🏀 Jayhawks to Face Mean Green at ESPN Events Invitational on Thanksgiving Day
ORLANDO, Fla. – No. 4/3 Kansas (3-0) opens the ESPN Events Invitational against North Texas (2-1) on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 25, at 1:30 p.m. (Central) at HP Field House on the campus of Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex. The game will be televised on ESPN.
Kansas has won its last six in-season tournaments (note: last year’s Fort Meyers Tip-Off did not have bracket play). The streak started with the 2014 Orlando Classic, followed by the 2015 Maui Invitational, the 2016 CBE Classic, the 2017 HoopHall Miami Invitational, the 2018 NIT Season Tip Off and the 2019 Maui Invitational.
Kansas senior guard Ochai Agbaji leads the NCAA with a 26.3 points per game scoring average. Agbaji has made a team-best 10 three-point field goals. Junior guard Christian Braun is next in scoring at 10.7 points per game and he leads Kansas with a 7.7 rebound average. Super-senior guard Remy Martin is scoring 9.7 ppg and he pulls down 5.3 rebounds per contest. He leads KU with 11 free throws made. Senior David McCormack leads the Big 12 in blocked shots per game at 2.7 while averaging 9.3 points and 6.0 rebounds per contest. Redshirt-sophomore Dajuan Harris Jr. (4.0 ppg) leads KU with 16 assists and five steals and he rounds out the starters.
Other KU regulars include super-senior guard Jalen Coleman-Lands (7.3 ppg), freshman forward Zach Clemence (7.0 ppg), freshman guard Bobby Pettiford (4.3 ppg, eight assists), freshman forward KJ Adams Jr. (5.4 minutes per game) and sophomore guard Joseph Yesufu (9.9 minutes per game). Redshirt-sophomore Jalen Wilson will see his first action of the season against North Texas. Wilson led KU with a 7.9 rebound average last season, while averaging 11.8 ppg.
Kansas won the only meeting with North Texas, 93-60, on Nov. 19, 2010, in Allen Fieldhouse. KU would finish 35-3 in 2010-11, win the 2011 Big 12 regular-season title at 14-2, the Big 12 Tournament and advance to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament.
Kansas will face either Dayton or Miami (Fla.) on Friday, Nov. 26, in the second round of the ESPN Events Invitational at the HP Field House on the campus of Disney’s Wild World of Sports Complex. The game will start at either 10 a.m. or 12:30 p.m. (Central).
KU will face either Alabama, Belmont, Drake or Iona on Sunday, Nov. 28, to conclude the ESPN Events Invitational.
In its last appearance at the event, Kansas won the 2014 Orlando Classic defeating Rhode Island, Tennessee and Michigan State.
