Kansas Jayhawks News
Yahoo! has a story up on the surprising rise of the Jayhawk baseball program this season:
Between the raucous crowds at Hoglund Ballpark in Lawrence and a relentless, high-powered offense, this team has been one of the best stories in college baseball in 2026. Yet how exactly did the Jayhawks get to this point after being an afterthought in baseball for so many years?
Through the Phog has a good post on Dennis Parker and what Bill Self is hoping to see out of him in a Jayhawk uniform:
When KU was forced
to revamp its squad following a tumultuous 24-11 season, returning head coach Bill Self made it a priority for the Jayhawks to address the scoring issues, and Radford transfer Dennis Parker Jr. will go a long way in doing that.
And it has this quote which I 100% expect to hear Self say as he’s walking off the court at halftime at least once next season, just missing a “soft” mixed in somewhere:
When asked where Parker will fit in among the rest of the KU roster, Self answered, “I have no idea. Dennis scored the ball well enough to get 53 at a college game. But he’s inconsistent, too.”
The complete non-conference schedule is now out for next season, Michael Swain at 247Sports has some thoughts on it here.
The headliners of KU’s non-conference slate include a road trip to face UConn, a home game against Villanova, a neutral site game at Missouri (T-Mobile Center) and a neutral site game against Kentucky (Champions Classic). KU will also play New Orleans in between its Christmas break and the start of Big 12 play, which KU did not do last season. The game will act as a final tune-up before conference play.
Following what should be two relatively easy wins against Fordham and Middle Tennessee to get the season started, things quickly amp up when the Jayhawks get to travel to the illustrious United Center to take on the Kentucky Wildcats in the State Farm Champions Classic.
Not only is Kentucky one of the few Blue Bloods of the sport, but the pair also have some recent off-the-court drama regarding the signature of Tyran Stokes. All season, the Jayhawks and the Wildcats were constantly one-upping each other for Stokes, with both sides given real reason to believe they were the frontrunner for the nation’s No. 1 player before Stokes announced he would be attending KU.
Other Links!
Not going to lie, this is going to be pretty sparse as I’m still recovering from our Tash Sultana show last night. Full on 2 hours of watching an amazing musician play about 8 different instruments* and putting on a hell of a show throughout all of it. Easily one of the top 5 concerts I’ve ever been to and may even be the best but I’ll have to sleep on it a few more times before making that judgment call.
*Instruments I can recall: saxophone, trumpet, keyboard, drums, electric guitar, harmonica, bells, and I’m sure there was another in there somewhere.
Baseball America has some interesting tidbits and information about the NCAA Super Regionals, including this one:
Every College World Series from 1957-2024 featured at least one returning Omaha team from the previous season. That streak ended in 2025. Now, 2026 has produced another unprecedented result: not a single 2025 College World Series participant advanced to the super regional round, a first in the super regional era.
After last season saw No. 1 Vanderbilt and No. 2 Texas fail to make it out of the baseball NCAA Tournament opening weekend to super regionals, one would think it would be hard to be surprised by the 2026 iteration.
One would be wrong.
QOTD: Last week The Ringer had a fun piece about the 40 most rage inducing problems in technology and many of them hit home. What’s your biggest frustration with our modern technology infrastructure/landscape?
From the link on QR Codes:
This entire transaction is going to cost $1.15. Your kiosk made me download an app, and now the app wants to know my birthday. All I want is to run in and grab a latte. Have mercy on me, please.
Mine might not be QR codes but they’re in the running. An early leader of mine is everyone wanting me to download their own stupid app just to order or use their service and give them money for a product. I’m already giving you money and now you want my information so you can sell it on a marketing list too? Last night’s concert required me to use the Ticketmaster app. Ordering from McDonald’s? You can do that like you always could but if you download their app, you’ll save a couple bucks. I’ve got something like 150 different apps on my phone and I use about 10 of them on a consistent basis. Surely there’s a better way to live than this.
