When Kansas last took the floor against No. 11 Louisville last Friday night in their first of two exhibitions, fans were bubbling with excitement to see how this revamped team under a refreshed coach would gel in an away environment against elite competition.
Ultimately, the Jayhawks soared out of Kentucky with a 90-82 win, and while things weren’t always perfect, that almost made the exhibition win sweeter.
While there were a number of storylines following the Jayhawks’ win, one that may have slightly fallen to the wayside was that of freshman Bryson Tiller. Tiller was A fall 2024 signee who reported to the KU for the spring 2025 semester, using his redshirt season in 2024-25.
Meaning that Friday was the first opportunity for him to get major minutes, even if it was just an exhibition game.
Tiller, however, made it count. Tiller played 28 minutes, which only fell behind Melvin Council Jr., who led the team with 30. Tiller notched a smooth 12 points on an efficient 5-8 shooting. That wasn’t all though, Tiller followed it up with a monster seven rebounds, four blocks, and two steals, showing the Kansas fanbase that they may have a future star in the making.
“I thought he played bigger than what we have seen in practice recently,” quoted Kansas head coach Bill Self earlier this week. “I thought he was active…but I thought he was really good, and I thought he attacked the basket a couple of times…so, he's really a good player, but he doesn't play to his size all the time because sometimes he settles.”
Coming out of Overtime Elite, Tiller was ranked as the No. 20 by 247Sports.com, No. 21 by Rivals, No. 23 by On3.com, and No. 26 by ESPN100.
If Tiller can continue this newfound momentum into the season, he will be a sneaky asset who will come up big for Bill Self and the Kansas Jayhawks.
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