kutathletics.com
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Kansas men’s basketball today announced its updated 2020-21 schedule, including the Big 12 Conference round-robin details. KU will have four additional non-conference games to reach the 27-game max established by the NCAA. Included in the four will be a Champions Classic matchup against Kentucky, with the location to be determined. Once those details are finalized that information will be released.
Kansas will start conference play with two games in December and will be part of three ESPN Big Monday contests this upcoming season.
Already on the slate, North Dakota State comes to Allen Fieldhouse on Saturday, Dec. 5. The Jayhawks will host Creighton on Tuesday, Dec. 8, Omaha on Friday, Dec. 11, and Tarleton State on Sunday, Dec. 13, to close out a four-game homestand.
Kansas will then open Big 12 play on the road at Texas Tech on Thursday, Dec. 17. This will be the earliest Big 12 contest for KU in the 25-year history of the conference and the earliest league game for the Jayhawks since Dec. 13, 1986, against Colorado.
The Jayhawks return to Allen Fieldhouse to face conference foe West Virginia on Tuesday, Dec. 22. The remaining 16 league games begin Saturday, Jan. 2, when KU hosts Texas.
Kansas’ three ESPN Big Monday contests start Jan. 18 at Baylor. The Jayhawks will host Oklahoma State on Big Monday on Feb. 8 and travel to Texas on Monday, Feb. 22. Kansas has been featured on ESPN Big Monday at least three times per season since the inception of the Big 12 in 1996-97.
Kansas is 73-18 all-time on ESPN Big Monday (43-1 at home and 30-17 on the road), including 54-12 under head coach Bill Self (32-0 at home and 22-12 on the road). Additionally, KU has won 36-consecutive Big Monday games in Allen Fieldhouse. Overall, KU has won its last 18 ESPN Big Monday battles.
The Big 12 Championship is scheduled for March 10-13, 2021, at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri.
Kansas returns three starters and nine letter winners from last season’s 28-3 team which won the Big 12 regular-season title going 17-1 in conference play. KU ended the year ranked No. 1 in both the Associated Press and USA Today Coaches’ polls as the 2019-20 season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.