It is only the opener, but this one already carries a little more edge than most. Kansas steps into its regular season against Fordham at Allen Fieldhouse on Monday at 7 p.m., and the backdrop is impossible to ignore: the Jayhawks have already taken their lumps in exhibition play, while Fordham arrives having won both of its tune-ups. That does not make Fordham the favorite, of course. It does make this a first test with some sting attached.
The larger detail is the history, or rather the lack of it. Kansas and Fordham are meeting for the first time since 1977, which gives this game a strange sort of freshness for a matchup involving one of college basketball’s most familiar names. It also means there is no useful recent shorthand here, no easy file to pull from. This is about the present moment, and the present moment says Kansas needs to look sharper than it did in losses to Louisville and Duke.
Why the opener matters
That preseason schedule was tougher than usual, and Bill Self’s team did not come through it unbeaten. Still, there is a reason exhibition results are treated differently from the real thing. Monday is the first counted action of the season, the first chance to turn lessons into something more convincing. Christian Reeves summed up the challenge well when he pointed to Louisville and Duke as national championship contenders, while also stressing that Kansas fought and did not simply fold when things went against it.
That is the right attitude, but it is not the same as playing clean basketball. Reeves said the issues came down to execution and controllable details, which is exactly the sort of thing a coach wants to hear before the games start mattering. It is also the sort of thing that can sound comforting right up until the first sloppy stretch of the regular season exposes it all over again.
Trent Perry, meanwhile, struck the note you would expect from a player trying to reset the mood after a difficult stretch. He said Kansas needed to go back to the drawing board, come together as a team and family, and learn how to finish a game. That is not glamorous language, but it is the language of a team that knows the next step is not about hype. It is about habits.
Fordham is not here to make life easy
There is also no need to pretend Fordham is a harmless opening act. Last season Mike Magpayo guided the Rams to a 17-15 record and an 8-10 conference mark, and the program has at least shown some signs of life. But the bigger historical context still hangs over them: Fordham has not had a winning record in league play since 2006-07 and has not reached the NCAA Tournament since 1992. That is the kind of backdrop that usually invites skepticism, even if the recent results are better than the long-term reputation.
What matters most here is that Fordham has already done something Kansas has not yet done this season: it has won games that count in its preparation. The Rams also enter after winning both of their exhibitions, which at least gives them a cleaner runway than the Jayhawks. That does not rewrite the talent gap, but it does mean Kansas cannot afford to wander through the first half and assume the night will sort itself out.
And this is where Self’s handling of the roster becomes interesting. On Wednesday, he said Trent Perry was going to be hard to keep off the floor because of his activity. That is a useful clue about where Kansas wants its energy to come from. In openers like this, activity often matters more than reputation. If the Jayhawks bring pace, pressure and purpose, they should be fine. If they drift, the game becomes unnecessarily awkward very quickly.
So yes, Kansas should be favored. That was never really the question. The real issue is whether the Jayhawks treat Monday as a fresh start or as another chance to look unfinished. Against a Fordham team that has already shown it can compete in exhibition settings, the standard ought to be obvious. Openers are supposed to calm nerves, not create them.
