Trey Kaufman-Renn’s commitment to Kansas this week has only made an already crowded roster puzzle even trickier for Bill Self.
Kaufman-Renn joined the Jayhawks after receiving a court injunction that ruled him eligible to play college basketball for now. He’s enrolled in classes at Kansas and practicing with the team, which means Self now has another piece to fit into a lineup that was already full of uncertainty.
That uncertainty has been building all offseason. Kansas brought back Tre White and Melvin Council Jr. and added Kaufman-Renn over the course of four weeks, and that kind of turnover has forced the staff to keep reworking the projected starting five.
In the Jayhawks’ first exhibition, White and Council came off the bench because they had just rejoined the team, while Taylen Kinney and Leroy Blyden Jr. handled the backcourt minutes in their place. That was a tough spot for Kinney and Blyden Jr. to be in, since many fans had viewed White and Council as locks for the first unit.
The new wrinkle with Kaufman-Renn is that he gives Kansas another forward option, and one that changes the shape of the lineup. At 6-foot-9 and 240 pounds, he pairs with Keanu Dawes, who checks in at 6-foot-9 and 225 pounds, to give Self enough size and rebounding to avoid leaning on a small-ball center look as often as some had expected. There had been plenty of talk about Dawes filling that role in short bursts, but Kaufman-Renn’s presence may make that less necessary.
Even so, the fit is not perfectly clean. Self has made it clear he likes the idea of using four perimeter players together, and Dawes plus Kaufman-Renn both capable of stepping out to the 3-point line only go so far in easing the spacing questions.
Council’s 29.1% lifetime mark from beyond the arc doesn’t exactly solve that issue, either. Because of that, Kinney or Blyden Jr. could still work their way into the mix if Kansas wants more perimeter scoring, though that would likely mean pushing Council out of the opening group - something that feels unlikely after he started every game and averaged 34.8 minutes per contest last season.
For now, the best guess is that Kansas could roll out a starting five that looks different from night to night until everyone settles in. It’s also worth remembering that these lineup projections may not fully lock in until the roster gets up to speed, and two or three of these players may not be in the first unit when the regular season opens Nov. 2 against Fordham.
However Self sorts it out, the upside is obvious: Kansas has more than one viable five-man combination, and that gives the coach the chance to stagger lineups and use the bench in ways that can create different looks throughout the game.
In Other News...
Iowa State Enters Brent Metcalf Era With One Big Lineup Test
Iowa States annual wrestling media day on Oct. 21 offered the first real look at the Brent Metcalf era, and the early message from the program was clear: the Cyclones are entering the season with a fresh tone and a lot of lineup moving parts. With roster changes already in motion, several key wrestlers are settling into new weight classes as the staff begins to sort out what the best version of this team might look like.
Metcalf and his athletes kept the conversation centered on effort and competition rather than early projections, a sensible approach for a group still taking shape under a new coach. The optimism was evident, but so was the urgency, with Iowa State now less than two weeks from its first dual meet on Nov. 1 against Bucknell and a chance to see how those adjustments hold up once the matches begin. [Read more 🡒]
Iowa States New Guard Faces A Real Rotation Fight
Emilija Dakic arrives in Ames with a profile that makes her easy to notice and hard to place. After spending last season with Florida in a bench role, the transfer brings international experience from the 2024 Australian U-18 team and a familiarity with two current teammates, which should help her settle into the new environment quickly.
For Iowa State, the bigger question is where Dakic fits once the games start for real. The staff can look at her in a few different ways, but her exact role and how many minutes she earns will sort themselves out over the course of the season, not in a single practice or exhibition. [Read more 🡒]
Iowa State Faces A Bigger Jaylen Raynor Question Than His Stats
Jaylen Raynors stat line has not exactly matched the kind of production you might expect from a quarterback with 42 straight starts, but Iowa States staff is looking at his job through a wider lens. Head coach Jimmy Rogers said Raynors role as more of a game manager naturally shapes the numbers, and the bigger takeaway so far has been his steadiness and the trust he has built by keeping the offense on schedule and out of trouble.
Even with that context, Raynor and Rogers both have made it clear there is room for improvement, which is where the real tension starts to show. The passing totals are on pace to land at career lows, but the more important question for Iowa State is whether Raynor can keep the same dependable backbone while nudging the offense toward more production as the season moves along. [Read more 🡒]