Men’s Basketball
Kansas guard Nginyu Ngala (0) celebrates a dunk from Kansas forward Flory Bidunga (40) during the first half on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025 at Allen Fieldhouse. Photo by Nick Krug
The insertion of a walk-on for Kansas men’s basketball usually suggests that victory is near.
But when Wilder Evers came on the floor for the Jayhawks on Saturday afternoon against Princeton, with 13 minutes to go in the first half, the outcome was still very much in doubt — more so than anyone expected, even at such an early stage.
The redshirt junior guard from Birmingham, Alabama, whose appearances on James Naismith Court are usually the source of raucous cheers from KU fans and the Jayhawks’ bench, entered instead against the Tigers at an uneasy time. KU trailed 11-10 seven minutes in and had mustered little on offense while also struggling to combat the 3-point attempts and backdoor cuts that constitute the core of Princeton’s offense.
Evers left after two minutes and 37 seconds after stepping out of bounds with KU down 18-13.
“Wilder has never entered a game that early in a game in his life, but I actually thought he did fine, because we didn’t guard,” KU coach Bill Self said.
Center Flory Bidunga also praised Evers’ defensive effort in those minutes and said that it prompted the thought, “If Wilder can do it, why can’t we?” Ultimately, though, speaking postgame after KU eventually pulled out a 76-57 victory, Self said he didn’t think the introduction of Evers was effective as a challenge to his team.
“Did you guys think it worked? No,” Self said. “Not at all. But it wasn’t any worse.”
That was one of a few high-speed, unpredictable changes Self made to the lineup over the course of what was at times a grim first half for the Jayhawks.
The first and most notable change was a reasonable one: the addition of Bryson Tiller to the starting lineup to make for a bigger frontcourt with Tre White at small forward and Flory Bidunga at center. That followed an ineffective start to the year, with 3.3 points and 2.7 rebounds per game in three contests, for guard Elmarko Jackson, who had previously stepped in for Darryn Peterson as a starter.
“We haven’t really had anybody stand out in that situation,” Self said. “To me, Bryson’s played better. He’s still got to play big.”
The redshirt freshman Tiller had a quiet six points and five rebounds on 1-for-6 shooting in his first action as a starter, but he did make perhaps the biggest shot of the game when he hit a 3-pointer out of a timeout with KU up 44-43 in the second half. That bucket essentially ensured the Tigers never took the lead.
Many of the other lineup moves Self made in the first half, though, arose from pure dissatisfaction with his team’s defensive performance. Before even calling for Evers, he had briefly thrown out what was essentially a five-guard lineup with a big wing, Samis Calderon, playing center.
After Evers’ brief stint, and after Melvin Council Jr. incurred a second foul late in the first half, Self opted for Nginyu Ngala, the veteran Canadian guard whose value Self has said is primarily as a practice player, but who has shot the ball well in limited early-season action and quickly become a fan favorite.
Ngala got called for a quick shooting foul on Princeton’s top scorer, Dalen Davis, but later grabbed a rebound and made a pair of free throws. He narrowly missed a buzzer-beating 3, but he managed to drain one in mop-up duty in the final minute of the game much later.
“At least he’s a threat to score,” Self said. “He was plus-7 in three minutes or whatever the first half, so maybe it’s a coincidence, but we actually played some of our better ball when he was in the game there, the end of the half.”
The Jayhawks swapped through 11 players in the first half as Self looked for solutions on a night he said he was “pissed from the beginning.” Whether this will have any bearing on their rotation in future games remains to be seen.
“I would say it would help us to get ready,” Bidunga said of Saturday’s rotations. “We’re trying to do some combination to see where we are, what worked best for us, and you know, I think we’re still working on it. It worked out pretty well tonight, I would say, so we’ll look forward for that.”
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Written By Henry Greenstein
