storr] should be a tremendous defender. So I’m talking about offensive rebounding and being a lockdown defender, and he’s probably thinking ‘Woah, woah, woah. What have I got myself into.’ (23:40 mark).

    • Note: I’ve Heard Self has been pretty tough on Storr so far this year. He’s not a pass-first player. We’ve seen this story before, though.

      • And honestly, I think it would be weirder if Self wasn’t tough on his star player known for offense in September.

        • I’ll keep you posted as we get closer to the season.

🏈 Kansas and the Chiefs reportedly don’t yet have a signed contract to play at Arrowhead Stadium, according to NPR Kansas City. Why isn’t this the lead story? I’m Hearing this is a non-issue and the agreement will be done soon. KU’s Associate AD responded with a similar statement on Twitter.

🏈 We’ve got a military flyover for the KU-TCU game on Saturday at Arrowhead! The entire flight crew consists of KU alums. Check out the jet here.

🏈 KU announced it’ll play Arizona State at night in the desert with a 7pm CT kickoff time.