Kansas will have to navigate the early stretch of the season without Melvin Council Jr., and the timeline is pointing to a return around the start of Big 12 play.
The Jayhawks announced Monday that their starting guard broke the fifth metatarsal in his foot during practice and will undergo surgery in the next couple of days. Kansas coach Bill Self said, "Melvin broke the fifth metatarsal in his foot during Monday's practice and will have surgery in the next couple of days," Kansas coach Bill Self said. "We expect a full recovery and we're hopeful he will return around the start of the conference season."
That means Council will miss Tuesday’s game against No. 24 Kentucky in Chicago in the second leg of the Champions Classic, and likely more than that.
Kansas opens Big 12 play against West Virginia on Jan. 2.
Council had started both of Kansas’ first two games this season, against Middle Tennessee and Fordham. In the 30-point win over Fordham on opening night last week, he posted 10 points, seven assists, six rebounds and two steals.
His absence is a significant one for Kansas. Council transferred in from Wagner and St.
Bonaventure ahead of the 2025-26 season and started 35 games for the Jayhawks, averaging 12.7 points, 5.1 assists and 5.0 rebounds. He and Tre White were among the starters from last season’s team who were granted a fifth year of eligibility weeks before the opener.
Kansas also brought in former Purdue forward Trey Kaufman-Renn, who spent the first five seasons of his college career with the Boilermakers before enrolling at Kansas ahead of the season. He is playing on an injunction.
Now Self has to reshuffle the lineup again. In the opener, he went with Taylen Kinney, White, Council, Tyran Stokes and Christian Reeves. In the second game, Reeves came off the bench after Kaufman-Renn moved into the starting five.
Two names to watch as possible replacements for Council are Keanu Dawes and Leroy Blyden Jr., both of whom logged the most minutes off the bench in Kansas’ last game. Because the Jayhawks blew out Fordham, none of the starters played more than 22 minutes, and that should change against Kentucky.
Stokes, the projected No. 1 pick in the 2027 NBA Draft, scored eight points in 21 minutes against Middle Tennessee, and his role should grow as the schedule stiffens with Kentucky, UNLV, Villanova, UConn and Ohio State all ahead.
Kansas’ conference slate now becomes the marker for Council’s recovery, with BYU the lone ranked Big 12 opponent in the first month at No. 23 on Jan. 9.
The first major conference road test comes Feb. 1 at No. 8 Houston.
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Kansas backcourt took a hit in practice when Melvin Council Jr. suffered a fracture to the fifth metatarsal in his right foot, a setback that will force Bill Self to adjust on the fly. Council is expected to undergo surgery within the next few days, and the injury comes at a time when the Jayhawks were still sorting out how their guard rotation would settle in during the early part of the season.
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