🏀 Lightfoot and Teahan Returning for the 2021-22 Season

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Kansas men’s basketball head coach Bill Self announced today that seniors Mitch Lightfoot and Chris Teahan will be returning for the 2021-22 season. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCAA announced in October that winter sport student-athletes who compete during 2020-21 in Division I will receive both an additional season of competition and an additional year in which to complete it.

Lightfoot will be retuning for his sixth season in the KU program as he was a redshirt in 2019-20.

“This year, given all the challenges with COVID-19 and what else has been going on, it was the best interest for myself to come back for a sixth year and get the most out of my time at KU,” Lightfoot said. “One of the words of wisdom Coach (Bill) Self had for me was, ‘Everyone is in a hurry to grow up and it should be the other way around. We should stay young and get the most out of it.’ I took that to heart and am looking to do just that.”

Teahan joined the KU fold in 2017-18 and he and Lightfoot were part of Kansas’ 2018 Final Four team that won the Big 12 regular-season and league tournament titles. Kansas ended the 2019-20 campaign No. 1 in both the Associated Press and USA TODAY Coaches’ polls going 28-3 and 17-1 in winning the conference regular-season title before the pandemic put an abrupt halt to the season.

“Throughout the year, it didn’t feel right, going to the Fieldhouse without 16,300 there. That wasn’t the way I wanted my career to end,” Teahan said. “Coach Self initiated the conversation asking what my plans were for next year and I said I wanted to come back. He agreed that would be a good decision.”

Kansas will celebrate Senior Night when it plays host to No. 2 Baylor on Saturday, Feb. 27, at 7 p.m., on ESPN. KU will honor senior Marcus Garrett and senior manager Jon Felton prior to the contest.