KU Roster for 25-26
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@BShark said in KU Roster for 25-26:
@AsadZ said in KU Roster for 25-26:
@BShark He is 26 years old.
Right, it’s pretty crazy that he has eligbility left. Modern times I suppose.
@rockchalkjayhawk I would be rather surprised if that spot was filled. Only so much $ and playing time.
Yea on that roster spot? Seems weird for a major program like Kansas to not have a full roster of players. Times are changing i suppose.
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@rockchalkjayhawk said in KU Roster for 25-26:
@BShark said in KU Roster for 25-26:
@AsadZ said in KU Roster for 25-26:
@BShark He is 26 years old.
Right, it’s pretty crazy that he has eligbility left. Modern times I suppose.
@rockchalkjayhawk I would be rather surprised if that spot was filled. Only so much $ and playing time.
Yea on that roster spot? Seems weird for a major program like Kansas to not have a full roster of players. Times are changing i suppose.
It is also more than it used to be now. 15 instead of 13. Admittedly it was always a big bigger with walk-ons. The last spots now are essentially walk-ons. Finding cheap players in this era will be important.
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@BShark said in KU Roster for 25-26:
@rockchalkjayhawk said in KU Roster for 25-26:
@BShark said in KU Roster for 25-26:
@AsadZ said in KU Roster for 25-26:
@BShark He is 26 years old.
Right, it’s pretty crazy that he has eligbility left. Modern times I suppose.
@rockchalkjayhawk I would be rather surprised if that spot was filled. Only so much $ and playing time.
Yea on that roster spot? Seems weird for a major program like Kansas to not have a full roster of players. Times are changing i suppose.
It is also more than it used to be now. 15 instead of 13. Admittedly it was always a big bigger with walk-ons. The last spots now are essentially walk-ons. Finding cheap players in this era will be important.
Well for this year at least, we still have some “walk-ons.”
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@rockchalkjayhawk I’m pretty happy they are at least allowed to continue if they were already aboard. NCAA is pretty daft sometimes.
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@BShark said in KU Roster for 25-26:
@rockchalkjayhawk said in KU Roster for 25-26:
@BShark said in KU Roster for 25-26:
@AsadZ said in KU Roster for 25-26:
@BShark He is 26 years old.
Right, it’s pretty crazy that he has eligbility left. Modern times I suppose.
@rockchalkjayhawk I would be rather surprised if that spot was filled. Only so much $ and playing time.
Yea on that roster spot? Seems weird for a major program like Kansas to not have a full roster of players. Times are changing i suppose.
It is also more than it used to be now. 15 instead of 13. Admittedly it was always a big bigger with walk-ons. The last spots now are essentially walk-ons. Finding cheap players in this era will be important.
It’s sort of more than it used to be. Before it was 13 scholarships with unlimited walk-ons, now it’s 15 players with the scholarships divided up however the school want to divide the scholarships. Current walk-ons are grandfathered in for the remainder of their eligibility and are allowed to transfer if they choose to and still retain that eligibility.
I know Jaden Nickens wanted to play basketball as well and still could since KU has one roster spot open, but he’s not currently listed on KU’s roster so I’m wondering if Self is waiting to see how Nickens feels at the end of football season before adding him to the roster because I believe Self is now done with the 2025-26 roster.
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When laid bare like that, I’m not overly encouraged about next season.
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Next season is going to be as good as DP and Flory let it be. The supporting cast around them doesn’t jump off the page but appears to fit around those two pretty well. We went for the big transfer names in the past few years and those haven’t worked out for us, so it is encouraging to me that we went after fit over talent this year. Yes a bit more shooting around DP/Flory would be nice, but that should at least be improved from the last couple of years.
So far, I haven’t seen anything on DP/Flory coming out to make me believe they aren’t up to the task. Granted I have been a bit checked out of KU news lately so could always be some concerning rumbling I am just missing.
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Big gains for Flory.
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I’m more excited about the team than last year, but it has the build of a team that is 2-3 years away. Unfortunately teams don’t stick around that long - so maybe a sweet 16 berth should make us happy as it seemingly requires catching lightening in a bottle (or more money than KU has) to win now.
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The whole is going to be better than the sum of its parts IMO. Early reports are the young guys look really good. I think it’s going to be hard to keep Rosario out of the starting lineup come league play.
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I’ve heard some say Calderon shouldn’t touch the floor= = == = and yet every time I hear Self talk or read things from Self he is constantly talking about how they have been really impressed with him and how he thinks he can really help the team
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Calderon is going to look good in unstructured scrimmages from just being crazy athletic but he was downright bad in OTE ball.
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If I coached this team I would probably redshirt Corbin Allen and Samis Calderon
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It’s a long season. Once we start play we get an early gauge, then it becomes the real test as the season progresses and we find out if they can continue to improve at a rate equal or better than the pack. This is where the joy came into focus with our last championship team as they stepped up big time towards the end. Other teams fall off often from injuries or players showing too much wear. I haven’t had much of a view of our new team but my early impression is positive on physicality and overall depth, holding promise of not wearing down as long as we avoid injuries.
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@dylans said in KU Roster for 25-26:
When laid bare like that, I’m not overly encouraged about next season.
On paper Arizona’s roster is head and shoulders better than KU. Texas tech is as well.
KU returning stud is Flory at 5.9ppg. Yikes even AJ Storr scored more last year. It’s not encouraging, hopefully this KU team will be a joy to watch as they aren’t winning anything of importance - the Big12 is Arizona, Texas Tech, and probably Houston’s to lose. The national title - …not KU that much I would wager my house on. It’s unusual to be able to tell before the games start that KU has zero chance to win a title of any kind. If I knew the players would be here next year I would be encouraged, but most will be gone and it’ll be another rebuild. This era sucks.
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I don’t see anything in that article that should have you this down on next year. If you are talking about on paper, Barttorvik preseason rankings has Arizona slightly higher than KU and TT significantly lower. I do agree Houston is likely to be better, but they still have to replace some major contributors in Cryer and Roberts. These are also all preseason rankings and don’t mean that much at the end of the day. It is wild to already be punting on the season before even seeing this team play a game together. IDK if you are just down on the NIL era in general or trying to neg the season so you don’t get hurt again, but you can let yourself hope a little man.
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@MR11 This is KU, if you can’t compete for a national title, it is a bad year. Next year looks like a bad year. I would take anyone’s money that wants to wager on KU even making the final four. That roster is mid and most are one year rentals. Pass on next year. Maybe the next year more players will stick around and KU will be decent. This year is a loss already.
…about those bets, cash only.
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What kind of odds are you offering? I’m not big on betting but I wouldn’t be able to pass up if you are giving out 100/1 championship odds if you really think KU has no chance for a title. I’m seeing most KU Vegas odds sitting at 20/1. Florida and Uconn from 2022-2023 season both won it going in to the season at 60/1 odds, 20/1 hardly seems hopeless.
Really, I’m just not seeing your reasons to completely give up on the season. Have you been at summer workouts and the team is a mess or something? Have you scouted the incoming transfers and see something that makes you think they are going to flop? I wouldn’t even push back much if you were just saying you don’t have high expectations for the team, that’s reasonable. But seems like you are saying there is no hope for next year based on vibes and ppg numbers.
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I’m expecting an NCAA berth; it’s not guaranteed but should be the baseline. The conference is brutally tough and that will actually help. But team has to be greater than the sum of the parts. It has to be.
Sweet 16 would be great. A bit of an aspirational goal.
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Bill has taken a similarly talented group to a natty appearance so just my view, but it’s too early to say.
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This is a good conversation but I would like to hear some other perspectives? @Texas-Hawk-10 @kuballin10 @paakdnmb43 @SlimShaddy54 What do you guys make of our squad heading into next season?
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@Jhawk69 I think it’s worth giving the team a shot, we largely have new players.
I would take KU’s roster over Arizona. I believe a lot of Dylans being down on the situation is not believing in Flory in general. I know him and Approx went at it on this subject before. I am somewhere in the middle with him but I think it’s very much within the realm of possibility that he proves to be a better all around player for the team than Hunter was. Defense can be hard to measure. I know last year’s team graded out well on that end but I believe that is largely due to Bill’s genius. That team was not getting a stop when they needed it. I suspect this team will be better on both ends if things play out right. This roster has quite a bit of positional length and should be getting after teams, attacking the ball to generate turnovers and thriving in transition. This team should actually play fast again, which was impossible to do with Hunter. As far as the offense in general, I know the KJ/Juan horse is long dead, but the impact of not playing a complete non-shooter and an unwilling shooter will open things up tremendously. That’s the thing some people (not saying anyone here) don’t understand about this topic in general. Jalen Wilson in the title year shot 26% from three. The important thing is that he was a willing shooter that had to at least be guarded out there.
TL;DR I’m going to believe in this team until they give me a reason not to.
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@BShark Hopefully the defense is better - that would be a welcome relief. I believe the team will be more fun to watch, faster paced. I don’t believe they will win anything of consequence. They just don’t have the horses.
On paper KU has flory at 5.9ppg returning. Elmarko who didn’t inspire in his first year - hopefully he’s way better after his recovery, but that’s just wishful thinking at this point. Two mid-major players for wings - saw how that worked out with Zeke last year. Tiller? The only thing I’m excited about is Peterson - an athletic PG that can score will be nice - how’s his defense?
This team will be an also ran. A team that 6 years from now no one remembers much about. Oh yeah do you remember Peterson played for KU? look at what he’s doing in the NBA! I don’t care about the NBA though that’s likely where his best years will be. Not the one he plays for KU.
Now if there were no transfers and all freshmen were the newcomers I’d be excited as all get out about watching the team develop as they will be very good in 2-3 years. This squad won’t ever develop into anything more than what we get this year. Which I predict is a big nothing burger.
Is this the future of KU basketball? A bunch of one year rentals? The NIL era is garbage.
I think KU will field a good team. KU should field a great team ever year or have the pipeline full of young talent. There is at least one elite player on the team which is a definite improvement over the last two seasons, but the pipeline is not full.
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@FarmerJayhawk said in KU Roster for 25-26:
Bill has taken a similarly talented group to a natty appearance so just my view, but it’s too early to say.
Robinson was a three year stud. Tyshawn was a revelation his senior year. This team doesn’t have a national player of the year candidate big that can carry them. The talent level is not really comparable. Hired gun Flory will never hold a candle to FOE Thomas Robinson.
But I like your optimism! I do think the team will be more entertaining to watch than the last couple plodding HD years.
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@dylans I think unless we see some kind of major change this is the future of college athletics.
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I’m now actually cautiously optimistic about the roster and think the team can over perform the very modest expectations. Still not clear where the scoring is going to come from unless DP can average 20ppg and we can get around 10ppg from 4-5 others. But I think this team has a chance to be elite defensively, especially if HCBS exploits the perimeter depth and pressures the ball up the court and on the perimeter. DP, EJ, Dawson, Council and McDowell, perhaps even Rosario, can rotate 1-3. We now have some rim protection with Flory and Mbiya. White has enough size to play the 4 against most line-ups and guard the perimeter. Still not sure what Tiller can bring. But those 9-10 certainly have more speed and athleticism, even if not elite level, than the past two rosters. If DP is as advertised and can break down a defense and either finish, drop-off, or kick-out, and we have a couple of guys that can hit at 35% or better from the arc, we can be more than competitive…
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@BShark gross
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@BShark I agree for the most part. I will also note that KU’s defense last year was a paper tiger. Sure, they could completely stiffle Cincinatti and Arizona State to inflate their numbers, but any above-average offense absolutely carved them up at will. They allowed Baylor to score 60 points in one half! They gave up an open three in pretty much every “must stop” situation too.
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I’m always a preseason optimist so I think we have a good year coming up. I especially expect to see a greatly improved Elmarko. Things didn’t click for him as we expected two years ago, but having taught undergrads for 30+ years I know the kinds of maturation that can occur between Freshman and Junior years. Playing beside Peterson should allow him to shine. I also think that Jamari will provide some solid minutes off the bench. Lots of folks complain how students don’t stick around any more, but here are two that took a redshirt year so are 3rd year athletes in some respects. I’m expecting good things from their perseverance.
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@Jhawk69 said in KU Roster for 25-26:
@BShark I agree for the most part. I will also note that KU’s defense last year was a paper tiger. Sure, they could completely stiffle Cincinatti and Arizona State to inflate their numbers, but any above-average offense absolutely carved them up at will. They allowed Baylor to score 60 points in one half! They gave up an open three in pretty much every “must stop” situation too.
As bad as the BYU game was the Utah game was absolutely horrific as well. Just many cases of them being horrific defensively.
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Last years team was atrocious, on that I think most of us can agree. They still beat Duke and UNC.
Will this years squad be good enough to win a couple marquee games? UNC, Duke, UConn are on the schedule. These three games could represent the peak opportunity for the team on the year. Unless KU gets unexpectedly hot in March these regular season games might be the pinnacle of the season. Ugg
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@BShark said in KU Roster for 25-26:
@Jhawk69 said in KU Roster for 25-26:
@BShark I agree for the most part. I will also note that KU’s defense last year was a paper tiger. Sure, they could completely stiffle Cincinatti and Arizona State to inflate their numbers, but any above-average offense absolutely carved them up at will. They allowed Baylor to score 60 points in one half! They gave up an open three in pretty much every “must stop” situation too.
As bad as the BYU game was the Utah game was absolutely horrific as well. Just many cases of them being horrific defensively.
Last year they didn’t buy in and it was a disaster down the stretch. Maybe this year the guys will have more fun, gel, and play above their talent level. But if Bill is pushing up daisies the season will implode so fast. Jacque…are you ready?!?
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Heard Coach Self talking on a podcast the other day I think it was CBS anyways they were talking to Coach and they were asking him about if he had any thoughts he might suggest to follow him. He said ya he had a couple of guys form his current staff that he could suggest.
One he mentioned was or is pretty well known and that was Jacque- - the other he mentioned from the staff was a complete surprise for me and that Name was Jeremy Case - – WOW had no idea
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@dylans Yes. Last years team had the roster to be good (as evidenced by a strong November, preseason number 1 ranking, outplaying Houston) but suffered from lack of effort, lack of leadership, lack of cohesion etc.
To clarify for those who don’t know how to read, I am not saying last years roster should have been ranked number 1 or that it didn’t have shortcomings, just that it had the pieces for our team to be much better than it was.
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I admit i have absolutely no clue how good or bad we’ll be. Never seen anybody play except Flory and Elmarko, who wasn’t much at the time.
So, fingers crossed we are a cohesive unit. Guessing team chemistry can’t be as bad as last year’s cluster F.
On paper, I do think we have some deficiencies…shooting (my usual complaint), size at the two big spots.
It will be exciting to see DP though. I sure hope he’s truly the second coming.
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@Jhawk69 said in KU Roster for 25-26:
@dylans Yes. Last years team had the roster to be good (as evidenced by a strong November, preseason number 1 ranking, outplaying Houston) but suffered from lack of effort, lack of leadership, lack of cohesion etc.
To clarify for those who don’t know how to read, I am not saying last years roster should have been ranked number 1 or that it didn’t have shortcomings, just that it had the pieces for our team to be much better than it was.
It appeared the locker room was deeply fractured. The loss in March seemed more like a mercy.
Hopefully this team will be more of a unified group. That alone will make for more enjoyable play to watch. - That’s my only real hope for the season, that KU basketball is fun to watch again. If the players are having fun, maybe the results will surprise. It would be nice to want the season to continue this go around.
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@Jhawk69 I really like this team on paper. The last 2 years, I warned multiple times that the season could be a disaster because the rosters weren’t well constructed and the transfers Self brought in didn’t compliment who was already here.
The biggest concern for me this season on paper is the offense. This isn’t necessarily a bad shooting team, but nobody that’s expected to play big minutes is elite either. Rosario is probably the best shooter on the team, but it remains to be seen how well his shooting will adapt to the college game. Outside of him, we have a bunch of wings and guards who all in the 32%-35% range which isn’t elite, but not bad enough to where you can ignore them either
I know some are concerned that Self didn’t hit on a high scoring wing in the portal and there is some validity to that, but I’m not too concerned about KU’s ability to score. Peterson is going to be big time and there’s very little evidence to suggest he won’t be as good as advertised at KU. If KU has 4 or 5 other players in 9-13 ppg range, they’ll be in good shape. Flory is still pretty raw offensively so I don’t see this season being a breakout year for him, but I still think he’ll average a double-double or be very near it. The man is a rebounding machine with good instincts so I think he’ll be fine.
Defense is where we’ll all see drastic improvements and I think this will be Self’s best defensive team post-Covid. Everyone expected to be in the is above average to elite defensively and everybody is good enough to switch. Rosario is the I don’t know much about his defensive abilities, but if the effort isn’t there, he’s gonna be sitting his butt on the bench. I think Flory and Council will be in the mix for B12 DPOY and potentially NDPOY.
We’ve got a good schedule and should know pretty quickly what this team is capable of. I like that most have KU in the 15-20 range because the weight of preseason expectations won’t be there. Obviously, Darryn Peterson is tge most important player and NPOY candidate, but as far as determining how deep KU can go this year, I think the two most important players are Elmarko Jackson and Bryson Tiller. We all know Elmarko was considered a OAD candidate out of high school, he hung around and stay through adversity both adversity both on and off the court which speaks volumes to his character (same with Jamari McDowell) and if Elmarko can play anywhere near that level, that’s going to make KU an incredibly dangerous team to have a backcourt of Peterson and Jackson tearing teams apart.
The other player that’s key to me is Bryson Tiller. He’s healthy and he’s another guy already on NBA radars so if he can be a serviceable back up to Flory and develop enough range to play the 4, then KU would move into legit national title contender territory.
As of right now, I’d say the Elite 8 is tge ceiling for this team, but if Elmarko and Tiller can play near their ability levels consistently, then I’ll call KU a title contender.
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For me the question is whether Bill Self can work the ol Bill Self magic on this group. Historically he is good at getting the most out of his teams but that sure as hell didn’t happen these past couple seasons.
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@Jhawk69 said in KU Roster for 25-26:
For me the question is whether Bill Self can work the ol Bill Self magic on this group. Historically he is good at getting the most out of his teams but that sure as hell didn’t happen these past couple seasons.
The last two years did have quite a bit in common. The hope is that it was just a rotten core. I still think bringing in Hunter was ultimately a mistake but alas.
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@BShark In hindsight Hunter was a disaster, but who would’ve though Zuby and Udeh both would shirk from competition so hard?!? Knowing that I’d still rather have had the two, maybe. Eh why not? the alternative stunk.
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2 yrs ago a healthy Kevin would’ve made a big difference! After knee surgery this past season, he looked really good in summer league. He didn’t even play the whole time. They cut him off.
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@dylans After seeing Zuby at St Johns its a no brainer to pick him over Hunter. Hindsight is 20 20 though.
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@Jhawk69 said in KU Roster for 25-26:
@dylans After seeing Zuby at St Johns its a no brainer to pick him over Hunter. Hindsight is 20 20 though.
Close, but Hunter only averaged 18 and 10!
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@rockchalkjayhawk But Zuby gives you stats that are almost as good, plus is a better defender, plus would have cost us less NIL money that we could have spent elsewhere.
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So apparently we weren’t done recruiting for this year?
class of 2025 small forward, Billy White III committed to Southern Methodist University.
Last week, we reported White’s announcement of Kansas inside his final few schools, with the news first being broken by Joe Tipton, yet White chose elsewhere
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@Jhawk69 said in KU Roster for 25-26:
@rockchalkjayhawk But Zuby gives you stats that are almost as good, plus is a better defender, plus would have cost us less NIL money that we could have spent elsewhere.
During the 2023-24 season, Zuby averaged 4 and 3 while oy playing 11 minutes per game. Udeh averaged 4 and 5 while playing 17 mpg his first year at TCU in 2023-24. Neither player was ready to step up and contribute that year. KU still needed an impact big for that season. Even if those 2 stayed and KU never lands Hunter, it doesn’t do anything to address KU’s biggest offensive issue the last two years, KJ Adams and the 4 spot. Neither Zuby, nor Udeh are 3 point threats so they don’t do anything to address the spacing issues KJ created at the 4 spot.
The arguing about Hunter vs. Zuby/Udeh doesn’t really matter to KU’s success those two years because of the 4 spot. On the court, Hunter was never the biggest issue the past 2 years. His offensive game was tailor made for Self’s system. Self unfortunately couldn’t put a group on the court around Hunter that complimented his skill set. Hunter needed guys that could move without the ball to create driving lanes and open 3’s, but the only two players that could do that were McCullar and Harris. We also know Harris didn’t have a quick shot to take those open looks from 3 he consistently had which was frustrating as Harris was a 37% 3 point shooter for his career.
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@Jhawk69 Danny & the miracles
Carmelo and Jerry who???
Yeah DP 100% as Kobe 2.0 can lead us to a title
We have the athleticism
We have the length
We have the buy-in from the guys
The dudes like each other and all seem humble
I’m 100% on board with this squad. Gotta see them their first few games and I may 180 my tune but for now I’m gonna hope DP is the greatest recruit we’ve ever had (because honestly he is)
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I don’t remember a single soul in here predicting a natty just ahead of the 2022 season. Play the game and enjoy the show! RCJH!
