Kansas basketball: 5 toughest games on the Jayhawks conference schedule

Kansas basketball fans pack in to Allen Fieldhouse for Friday's Late Night in the Phog.
Kansas basketball fans pack in to Allen Fieldhouse for Friday's Late Night in the Phog.
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Kansas basketball fans pack in to Allen Fieldhouse for Friday’s Late Night in the Phog.
Kansas basketball fans pack in to Allen Fieldhouse for Friday’s Late Night in the Phog.

Kansas basketball will compete in multiple challenging games in the new-look Big 12. These are the five toughest games during league play for the Jayhawks.

The Kansas Jayhawks opened the season as the preseason No. 1 team. Bill Self will look to capture the second title in three years for the Kansas basketball program, and this could be one of his best rosters ever.

Four new schools will compete in the Big 12 this season — Houston, BYU, Cincinnati, and UCF. That eliminates the traditional round-robin schedule where each team plays against each other once on the road and once at home. A team that gets a more favorable scheduling draw could very well steal one or two wins in conference play as a result.

With the landscape of college basketball vastly changing with the transfer portal, nobody knows what to expect. Kansas, in particular, had some of the most roster turnover in the sport, yet they were chosen to be the best group in the entire country. Aside from winning the conference games that they are expected to, KU must keep its pedal to the medal as the team continues to gel. When league play begins after the year flips to 2024, there are a few games in particular they’ll need to circle on their calendar.

These are the five most challenging games for Kansas basketball on the Jayhawks’ conference schedule.