Kansas kicked off its season Friday night with an exhibition win over Louisville, meaning the countdown to opening night against Green Bay is now less than ten days away. With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at one of the newest Jayhawks, incoming freshman Kohl Rosario.
The 6-foot-6 guard from Miami, Florida, enters his first college season as a four-star recruit out of Moravian Prep (NC) and the Overtime Elite league.
During his freshman year at Moravian Prep, Rosario averaged 16.5 points, and 5.6 rebounds per game while shooting nearly 39% from three-point range. As a sophomore, he elevated his game to 25.2 points and 6.1 rebounds per contest.
Just one summer ago, entering his junior year, he wasn’t heavily recruited on a national scale and held offers from Appalachian State, Florida State, Portland, and Samford.
This past year, Rosario burst onto the national radar seemingly out of nowhere, much like Johnny Furphy did in 2023. He elected to leave Moravian Prep and joined the YNG Dreamerz of the Overtime Elite league.
While there, he averaged 15.7 points, 5.6 rebounds, 2.1 assists, and 1.8 steals per game. He helped lead his team to the 2025 championship and earned first-team All-OTE honors.
Along with Kansas, Rosario quickly racked up offers from prestigious programs such as Baylor, BYU, Duke, Miami, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, Villanova, and more. He appeared to be trending toward five-star status.
Rosario took official visits in June to Florida State, Kansas, Miami, and Oregon before committing to the Jayhawks on June 24. He also announced his decision to reclassify to the class of 2025, allowing him to forgo his remaining high school eligibility and join the team in Lawrence this season.
Rosario has an exceedingly athletic background and a college-ready frame that could allow him to make an immediate impact this season. He’s extremely physical, shoots at a consistently high clip, and is a walking highlight reel.
He’s on record saying his best asset is dunking the basketball and loves elevating off two feet. Rosario brings the kind of lob-catching and finishing ability Kansas hasn’t seen much at his size since Ochai Agbaji, or even Nicolas Timberlake at times.
Bill Self had this to say about the freshman as we head into the 2025-26 men’s basketball season: “He tries ridiculously hard every day, ridiculously hard. You can tell him what he needs to do to get better that day or that week, whatever it is, and he’ll put a conscious effort to work on that so hard until he masters that, or at least gets close.”
As you can see, Rosario possesses not only an elite work ethic but also a relentless desire to improve and help his team every single day. He’s expected to be in Bill Self’s starting lineup to open the season and has untapped potential that’s just beginning to show.
If all goes well, he could rapidly emerge as a fan favorite and become a legitimate candidate for the upcoming NBA Draft. Alternatively, he might be one of those players who stays multiple seasons and eventually develops into an all-time KU legend.
Already starting for one of the top programs in the country, is Kohl Rosario the most undervalued freshman in college basketball?
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