Paul Mbiya’s offseason makeover has been impossible to miss for Kansas fans who caught a recent KU basketball practice clip.
The 7-foot Jayhawks center pops on the screen looking lighter on his feet, quicker into action and noticeably leaner as he sets a screen, rolls hard and finishes an alley-oop from freshman Tyran Stokes. The visual suggests a major body change. According to those around him, though, the bigger story is not that Mbiya dropped weight - it’s how he used his time away.
Mbiya, who spent an extended stretch in France because of visa issues this offseason, came back to Lawrence after making real progress in the weight room and on the court. He was listed at 245 pounds last season and is now at 240 as a sophomore.
“In terms of body, he gained 2kg (about 4.4 pounds) of muscle,” Mbiya’s manager Yacine Fylla told The Star via text message. “He lost a lot of fat.”
The Congo native had a quiet statistical season for Kansas in 2025-26, averaging 1.2 points and 1.4 rebounds in 21 games. But he showed flashes of what he can bring when the stage got bigger, especially in the NCAA Tournament against Cal Baptist and St. John’s.
His path to this point has already had some twists. Mbiya nearly left KU in April before the two sides worked out a return, and since then he has been in the middle of a busy offseason that included the time overseas.
Now he’s in the mix for a much bigger role. In Lawrence, Mbiya is competing with College of Charleston transfer Christian Reeves to be Kansas’ starting center in 2026-27. Reeves had labrum surgery in April and, per KU coach Bill Self, is not expected to be in full-contact practice until likely October.
“I think Paul, if he gets the opportunity, which he will, I think he can do some things that we haven’t seen from a production standpoint,” Self said in June.
That opportunity is what Mbiya has been chasing, even from afar. Fylla said he put in three to four workouts a day in France, with only one day off, and spent the time tightening the parts of his game Kansas wants to see sharpened: footwork and coordination, his handle and passing, his midrange jumper, post moves, the short roll and his overall strength and explosiveness.
Fylla said the KU staff has noticed the changes in Mbiya’s body. He recalled assistant coach Kurtis Townsend saying: “‘You did a good job. I can tell he worked.’”
Fylla also described Mbiya this way: “Mobutu: the dictator of the paint.”
And the hope, he said, is simple.
“(I hope) he shows people his skills,” Fylla said, “(like) passing, shooting and face the basket (post moves), like he once did in the Cal Baptist game.”
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