Men’s Basketball
AP Photo/Chris Seward
Kansas head coach Bill Self directs the team during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against North Carolina, Friday, Nov. 7, 2025, in Chapel Hill, N.C.
It didn’t take long for a young group of Jayhawks to suffer its first setback.
North Carolina raced past Kansas in a fast-paced second half on Friday at the Smith Center, resulting in a resounding 13-point defeat for KU and revealing plenty of areas for improvement at this early stage of the year.
“We’re just staying focused on the stuff that we messed up, so that we don’t make those same mistakes twice,” redshirt sophomore guard Elmarko Jackson said on Monday. “It’s a long season, so we can’t dwell on it too bad. We got a game tomorrow.”
Indeed, the path to more consistent play begins on Tuesday night as the Jayhawks return to Allen Fieldhouse to face Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 7 p.m.
It will be the second-ever matchup between the two schools. TAMUCC was eight years into its Division I tenure when it got doubled up by the Jayhawks 82-41 on Nov. 23, 2010.
The Islanders are now three seasons removed from their first-ever NCAA Tournament victory, which came in the First Four under Steve Lutz, who in the intervening years moved on to Western Kentucky and then to Oklahoma State. Lutz’s replacement in 2023 was Jim Shaw, one of his assistants. Shaw took the Islanders to the CIT his first year at the helm and has had a pair of solid seasons since, finishing fifth in the 12-team Southland last year, but TAMUCC will be looking for a trip back to the postseason.
As is often the case for mid-major programs in this era, it is essentially an entirely new roster for the 2025-26 campaign, with the Islanders’ top seven players in minutes per game having departed after last season. The top returning contributor is 6-foot-8 forward Sheldon Williams, who is averaging 15.7 points and 11 rebounds and posted 14 and 17 in a recent close loss to ACC foe SMU.
The teams were tied at 53 after Williams’ 3-pointer with just over four minutes to go, but the Islanders conceded a 16-5 run to close out the contest. TAMUCC is now 1-2 after a second loss, 85-77 at Tarleton State on Saturday, and its lone win was against a Division III school.
“I think they’re athletic,” KU coach Bill Self said. “I think they’re good. I think they can stretch it from multiple spots. But they’re a lot like us in that I don’t think they’ve played their best ball yet.”
The Islanders picked up 6-foot guard Mason Gibson, a volume shooter, as a transfer from Division II Midwestern State. He and a second returnee, guard Kam Parker, are TAMUCC’s top scorers to this point. Freshman forward Kobi Pearson had 10 points in 13 minutes in his collegiate debut against Tarleton.
Some other new additions include guards D’Avian Houston (Coastal Carolina) and Daniel Michelini-Jackson (East Los Angeles Community College) and forward Franck Yetna (Lincoln University). Much like KU’s previous lower-level opponent Green Bay, TAMUCC does not have a lot of size. Through three games this year, the Islanders have had one player over 6-foot-8 on the court for 31 total minutes (Jamal Ambrose) and he is averaging two points and one rebound.
It could be an opportunity for KU’s frontcourt to rebound — in multiple senses — after an unimpressive performance in the loss to North Carolina that saw the Jayhawks outdone on the glass 39-27 and Flory Bidunga limited to eight points on 4-for-9 shooting. Self said on Monday that he would like for Bidunga to emerge as KU’s second option on offense to pair with guard Darryn Peterson.
No. 25 Kansas Jayhawks (1-1) vs. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders (1-2)
• Allen Fieldhouse, Lawrence, 7 p.m.
• Broadcast: ESPN+
• Radio: Jayhawk Radio Network (in Lawrence, KLWN AM 1320 / K269GB FM 101.7 / KKSW FM 105.9 / KMXN FM 92.9)
Keep an eye out
Winning the glass: As evidenced by the numbers from UNC, KU has plenty of work to do in terms of rebounding at this early stage. The Jayhawks had a dramatic advantage and an all-around team effort on the boards in their season opener against Green Bay, but even then players like Bidunga and Tre White didn’t necessarily rack up the rebounds. Then, against the Tar Heels, Bidunga had seven and no other player managed more than three. White got two and Kohl Rosario was shut out in his 20 minutes. Those players have the potential to play significant roles in securing possession for KU, and White has a history of rebounding well at his past stops. Self said he felt overall that the Jayhawks “played very soft when it came to rebounding the basketball and going after balls” and that it was as big of an issue as any for KU to correct going forward.
Tiller’s position: KU lost its lead against UNC, but redshirt freshman forward Bryson Tiller had a lot to do with the fact that the Jayhawks were even ahead in the first place, given his unexpected 4-for-4 showing from beyond the arc in the opening half on Friday. Self complimented Tiller’s shooting afterward and said KU hadn’t seen him shoot it quite that well. But he did note that “when bigs shoot the ball that well, the tendency is for them to become guards, and we need them to be bigs, too.” The 6-foot-10 Tiller only grabbed two rebounds and was a nonfactor in the second half due to foul trouble. Self has repeatedly stressed that he and his fellow forwards need to play to their size, and while Tiller’s shooting opens up possibilities for the Jayhawks, he needs to balance it with hard work inside.
Endurance: The Jayhawks are healthy and Peterson’s cramping issue seems to be in the rearview mirror, at least at present. But Self said he felt that against UNC, KU’s defense got “weak and soft” because the Jayhawks were tired: “That was a game that when things turned in the second half and there’s 10 minutes left and we’re down six, there’s not that much gas left in the tank in many ways.” Chances are that KU will rotate more and be under less frequent pressure from TAMUCC’s offense, but Tuesday is still an opportunity for something much closer to a complete performance on defense.
Off-kilter observation
TAMUCC assistant coach Robert Edwards is a Kansas native from Overland Park.
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Written By Henry Greenstein
