🏀 Kansas to be Featured on Four ESPN Big Mondays in 2021-22

Kansas Jayhawks

LAWRENCE, Kan. – For the 15th time in the last 16 seasons, Kansas men’s basketball will be featured four times on ESPN Big Monday, according to the 2021-22 Big 12 Conference schedule released by the league on Wednesday.

Official television schedules have not been released but the Jayhawks will appear on four Mondays during the upcoming league season beginning Jan. 17 at Oklahoma. KU will also play Big Monday contests on Jan. 24 versus Texas Tech, Feb. 7 at Texas and Feb. 14 when Oklahoma State comes to historic Allen Fieldhouse.

This will mark the 11th-consecutive season the Big 12 will play a double round-robin format in men’s basketball. Including Kansas, last season the Big 12 placed a nation-high 70 percent of its teams in the 2021 NCAA Tournament and all six of those opponents will be coming to Allen Fieldhouse in 2021-22.

Fans can secure season tickets today for all 17 home games, including contests against defending NCAA National Champion Baylor and the rest of the Big 12 Conference, as well as Missouri, Kentucky and UTEP. Tickets are available for as low as $500 by visiting www.KUAthletics.com. To order season tickets, fans must be active members of the Williams Education Fund, which can be done for as little as $100. More information is available by calling 785.864.3141.

Kansas released its non-conference schedule in June. KU’s 2021 calendar home slate includes Emporia State (exhibition, Nov. 3), Tarleton State (Nov. 12), Stony Brook (Nov. 18), UTEP (Dec. 7) at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo., Missouri (Dec. 11), Stephen F. Austin (Dec. 18) and Harvard (Dec. 29). The home order of the Big 12 schedule goes TCU (Jan. 1), Iowa State (Jan. 11), West Virginia (Jan. 15), Texas Tech (Jan. 24), Kentucky (Jan. 29) in the Big 12/SEC Challenge, Baylor (Feb. 5), Oklahoma (Feb. 12), Oklahoma State (Feb. 14), Kansas State (Feb. 22) and Texas (March 5).

The award-winning in-house video unit of Kansas Athletics, Rock Chalk Video, will produce the Big 12 Now on ESPN+ men’s basketball games in 2021-22. It will also produce Jayhawk Gameday Live, a 30-minute pregame show and a 60-minute postgame show, for every home and away Kansas men’s basketball game day. Those shows will also air on Big 12 NOW on ESPN+.

Rock Chalk Video and Jayhawk Sports Marketing will also produce a simulcast of Hawk Talk, Coach Bill Self’s weekly radio show which will be shown on KUAthletics.com throughout the 2021-22 season.

KU will officially tip off the 2021-22 season with the 37th annual Late Night in the Phog on Friday, Oct. 1, in Allen Fieldhouse with festivities slated to start at 6:30 p.m. The event will be also televised on ESPN+.

Ranked in the preseason top-5 by most outlets, Kansas returns four starters and eight letterwinners from last season’s 21-9 team that finished second in the Big 12 with a 12-6 record. KU advanced to its NCAA record 31st-consecutive NCAA Tournament in the 2020-21 COVID-19 pandemic season.

Senior Ochai Agbaji led Kansas in scoring in 2020-21 at 14.1 points per game and he earned All-Big 12 Honorable Mention honors for the second-straight season. He led KU with 78 3-pointers in 2020-21. Senior forward David McCormack (13.4 ppg, 6.1 rpg) was the named the first recipient of the Big 12 Most Improved Player Award and all-league second team last season. Other returning starters include redshirt sophomore Jalen Wilson (11.8 ppg, team-high 7.9 rpg), a 2021 Big 12 All-Freshman and All-Newcomer team selection, and Christian Braun (9.7 ppg, 5.2 rpg, 52 3FGs), an all-conference honorable mention honoree. Other key returnees include super-senior forward Mitch Lightfoot 3.4 ppg, 2.5 rpg) and redshirt-sophomore guard Dajuan Harris Jr. (2.4 ppg, 2.2 assists per game).

Kansas welcomes 10 newcomers to the 2021-22 roster that include senior transfers guard Remy Martin, from Arizona State, guard Jalen Coleman-Lands, from Iowa State, forward Cam Martin, from Missouri Southern State, and guard Joseph Yesufu, from Drake. Other key KU freshmen include guard Bobby Pettiford, guard Kyle Cuffe Jr., forward Zach Clemence and forward KJ Adams Jr. KU has four walkons on it roster with super-senior guard Chris Teahan, junior guard Michael Jankovich, and freshmen Charlie McCarthy and Dillon Wilhite.

Since the inception of the Big 12 in 1996-97, Kansas is 74-20 all-time on ESPN Big Monday (44-1 at home and 30-19 on the road), including 55-14 under head coach Bill Self (33-0 at home and 22-14 on the road). Additionally, KU has won 37-consecutive Big Monday games in Allen Fieldhouse. Overall, KU is 19-2 in its last 21 ESPN Big Monday contests.