KU set for final exhibition game

Exhibition Continues:

No. 13 Kansas concludes its 2011 exhibition season playing host to Fort Hays State on Tuesday, Nov. 8, at 7 p.m. The game will be televised on Jayhawk IMG TV and can also be seen via the internet for those who subscribe to AT&T Jayhawk All-Access through www.kuathletics.com. Following its 84-55 win against Pittsburg State in its previous exhibition contest on Nov. 1, Kansas is 56-7 in exhibition contests, including 24-0 under head coach Bill Self is starting his ninth season at KU. The Kansas contest is the second of three exhibition games for Fort Hays State this season. The Tigers lost at Kansas State, 90-60, Nov. 6 and will play at Oklahoma State on Nov. 9.

Happy Birthday Dr. Naismith:

Kansas women's and men's basketball will honor the 150th birthday of Dr. James Naismith, in their final two exhibition contests of the 2011 season. Born Nov. 6, 1861, Dr. Naismith came to Kansas by way of Canada and Massachusetts and invented the game of basketball in 1891. He became KU's first basketball coach in 1898 and led the Jayhawks for nine seasons. To celebrate the 150th birthday of basketball's inventor, in Sept. 2011, the University of Kansas Libraries unveiled an exhibition, "James Naismith's Life and Legacy: Celebrating 150 Years." The collection of historic materials, including photographs, a scrapbook, university records and pamphlets from McGill University, Springfield College and the University of Kansas Archives, are displayed in the Library Gallery in Watson Library through December 16.

About Kansas

Kansas clearly showed a different look in its 84-55 exhibition victory against Pittsburg State on Nov. 1 in Allen Fieldhouse. With three starters on the bench, head coach Bill Self employed senior Conner Teahan, juniors Jeff Withey and Travis Releford, sophomore Justin Wesley and freshman Naadir Tharpe as the starting lineup. The KU starters had a combined five starts between them, showing the youth of a Kansas program which has had six NBA players, including four draft lottery selections, in the last two seasons.

Additionally, Self dressed out walk-on practice player Anthony West for the game. Teahan scored 21 points and Withey added a triple-double with 18 points, 12 rebounds and 10 blocked shots to lead KU to the victory.

On Sunday, Oct. 30, KU head coach Bill Self announced that senior guard Tyshawn Taylor and junior guard Elijah Johnson will not play in KU's two exhibition contests due to violations of team rules. Preseason All-America junior forward Thomas Robinson also did not play against Pitt State due to a knee injury but is expected to have a full recovery in time for the regular season.

A three-year starter, Taylor is KU's returning leading scorer from 2010-11 with a 9.3 scoring average. Juniors Robinson, Releford and Johnson were also regulars last season. Robinson is a forward who is Kansas' leading returning rebounder (6.4 rpg), which complemented his 7.6 scoring average. Robinson has appeared on many national preseason honors lists heading into the 2011-12 season.

Releford (3.6 ppg in 2010-11) is a redshirt junior who started four games last year. Johnson (3.4 ppg, 64 assists) had six starts his sophomore year and made 40 percent of his three-pointers attempted. Other returning letterwinners include Teahan, a 2010-11 redshirt who has appeared in 61 games while at KU, Withey (2.3 ppg, 19 blocked shots) and walk-on guards Jordan Juenemann, a senior, and sophomore Niko Roberts.

Newcomer-wise, junior forward Kevin Young should have an immediate impact for the Jayhawks. Young played two seasons at Loyola-Marymount and sat out last year before coming to Kansas. He averaged 10.7 points and 5.7 rebounds per game his sophomore year in 2009-10 and broke several LMU freshman records the previous season when he scored 9.1 points and pulled down 7.2 rebounds per outing.

Wesley was a redshirt on the Kansas roster last season. The younger brother of KU great Keith Langford, Wesley is a transfer from Lamar who has added 20 pounds to his frame since arriving at Kansas, coming into the season weighing 220 pounds.

KU has five freshmen on this season's roster with guards Tharpe, Merv Lindsay, Ben McLemore and Christian Garrett and forward Jamari Traylor. Tharpe is described as a true point guard who played at Brewster (N.H.) Academy last year, guiding his team to a 35-5 record and a prep school national championship.

Lindsay averaged 15.0 ppg and 10.2 rpg his senior year at Canyon Springs (Calif.) HS, while Garrett scored 14 points per game and averaged seven assists as a teammate of Traylor before coming to Kansas last January. McLemore and Traylor were declared partial qualifiers by the NCAA and will not dress out for 2011-12. The duo will be able to practice with the team following the fall 2011 semester.

About Fort Hays State:

Located in Hays, Kansas, with an enrollment of 9,000, Fort Hays State lost at Kansas State 90-60 on Nov. 6 in its first exhibition game of the season. The Tigers were led by junior guard Tyrone Phillips who had 16 points, while junior guard Lance Russell added 12 points and junior forward Markus Yarbrough 11 points. FHSU made its second-straight NCAA Division II Tournament appearance last year (third in the last four years), won the MIAA Tournament Championship, and finished 26-7 overall.

The Tigers, picked third in the preseason MIAA polls behind Missouri Southern and Central Missouri, only return two of their eight players in the regular rotation from last year in senior guard Karron McKenzie (7.6 ppg, 3.9 rpg) and senior forward Matt Simmons (4.5 ppg, 6.4 rpg). Senior guard Sean Dreiling and junior guard Jason Ball, who both averaged less than five minutes per game last year, look to play bigger roles this year.

Ball is a former Hays High School teammate of KU's Jordan Juenemann. The Tigers are without their top returning scorer from last year until second semester, as senior guard Moses Dayee only has one semester of eligibility remaining and will begin playing in January. Joining McKenzie and Simmons among the projected starters is Russell, who received a medical redshirt last year after suffering an injury just two games into the season.

Russell, a junior, transferred from Cowley (Kan.) College prior to the 2010-11 season. The Tigers will look to five transfers to help fill the gaps left by the departure of their top four scorers from last year. Guards Kendrick Morse and Omar McDade, a pair of junior transfers from Sheridan (Wyo.) College, are projected to start, while junior transfers Phillips and Yarbrough, and senior transfer KC Rodenburg also look to be in the mix.

The Series:

Kansas leads the overall series with Fort Hays State 7-0, including a 4-0 record in exhibition games. This series dates back to 1994. KU last faced Fort Hays State on Nov. 3, 2007, when the Jayhawks defeated the Tigers 107-68 in an exhibition contest in Allen Fieldhouse.

Exhibition Notables:

--Kansas has won 38 straight exhibition contests.

--Kansas is 56-7 all-time in exhibition contests.

--Under Bill Self, Kansas is 24-0 in exhibition games, including a 6-0 record in two Canada trips

- 2004 and 2008.

--Kansas has scored 100-plus points in 23 exhibition games, including three of its last six.

Three Additional Men's Basketball Games to Air on AT&T Jayhawk All-Access:

Kansas Athletics added three regular-season men's basketball games to the schedule of games available this season on AT&T Jayhawk All-Access via kuathletics.com.

Jayhawk fans around the country will be able to log on to Jayhawk All-Access to watch the Nov. 11 game against Towson, the Nov. 30 game vs. Florida Atlantic and the Dec. 29 game vs. Howard. As previously announced, Jayhawk All-Access will also televise the Jayhawks' two men's basketball exhibition games - against Pittsburg State (Nov. 1) and Fort Hays State (Nov. 8).

All five games will be available on the Jayhawk IMG Television Network (JTV) in the state of Kansas. JTV affiliates include KSMO in Kansas City, Mo., WIBW in Topeka, Kan., KSNW in Wichita and Cox Communications in Southeast Kansas. Tipoff time for the games is 7 p.m. (Central) from Allen Fieldhouse.

The three non-exhibition games on All-Access and JTV will also be available on ESPN Full Court.

This marks the eighth consecutive year that AT&T Jayhawk All-Access will broadcast Kansas Athletics events either with video, audio or both. In addition to the men's basketball games, fans who subscribed to AT&T All-Access this year have also seen:

• Late Night in the Phog, the annual tipoff of basketball practice

• Legends of the Phog, the KU men's basketball alumni charity game in Allen Fieldhouse in September

• The home football opener vs. McNeese State.

This year's Jayhawk All-Access schedule also includes:

• Football, men's basketball and women's basketball coaches' weekly television shows,

• Football Coach Turner Gill's postgame press conferences after home games,

• Football Coach Turner Gill's weekly press conferences,

• Home women's basketball games,

• The Kansas Relays and much more, including postgame interviews in many of Kansas' 18 varsity sports.

Fans who subscribe to Jayhawk All-Access may also listen to:

• The complete radio broadcasts of KU football and men's basketball contests, including pre- and post-game shows and post-game interviews with the coaches,

• Men's basketball coach Bill Self's weekly press conferences,

• Weekly "Hawk Talk" radio shows with Turner Gill, Bill Self and Bonnie Henrickson,

• "Rock Chalk Sports Talk", a weekly hour-long radio show highlighting Kansas Athletics.

In addition, KU fans can watch home volleyball matches and baseball games free of charge. Kansas fans can subscribe to Jayhawk All-Access by going to www.kuathletics.com and clicking on the AT&T Jayhawk All-Access button on the right. Jayhawk All-Access subscriptions are $9.95 per month or $79.95 per year.

Up Next:

Kansas opens the 2011-12 regular season when it plays host to Towson Friday, Nov. 11 at 7 p.m. on Jayhawk TV and ESPN Full Court. In addition to the regular radio broadcast, the Jayhawks' season-opener can also be heard on AT&T Jayhawk All-Access through .wwwkuathletics.com. The Towson game is the first contest of the EA Sports Maui Invitational. For Kansas, tournament play will resume in Maui, Hawaii, Nov. 21st and continue through the 23rd. Sandwiched between, KU will face No. 2 Kentucky on Nov. 15, in the Championships Classic in Madison Square Garden in New York, N.Y. The KU-UK tip is scheduled for 8 p.m. and will be televised on ESPN.