Omaha Mavericks at Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Predictions: Time To Shake Off Some Rust.

It's finally the time of the year where the Kansas Jayhawks get back into action on the court, and they will be doing it without some familiar faces. As we saw in the exhibition game last week, the Jayhawks have a lot of new players and returning players in brand new roles, and the Omaha Mavericks might just be a perfect team to shake off a little rust.

But just how well should you expect this team to come together tonight, especially without head coach Bill Self on the sideline? Can Kansas get off to a fast start and never look back? Or will they need more time to figure out exactly what they want to be against an overmatched opponent?

Do you disagree with our assessment? Make sure you read them all and then hop over to the Discord or on Twitter to share your own thoughts.

Kyle Davis

Check out our Omaha Preview for Kyle's full breakdown and prediction.

Brendan Dzwierzynski

In early season games like this, I think the intrigue is far more about seeing how certain pieces fit together more than it is about the final score, especially when you consider KU just won a national title and Omaha was picked to finish ninth in the Summit League. Thus, I’ll be focused on the big men more than anyone else on Monday night. I know Jalen Wilson, Kevin McCullar, Dajuan Harris, etc. will be fine, but like I said on the season preview episode of the Rock Chalk Podcast, I’ve got a lot of worries about how the rotation at the 5 will look to open the year. More than anything, I’m just hoping for a little crisper play in general compared to what we saw in the exhibition. And, in the end, Kansas will roll. 

Kansas 88, Omaha 60.

Derek Noll

Being in a time zone seven hours ahead, I had no chance to watch that exhibition game so I really have no idea how KU is going to play. I’ll be watching this one, and what I want to see is leadership from Jalen Wilson and Dajaun Harris and our freshmen and newcomers to get off to a hot start. Better analysis coming soon, I promise, but for now, 

Kansas 83, Omaha 68.

Lucas Murphy

The Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball team is coming off their sixth national title in school history. They will kick off their regular season tonight against the Omaha Mavericks. The Jayhawks have won 49-straight home openers inside historical Allen Fieldhouse and look to make it an even 50. The Jayhawks return two starters Dajuan Harris Jr. and Jalen Wilson. Both players averaged 25 minutes a game and played a significant role in winning the national championship.

I anticipate this will be another night where Kansas takes time to figure out its rotations and starts to build cohesion on the floor. I am going to watch Texas Tech transfer Kevin McCullar Jr. tonight. In the exhibition game, McCullar logged 23 minutes scored 13 points, and stole the basketball five times.

Another player I am going to keep my eye on is freshman Gradey Dick. Dick is a highly regarded freshman and played very well in the exhibition game. He logged a little over 23 minutes scoring 20 points. Now that the numbers count I want to see Dick put on another solid performance. He has a lot of good traits but one that sticks out is his ability to shoot the 3-pointer.

Kansas is favored against Omaha, and the spread is 34.5. I expect the Jayhawks to come out on fire and defeat the Mavericks in front of the Kansas faithful and secure their 50th consecutive home opener win. Kansas 85, Omaha 58

Kansas 85, Omaha 58

Andy Mitts

This is a really tough game to predict for a lot of the reasons everyone already shared. But also, with Bill Self and Kurtis Townsend not on the bench due to the self imposed penalties to try and jumpstart the IARP process again (which I'll have more thoughts on later this week), it's difficult to know how that changes what Kansas will try to do.

Norm Roberts indicated in the pregame press conference yesterday that Self would still have a ton of input on lineups and goals for the game, but there are always things that come up during the game that you just can't prepare for.

I do expect Gradey Dick to start this game, and it's hard to imagine the Jayhawks starting as slow in this game as they did in the exhibition. But the first month or so of the season is all about figuring out how to play together as a squad, so expect some growing pains in this one. But the overall talent is still much better for the Jayhawks, so I don't expect too much of a challenge.

Kansas 89, Omaha 67.

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