The Kansas Jayhawks Sting Emporia State Hornets in Exhibition Game

The Kansas Jayhawks basketball team opened the season with an exhibition game against Emporia State. 16,200 fans and students returned to one of the most historical indoor arenas, Allen Fieldhouse. The Jayhawks would win 86-60 over the Hornets. Kansas is currently 22-3 (10-0 exhibition) all-time against Emporia State. They would improve to 91-9 all-time in exhibition games.

Bill Self’s lineup consisted of four players finishing with double-digit points. Ochai Agbaji would lead the team with 17 points. The others were David McCormack with 16 points, Remy Martin posting 15 points, and Christian Braun with 10 points. The Jayhawks scored 20 points on turnovers versus 10 points for the Hornets.  The Jayhawks managed a 47.1% field goal percentage. They were 9-22 from the 3 point line which was 40.9%.

According to kuathletics.com, Bill Self said this on Remy Martin coming off the bench:

"“Remy hasn’t had the best, last two days that we’ve ever had a guard have here. KT (Kurtis Townsend) says this all the time, ‘when the lights come on he’s a gamer.’ He did some things tonight that were good. Some shots he made that maybe weren’t the best looks and he’s still got to get more people involved. I thought he played well offensively. I thought Och (Ochai Agbaji) did too. I thought we did some good things offensively and had some good possessions defensively. It was a pretty good dress rehearsal. The crowd, considering its exhibition, I thought was great.”"

New Faces and Playing Time?

The Jayhawks would go into the half with a 51-25 lead. Ochai Agbaji looked ready to play and had 14 of his 17 points in the first half. He was an impressive 4-of-5 from the 3-point line.

As a fan, this is the first opportunity to see the players on the court. For many, it was the first time seeing Joseph Yesufu, Remy Martin, Zach Clemence, Bobby Pettiford, Cam Martin, KJ Adams Jr., Kyle Cuffe Jr. The basketball players work extremely hard to get to this point and start the season on a high note. With so many incoming freshmen paired with transfers, and returning players the topic of redshirt comes to mind.

According to kuathletics.com, Bill Self said this on the approach of a redshirt and the depth of this team:

"“We’ll talk some as a staff, I think that we have one or two, possibly three prime candidates that would do that, but I’m not sure that they’ll want to. I really think, just to be a real candid, a guy like Zach Clemence, he’s been our second-best big for a good part of the preseason. We know he’s not ready, but he could be ready by January. So we’ll have a conversation with Zach, and obviously with KJ (Adams), but KJ could be one of those guys that can help us in a month from now. I think we will have a couple more, but I’m not saying that we want to do that with them, I’m just saying those are the type of conversations we need to have because right now if you’re going in and playing the Orlando tournament, you’re playing Michigan State, you’re playing St. John’s as soon as you come out, I don’t know if there will be enough practice time for those guys to really jump some guys, so we’ll talk about it and see what happens, but it’s a nice problem to have.”"

Champions Classic: Kansas Jayhawks versus Michigan State

The Jayhawks would take full command in the second half and end up winning 86-60. This was a tune-up in preparation for the first official game of the season against the Michigan State Spartans. This game is a part of the Champions Classic and will be held on Tuesday, November 9th at the Gardens in New York.

According to kuathletics.com, Bill Self said this on the upcoming Michigan State game:

"“I don’t know much yet. Coach Roberts has the scout and he has a better look on them, but that will be our focus from this point forward. We’ll practice on Thursday and Friday, take Saturday off and then Monday and Tuesday will be all Michigan State. We need to work on us, but we also need to make sure we understand that they will be the best offensive rebounding team we may go against all year. They go from defense-to offense probably as fast as anybody historically in the country, so we have to really do a good job in those two areas.”"