{"id":153880,"date":"2025-08-09T12:01:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T16:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=153880"},"modified":"2025-08-09T12:01:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T16:01:08","slug":"2025-26-kansas-jayhawks-preview-bill-self-health-scare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/08\/09\/2025-26-kansas-jayhawks-preview-bill-self-health-scare\/","title":{"rendered":"2025-26 Kansas Jayhawks Preview: Bill Self Looking Forward To Season After Health Scare"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bill Self<\/a> is looking forward to his 23rd season leading the Kansas Jayhawks<\/a> after being cleared to return to work following a health scare.<\/p>\n

2025-26 Kansas Jayhawks Preview: Bill Self Looking Forward To Season After Health Scare<\/h2>\n

Self was hospitalized on July 24 due to \u201csome concerning symptoms,<\/a>\u201d and ultimately underwent a heart procedure where he had two stents inserted. However, the 62-year-old told Jeff Goodman of the Field of 68<\/a> that he has been back to the office over the last few days, and he doesn’t have any coaching restrictions.<\/p>\n

“Just got off the phone with Kansas<\/a> coach Bill Self<\/a> after his health scare a couple of weeks ago in which he underwent a heart catheterization and had two stents placed for blocked arteries,” Goodman wrote. “Self said he received a clean bill of health from the doctors, has been back in the office daily, is able to play golf, and is looking forward to the players returning in about 10 days.”<\/p>\n

July’s health issue was his second “heart problem” in the past few years. Self missed the 2023 Big 12 tournament and the NCAA tournament in 2023, also due to a heart procedure. The recently retired Norm Roberts<\/a> took over the reins for the Jayhawks, leading them to the Big 12<\/a> title game (where they lost) and the second round of the NCAA tournament<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Self is the Jayhawks’ 11th-ever head basketball coach. Self is the all-time leading wins leader at KU with a 624-156 record and the second longest tenured, behind Phog Allen.<\/a> His two national championships, nine conference tournament titles, and 21 NCAA tournament berths are the most in the school’s history.\u00a0 He is tied for 18th on the NCAA all-time wins list with 824, tying him with Rick Barnes<\/a> and putting him one victory ahead of\u00a0John Calipari<\/a> among active coaches.<\/p>\n

Looking Ahead To The 2025-26 Season<\/h3>\n

Kansas is coming off its worst season under Self as it finished with a 21-13 record, including going 11-9 in Big 12 play (sixth). The Jayhawks fell in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 tournament to Arizona. They were then upset in the first round of the NCAA tournament by Arkansas. It was the second consecutive season the Jayhawks were not crowned regular-season or conference-tournament champions. They also have not advanced past the first weekend of the NCAA tournament in three straight years.<\/p>\n

Self has a lot of work to do ahead of the 2025-26 season as he will almost have an entirely new team. While defense has been a staple of Jayhawk teams throughout his tenure, they have struggled on offense over the past three seasons. KU finished last season ranked 143rd in offensive efficiency and 52nd in defensive efficiency.<\/p>\n

Recruits and Transfers<\/h4>\n

Consensus Top 20 2024 recruit Flory Bidunga<\/a> is among four returning players for the Jayhawks. However, Bidunga was the only one of the four to make an impact, as two of the others saw minimal action. Meanwhile, Elmarko Jackson<\/a> took a medical redshirt after suffering a torn patellar tendon<\/a> during an offseason workout.<\/p>\n

Self and his staff did a fantastic job at replacing the players that they lost. Unlike most big-time programs these days, most of the Jayhawk newcomers are high schoolers. The Jayhawks’ six-man 2025 recruiting class ranked 16th in the nation per 247Sports<\/a>, thanks to their landing of Darryn Peterson.<\/a> Peterson is the consensus top-three-ranked high school player in 2025.<\/p>\n

KU also brought in three quality transfers. Tre White<\/a> (Illinois) is the most highly touted of the transfers, though Melvin Council Jr<\/a>. (St. Bonaventure) is a highly talented and super quick point guard. Former Loyola-Chicago guard Jayden Dawson<\/a> is the other transfer.<\/p>\n

Top Players and Projected Rotation<\/h4>\n
Jayden Dawson<\/h5>\n

Dawson spent three seasons at Loyola-Chicago before transferring to KU. The 6-4 guard is coming off a career season with 13.9 points, 3.1 rebounds, 1.9 assists, and 1\u00a0 steal. An all-A10<\/a> second team selection, Dawson is a career 36.7% three-point shooter and can play all three perimeter positions.<\/p>\n

Tre White<\/h5>\n

It has come full circle for White. KU is his fourth school in four years. White committed to Kansas while in high school before ultimately choosing to attend USC<\/a>.\u00a0 The consensus top-35 2022 recruit also spent one year at Louisville<\/a> and Illinois<\/a>.<\/p>\n

White has been a starter throughout most of his collegiate career. He is an efficient offensively and a quality rebounder as well as a versatile defender.<\/p>\n

Samaris Calderon<\/h5>\n

Samaris Calderon<\/a>, a top-150ish 2025 recruit, is very raw, though he has a lot of potential. The 6-8 Brazilian is a versatile, long, and athletic forward with defensive upside.<\/p>\n

Kohl Rosario<\/h5>\n

Kohl Rosario<\/a> and Calderon were teammates with Overtime Elite. A consensus 130 recruit, Rosario signed with KU after reclassifying from the class of 2026.\u00a0 The athletic 6-5 guard is known for his athletic shooting and high motor. He has often been\u00a0compared to players like Bob Sura<\/a>, Bogdan Bogdanovic<\/a>, and Christian Braun<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jamari McDowell<\/h5>\n

Jamari McDowell<\/a> redshirted last year after averaging eight minutes in 31 appearances in 2023-24. The 6-4 long and athletic guard can play all three perimeter positions. He has a high motor and projects as a good shooter.<\/p>\n

Elmarko Jackson<\/h5>\n

Elmarko Jackson<\/a>, a consensus top 20 recruit in 2023, has a great court presence. He was a part-time starter during 2023-24 as he was with the first five in 18 of his 34 appearances. He was expected to be a rotational player last season before suffering a season-ending injury last June.<\/p>\n

Melvin Council Jr.<\/h5>\n
\"\"
Sebastian Thomas of the Rams leaps to try to intercept a first-half pass to St. Bonaventure guard Melvin Council Jr. Photo Credit: Kris Craig\/The Providence Journal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Council is a versatile two-way guard who improved in his lone year at St. Bonaventure. The 6-4 guard is long and rangy with elite quickness, and has the potential to be a defensive stopper. A third-team All-10 performer, he averaged 14.6 points, 5.4 rebounds, 4.1 assists, and 2.1 steals with shooting splits of 43.5\/29.9\/81.9 last season.<\/p>\n

Bryson Tiller<\/h5>\n

Bryson Tiller took a redshirt in 2024-25 after enrolling at KU for the spring semester. A consensus four-star power forward with a 7-3 wingspan is a strong rebounder and a versatile defender.<\/p>\n

Darryn Peterson<\/h5>\n

Peterson is the crown jewel of the Jayhawks’ 2025 recruiting class. He is one of the highest-ever recruited players in KU history and was named Naismith Trophy High School Player of the Year.<\/p>\n

“Darryn Peterson has a basketball player’s frame; long arms with broad shoulders,” On3’s Jaime Shaw<\/a> said in his scouting report of Peterson.\u00a0 “He is a smooth player with the ball in his hands. Comfortable handling in the half and the full court. Peterson can get downhill and touch the paint, where he is a crafty finisher at the rim. He also has the explosion to dunk in traffic. The jump shot needs to continue to develop, as he is currently a streaky shooter from beyond the arc. Peterson creates offense for himself, already at a high rate.”<\/p>\n

Paul Mbiya<\/h5>\n

Paul Mbiya<\/a>, a native of the DR of Congo, comes to KU after spending last season with French Club ASVEL and is expected to be an impact player. Mbiya is coming off a solid season in France’s top league as he averaged 15.3 points, 11.7 rebounds, and 3.0 blocked shots per game.<\/p>\n

Flory Bidunga<\/h5>\n

Bidunga was the first big off the bench for the Jayhawks last season. The athletic 6-9 forward was highly efficient offensively, shooting a Big 12-best 69.8% from the field, and was third in the conference with 1.6 blocks. He produced two double-doubles while scoring in double figures five times and tallying 10 or more boards four times.<\/p>\n

Kansas Jayhawks 2025 Starting Lineup and Rotation<\/h3>\n

Projected Starting Unit<\/h4>\n

PG: Melvin Council Jr.<\/p>\n

SG: Darryn Peterson<\/p>\n

SF: Tre White<\/p>\n

PF: Flory Bidunga<\/p>\n

C: Paul Mbiya<\/p>\n

Bench<\/p>\n

6th: Elmarko Jackson<\/p>\n

7th: Jayden Dawson<\/p>\n

8th: Bryson Tiller<\/p>\n

9th: Jamari McDowell<\/p>\n

10th: Samis Calderon<\/p>\n

Deep Bench:<\/p>\n

Kohl Rosario<\/p>\n

Corbin Allen<\/p>\n

Nginyu Ngala<\/a><\/p>\n

Jayhawks 2025-26 Schedule<\/h4>\n

Kansas is ranked 14th in On3’s Way-to-early-rankings<\/a> on June 30.\u00a0 KU is playing two exhibition games, opening at Louisville on October 24.\u00a0 The Jayhawks will host DII Fort Hays State on October 29 at home before opening the regular season at Allen Fieldhouse against Green Bay on November 3.<\/p>\n

As usual, KU will play a challenging 13-game nonconference schedule<\/a>. The Jayhawks will have six nonconference home games, headlined by UConn coming to Lawrence on December 2. While just two of their nonconference contests are true road games (at UNC and North Carolina State), the Jayhawks will play five neutral-site games.<\/p>\n

Kansas faces Duke at Madison Square Garden at the State Farm Champion Classic and then faces Notre Dame and Syracuse as part of their three-game Players Era in Vegas. Additionally, the Jayhawks play Missouri at Kansas City in the Border Showdown.<\/p>\n

As part of the Big 12’s 18-game schedule, Kansas will play a home-and-home series with \u00a0Arizona, Iowa State, and Kansas State. KU will host Baylor, BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, TCU, and Utah. They have road conference contests against Arizona State, UCF, Colorado, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, and West Virginia.<\/p>\n

Photo Credit: Nirmalendu Majumdar, Imagn Images<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bill Self is looking forward to his 23rd season leading the Kansas Jayhawks after being cleared to return to work following a health scare. 2025-26 Kansas Jayhawks Preview: Bill Self Looking Forward To Season After Health Scare Self was hospitalized on July 24 due to \u201csome concerning symptoms,\u201d and ultimately underwent a heart procedure where […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3146,"featured_media":153979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,773,2],"tags":[2980,1432,881,481],"class_list":["post-153880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-college-basketball","category-featured","tag-big-12-basketball","tag-bill-self","tag-kansas-jayhawks","tag-ncaa"],"modified_by":"Daniel Benjamin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153880"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":153984,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153880\/revisions\/153984"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}