KU basketball vs. North Carolina Central Eagles: Probable starters, tipoff time & TV
No. 1 KU basketball begins the 2023-24 season on Monday night in Allen Fieldhouse. Here’s what you need to know about the upcoming game vs. NCCU.
When: 7 p.m., Monday
Where: Allen Fieldhouse (Lawrence)
Streaming: Big 12 Now/ESPN+.
Radio: WHB (810) in Kansas City; KFH (1240 AM, 97.5 FM) in Wichita.
PROBABLE STARTERS
P | No. | N. Carolina Central | Ht. | Yr. | PPG |
F | 25 | Timmy Adedire | 6-4 | Jr. | 0.0 |
F | 10 | Devin Gordon | 6-5 | Jr. | 0.0 |
G | 0 | Fred Cleveland | 5-9 | Sr. | 0.0 |
G | 3 | Terrence Crawford | 6-2 | Sr. | 0.0 |
G | 52 | Ja’Darius Harris | 6-2 | Sr. | 0.0 |
P | No. | Kansas | Ht. | Yr. | PPG |
F | 24 | KJ Adams | 6-7 | Jr. | 0.0 |
C | 1 | Hunter Dickinson | 7-2 | Sr. | 0.0 |
G | 15 | Kevin McCullar | 6-7 | Sr. | 0.0 |
G | 3 | Dajuan Harris | 6-2 | Sr. | 0.0 |
G | 25 | Nick Timberlake | 6-4 | Sr. | 0.0 |
About North Carolina Central:
North Carolina Central was picked to finish third in the eight-team MEAC. The Eagles went 18-12 a year ago and placed second in the MEAC with 10-4 record. The Eagles’ season ended in the MEAC tournament semifinals. … LeVelle Moton is 246-184 in 15 seasons at North Carolina Central. ... NCCU, a school located in Durham, North Carolina, returns six players off last year’s team. The squad has 11 newcomers. …
Fred Cleveland, a 5-foot-9 senior from Chicago, was named to the 2023-24 preseason all-MEAC third team. He was eighth in the conference in assists last season at 2.8 per game. … Josh Smith, a 6-4 sophomore out of Independence Community College, averaged 13.9 points a game last season at the Kansas juco. … Junior Brock Williams, 6-0 from Burlington, N.C., and graduate student Emmanuel Izunabor, 6-8 from Fayetteville, N.C., were teammates at High Point University. … Izunabor was a top-20 rebounder in the Big South Conference last season, finishing top-five in offensive rebounds. …
The Eagles were second in the MEAC in points per game last season (75.6). … Forward Kye Dickson is from Toronto, Ontario, Canada; forward Izunabor from Lagos, Nigeria, and forward Gbenga Olubi from Enfield, England.
About No. 1 Kansas:
KU has won 50 consecutive home openers, beginning in 1973-74 under head coach Ted Owens. KU coaches Larry Brown (5-0) and Roy Williams (15-0) never lost a home opener and Bill Self is 20-0 in home openers. … This marks the first-ever meeting between the two teams. … KU last lost a season opener in 2020-21 (to Gonzaga). …
KU is 8-0 versus current membership of the MEAC. KU last faced a MEAC team defeating Howard 96-68 in the opening round of the 2023 NCAA Tournament in Des Moines, Iowa. ... A victory Monday would be the 300th at Allen Fieldhouse in the 21-year Self era. Self’s KU teams are 299-17 at home. …
Kansas is No. 1 in the preseason AP poll for the fourth time in poll history, with all coming in the Bill Self era (2004-05, 2009-10, 2018- 19 and 2023-24). ... KU has been ranked in the AP top 10 in each of the last 39 polls dating to the 2021-22 preseason poll. The 39 consecutive is the longest active streak in men’s college basketball. ... Including 2023-24, Kansas has been the Big 12 coaches’ choice to win the league 20 times in the 27-year history of the conference.
