The 2025-26 Kansas Basketball team now knows the dates of their conference matchups – three of them, at least. On Tuesday, ESPN and the Big 12 Conference announced their six-game Big Monday slate for the upcoming season. For KU, that means a road tilt in Lubbock and a pair of home battles against Arizona and Houston. The Jayhawks join Arizona as the two Big 12 teams featured three times.
Kansas is coming off a disappointing (by their standards) 2024-25 season, which included a sixth-place finish in the Big 12 during the regular season, and a 7-seed and first round loss in the 2024 NCAA Tournament. Prior to the season, the Jayhawks were ranked No. 1 in the AP Poll for the second consecutive year. Houston, who eventually would be the National Runners-Up, ended up winning the conference. Let’s start there in previewing KU’s Big Monday opponents.
The Jayhawks will battle the Cougars at Allen Fieldhouse on Feb. 23, which was the location of a disastrous game in January between the two teams. Kansas led 66-60 with under 90 seconds to go in regulation, only to see Houston send the game to OT at 66-all. KU then had an upwards of 99% win probability near the end of the first overtime when they again led by six. It was 79-73 with 16 seconds left when DaJuan Harris missed both of his free throw attempts and Emmanuel Sharp of Houston hit a three to cut the deficit to three. KU’s Zeke Mayo was then unable to cleanly inbound the ball, resulting in a live ball turnover. Houston’s Mylik Wilson drained a game-tying triple to force a second OT, and the Cougars eventually won 92-86, a devastating loss for the Crimson & Blue. KU lost at the Fertitta Center in the regular-season finale as well, 65-59. Expect the Big Monday tilt on Feb. 23 at Phog Allen to be the best atmosphere of the season for Jayhawk Basketball.
KU didn’t travel to Lubbock in 2024-25, but they unfortunately had another heartbreaker occur when the Red Raiders came to Lawrence in early March. Texas Tech shot an incredible 43 threes, connecting on 15 of them, and utilized Big 12 Player of the year JT Toppin at utmost efficiency. Toppin scored 21 points in 22 minutes while dealing with foul trouble. KJ Adams’ double-double of 21 points and 13 rebounds wasn’t enough as Kansas fell 78-73. Kansas heads to Lubbock on Feb. 2 of this upcoming season. The losses to Houston and Texas Tech in 2024-25 were two of three Ls Kansas took at home, with the first being the conference opener against West Virginia.
While KU’s setback to the Mountaineers ended a long streak of conference-season-opening wins for the Jayhawks, Kansas kept their Senior Day win streak alive when they knocked off Arizona on March 8. KU got a monster game from senior Hunter Dickinson, who poured in 33 points and 10 rebounds, in the 83-76 victory. Just five days later, the Wildcats evened the season series with the Jayhawks when they knocked Kansas out of the Big 12 tournament in the quarterfinals, 88-77. This upcoming season’s matchup will be back in the Phog on Feb. 9.
While it’s not rare at all for Kansas to be featured multiple times on Big Monday, it’s certainly rare that each of KU’s opponents clipped them the year prior. It’ll be another great opportunity for Kansas to showcase its proud program on the biggest stage, hopefully with more favorable outcomes than last year. Rock Chalk!
Sean Kellerman