Getty Dajuan Harris Jr. and the Kansas Jayhawks take on Pittsburg State in an exhibition on Thursday.
The defending NCAA Division I national champion Kansas Jayhawks will host the Pittsburg State Gorillas in an exhibition game at Allen Fieldhouse on November 3.
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The game (8 p.m. ET start time) won’t be on TV, but anyone in the US can watch Kansas vs Pittsburg State live on ESPN+ right here:
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Once signed up for ESPN+, you can watch Kansas vs Pittsburg State live on the ESPN app or ESPN.com.
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Kansas vs Pittsburg State Preview
Kansas is ranked No. 5 heading into the season, and while the team has a few new faces, it will also bring back several key contributors from last year’s championship squad. Point guard Dajuan Harris will be back, as will forward Jalen Wilson and guard Gradey Dick. The Jayhawks are also adding Texas Tech transfer Kevin McCullar, who is an excellent defensive contributor.
This will be the lone exhibition game for the Jayhawks, who had a scrimmage against No. 23 Illinois at Lindenwood University on October 22. The scrimmage lasted just under three and a half hours and allowed both teams work on certain situations and defensive looks. NCAA rules prohibit the final score being released, but Jayhawks head coach Bill Self gave the media a bit of a verbal preview of what to expect from his squad this year.
“This team should shoot more 3s than last year’s team,” Self said. “Should. And if we do that then (we) need to make 35% as a team or 36% in order to play efficient enough to warrant playing fast and shooting early.”
“We want to play fast,” Self added. “We need to score before the defense gets set. But how well we shoot it will probably determine how fast we play.”
As for Pittsburg State, they’ll be led by first-year head coach Jeff Boschee. The Gorillas finished last season with an 8-20 record, and they have
Pitt State has one returning starter, senior guard Quentin Hardrict Jr., who averaged 8.8 points and 2.3 assists in 17 games last year. Junior guard Magic Reliford (4.2 points a game), sophomore guard R.J. Forney Jr. (1.0 ppg), junior center Ethan Holloway (1.0 ppg) and forward Jason Jones were also contributors last season and could have larger roles this year.
They’re a young team trying to gel, and Gorillas forward Deshaun English thinks they’re off to a solid start. “I think we’ve done a tremendous job of just building relationships,” English said. “I mean, we’re just constantly just learning more about each other and just growing closer every week. So I’m just I’m really excited with the guys we have.”
Based on what Boschee said heading into this matchup, we should expect to see more three-point shooting coming from his side, as well.
“We do try to shoot a lot of 3s,” Boschee said. “Obviously, we try to take as many good shots as possible, but with not having a lot of size we definitely want to shoot a lot of 3s. But we don’t want to shoot all 3s. We still want to get the ball in the post and have that balance and get paint touches and all that.”