KU Roster for 25-26
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What makes you say he is a one year rental?
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@Jhawk69 He only has one year of eligibility left. Frankly I’m not even sure how given how old he is and how many years he has already played.
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@BShark He is 26 years old.
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One roster spot to go. Will we fill it?
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Updated.
May as well look ahead to see what’s in store for next season.
I’ll try to keep track of the offseason drama here. I’ll keep this mostly official, so no portal projections here.
Roster size: 14 (includes ALL but DSA players. Normally it’s 15, but we lost one to NCAA sanctions)
Roster size at the moment: 13 (a bit sketchy given the DSA rules)
RETURNEES (4)
G Elmarko Jackson
G/F Jamari McDowell
PF Bryson Tiller
C Flory Bidunga
RETURNING WALK ONS? (3 – and potential “designated student athletes”)
G Wilder Evers
G Will Thengvall
F Justin Cross
IMCOMING FRESHMEN (5)
G Darryn Peterson
F Samis Calderon
G Corbin Allen – Oak Park High School
SG Kohl Rosario
C Paul Mbiya — not sure what year he is
PORTAL ADDITIONS (4)
G Jayden Dawson via Loyola Chicago. One year of eligibility left.
G/F Tre White via Illinois – previous stops at Louisville, USC. One year of eligibility left.
G Melvin Council Jr. via St. Bonaventure – previous stop at Wagner. One year of eligibility left.
PG Nginyu Ngala via Canada. he’s like 28 years old! Likely a senior.
BIG QUESTION MARK (1)
SF Jaden Nickens – A football player who may play hoops. May have to count against the roster before the season begins.
HAVE ENTERED PORTAL (6 —Bidunga initially entered, but will return)
G/F AJ Storr – signed with Ole Miss
G/F Rylan Griffen — signed with Texas AM
G/F Rakease Passmore — signed with Maryland
PF/C Zach Clemence – signed with Texas A&M
G David Coit – signed with Maryland
G Noah Shelby
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Anybody have the scoop on Jaden Nickens? Will he play both football and basketball?
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@rockchalkjayhawk Thanks for posting this with updates
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@rockchalkjayhawk said in KU Roster for 25-26:
One roster spot to go. Will we fill it?
Would love a wing in that spot.
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@rockchalkjayhawk said in KU Roster for 25-26:
Anybody have the scoop on Jaden Nickens? Will he play both football and basketball?
Right now, it sounds like he won’t be playing basketball this upcoming season based on what the KC Star wrote in their article on Ngala committing.
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@TYOHawk said in KU Roster for 25-26:
@rockchalkjayhawk said in KU Roster for 25-26:
One roster spot to go. Will we fill it?
Would love a wing in that spot.
Yea looking at the roster we do seem thin with experience at the SF spot?
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@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.
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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.
