{"id":312542,"date":"2025-10-18T04:49:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T04:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/312542\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T04:49:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T04:49:14","slug":"self-expresses-enthusiasm-for-fun-fast-squad-at-late-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/312542\/","title":{"rendered":"Self expresses enthusiasm for \u2018fun,\u2019 \u2018fast\u2019 squad at Late Night"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\tMen’s Basketball\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t<\/a>
\n
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n


\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"article <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

Kansas head coach Bill Self addresses the crowd during Late Night in the Phog on Friday, Oct. 17, 2025 at Allen Fieldhouse. Photo by Nick Krug<\/p>\n


\n \t\t\t\t
\n <\/p>\n

Friday night\u2019s men\u2019s basketball portion of Late Night in the Phog featured an extended riff on the reality show \u201cLove Island\u201d that culminated in Kansas coach Bill Self selecting not just one of his players but all 16 \u2014 the entire team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love this team,\u201d he said in the skit.<\/p>\n

In a speech to assembled fans, setting the tone for the season ahead, he emphasized that the sentiment he expressed wasn\u2019t just made for TV \u2014 it was the truth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do love this team,\u201d he reiterated. \u201cThis team is fun. This team is fast. This team has a blend of youthful exuberance and some vets and you know something, last year\u2019s team did OK. But OK at the University of Kansas is not good enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cThis year\u2019s team has a real chance if we like each other, if we enjoy each other, if we play well together, if we\u2019re unselfish, but you know something else that we got to have? We got to have you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Self was exhorting the fans as they got their first look at the new players; in return, nine players received the opportunity on Friday night to take in the Allen Fieldhouse atmosphere as Jayhawks for the first time. That encompassed the majority of KU\u2019s roster: freshmen Corbin Allen, Samis Calderon, Paul Mbiya, Darryn Peterson and Kohl Rosario and transfers Melvin Council Jr., Jayden Dawson, Nginyu Ngala and Tre White.<\/p>\n

All did plenty to endear themselves to KU fans, some as soon as they were introduced \u2014 Council did a cartwheel, and Rosario threw his hat into the crowd \u2014 and received plenty of applause from the crowd in return, especially Peterson, although the fans reserved the biggest cheer for the last player introduced on the night, sophomore center Flory Bidunga.<\/p>\n

A skit with surprisingly high production values had KU coach Bill Self traveling through a championship-ring-operated \u201ctime portal\u201d in period-appropriate costume to recruit Jayhawks of various eras. It featured, among others, Flory Bidunga as Wilt Chamberlain, Tony Bland as Paul Pierce, Darryn Peterson as Danny Manning, Kurtis Townsend as James Naismith and Joe Dooley as Clyde Lovellette and Brennan Bechard, Jeremy Case, and Jacque Vaughn as themselves with special cameo appearances from Rosario and KJ Adams.<\/p>\n

After the \u201cLove Island\u201d sketch, Self conducted his usual giveaway to a pair of KU students \u2014 who were both, as it happened, from Parker, Colorado. Neither was able to convert a halfcourt shot on their own \u2014 senior John Riddle shooting on his own behalf, and sophomore Savannah Perea represented by newly signed Cleveland Cavalier Zeke Mayo \u2014 but both were successful from a little closer to the basket and earned $7,500 each.<\/p>\n

Then came the scrimmage, which split players into crimson and blue teams. A back-and-forth 15-minute period saw a red team led by Darryn Peterson and Flory Bidunga emerge victorious, 27-23. Peterson led all players with 12 points on 12 shots, and no one else scored more than five or attempted more than five shots. <\/p>\n

One particularly exciting sequence saw Peterson and Rosario trade alley-oop dunks, Peterson\u2019s off a feed from Calderon and Rosario\u2019s from Council.<\/p>\n

Self said afterward that he wasn\u2019t particularly pleased or displeased by any element of the scrimmage, while acknowledging that \u201cusually I leave out of here not very happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019ll play that way in real games, but it was fine,\u201d he added. \u201cYou know, one thing is different though, that when you get bodies out there and adrenaline\u2019s flowing, you notice how tired everybody got quick. That was good for them, though.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senior guard Jayden Dawson did not participate in the scrimmage. Self had previously said on Wednesday that Dawson was dealing with a sore knee, but that they didn\u2019t expect it to be anything major.<\/p>\n

With Late Night in the rearview mirror, the beginning of the men\u2019s basketball season draws ever nearer. KU has a road exhibition at Louisville next Friday, another preseason contest against Fort Hays State on Oct. 28 and then its season opener on Nov. 3 against Green Bay.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n
\n
\n \"\" <\/p>\n


\n PREV POST
\n Kansas women\u2019s basketball team debuts at 41st annual Late Night in the Phog \n <\/p>\n


\n <\/a>
\n
\n
\n <\/p>\n


\n NEXT POST
\n Self expresses enthusiasm for \u2018fun,\u2019 \u2018fast\u2019 squad at Late Night \n <\/p>\n


\n \"\" <\/a>
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\"Author<\/p>\n

Written By Henry Greenstein<\/p>\n


\n Henry is the sports editor at the Lawrence Journal-World and KUsports.com, and serves as the KU beat writer while managing day-to-day sports coverage. He previously worked as a sports reporter at The Bakersfield Californian and is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis (B.A., Linguistics) and Arizona State University (M.A., Sports Journalism). Though a native of Los Angeles, he has frequently been told he does not give off “California vibes,” whatever that means. <\/p>\n

\u25bc<\/p>\n


\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Men’s Basketball Kansas head…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":312543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[1339,1317,1337,1338,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-312542","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-basketball","11":"tag-ncaabasketball","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115393369199903931","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}