LAWRENCE, Kan. – No. 17 Kansas men’s basketball concludes its exhibition play hosting No. 2 Duke in the State Farm Blue Blood Classic on Sunday, Oct. 25. Tip from Allen Fieldhouse will be at 12 p.m. CT and the game will be televised on ESPN. Next year the Blue Blood Classic will match Kansas at Duke in October 2027 in an exhibition contest.
Kansas is 1-1 in exhibition play this season and coming off an 89-83 loss to No. 11 Louisville on Oct. 21. Duke is 2-0 in exhibition play this season after its 103-64 win against No. 8 Tennessee on Oct. 20.
Duke leads the overall series with Kansas, 9-7. The series dates back to 1985 and there has been only one meeting in Lawrence, a Duke 74-70 overtime win in 1988 in Allen Fieldhouse. Later that season, Kansas would avenge the loss with a 66-59 win in the semifinals of the NCAA Tournament en route to KU’s 1988 NCAA National Championship.
Kansas is coming off a 24-11 season where it finished third in the Big 12 with a 12-6 league record and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Duke finished 35-3 last season and won the ACC regular season title with a 17-1 record and the ACC Tournament. The Blue Devils advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament.
Kansas features returning starters Melvin Council Jr. and Tre White, along with returning letterwinners Kohl Rosario, center Paul Mbiya, and guard Will Thengvall. Self welcomes 12 newcomers with five transfers – sophomore guard Leroy Blyden Jr., senior forward Keanu Dawes, senior guard Dennis Parker Jr., and fifth-year center Christian Reeves and fifth-year forward Trey Kaufman-Renn. KU’s freshman class is loaded with two McDonald’s All-American guards Tyran Stokes and Taylen Kinney and fellow guards Luke Barnett and Trent Perry, and forwards Davion Adkins, Grant Mordini, and Atticus Richmond.
Kansas finished third in the 2026-27 Big 12 coaches’ preseason poll garnering 186 points. Arizona (220 points) is the coaches’ favorite followed by Houston (214), Kansas, Iowa State (181), and Texas Tech (180), rounding out the top five in the 16-team conference. Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own team or student-athletes in the poll.
Tyran Stokes is the Big 12 Preseason Freshman of the Year and preseason all-conference as the league as selected by the conference coaches. Stokes is the 11th Jayhawk to be named Big 12 Preseason Freshman of the Year.
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