Jayhawks headed to Puerto Rico on Tuesday for start of weeklong hoops excursion

Kansas men’s basketball players will embark on a seven-day, 2,245-mile trip to the Caribbean on Tuesday followed just a few months later by a 3,808-mile, five-day excursion to Hawaii over Thanksgiving week.

Yes, for avid travelers, it’s a good time to be a Jayhawk player, coach or fan. The 2023-24 squad members are set for three exhibition games in San Juan, Puerto Rico, this week into early next week and three regular-season nonconference clashes Nov. 20-22 at the Maui Invitational in Lahaina, Maui, with some team bonding certain to take place in the gym as well as the beach.

The Jayhawks will be staying in hotels located just steps from the Atlantic Ocean (San Juan) and Pacific Ocean (Hawaii) respectively.

It begs the question: Which trip are the Jayhawks looking forward to the most?

“Probably Maui because it means more, but Puerto Rico obviously is going to be a good stepping stone for us,” senior guard and team newcomer Nick Timberlake said.

KU will play the Puerto Rico Select Team on Thursday (11 a.m. Central), then meet the Bahamian National Team, which is expected to have some NBA players on the roster, on Saturday (4 p.m.) and Monday (11 a.m.)

In late November In Lahaina, Maui, KU will open the Maui Invitational with a game against Chaminade, then face either Marquette or UCLA in the second round with a third game to be contested against either Purdue, Gonzaga, Syracuse or Tennessee.

First things first. The Puerto Rico trip should be a good way to acquaint KU’s four returning scholarship players (Dajuan Harris, KJ Adams, Kevin McCullar, Zach Clemence) with six scholarship newcomers (Parker Braun, Hunter Dickinson, Elmarko Jackson, Arterio Morris, Jamari McDowell and Timberlake).

Also, KU has added nonscholarship newcomers in Chris Carter, Patrick Cassidy and Justin Cross, who join returning walk-ons Wilder Evers, Michael Jankovich, Dillon Wilhite and Charlie McCarthy.

McCarthy, Jankovich and Cross are sidelined and won’t play in the games in Puerto Rico.

“We can gain a lot, not just on the court but just bonding off the court, having a good time with the guys,” KU super-senior guard McCullar said of the Puerto Rico trip.

“It will get the chemistry up, get team bonding going. We’re trying to become a team before the season starts,” redshirt-junior point guard Harris said.

Coach Bill Self — who has conducted 10 pre-Puerto Rico trip practices after spending four hours a week with the team with summer school in session — believes the Puerto Rico trip “will allow this team to bond, get some extra work in and play competitive games.”

If the Bahamian National team, as indicated last week, indeed shows up to play with NBA standouts Buddy Hield, Klay Thompson and Eric Gordon, the Jayhawks may be definite underdogs in two games on this trip.

Losses would not mean the trip, which also will include practice on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, was a failure.

“We can see how we play together with different combinations,” Self said. “Can we press? Can we trap? Are we athletic enough to do some different things? Do we need to run set plays? Can we just throw in stuff? There will be a lot of things like that.”

Self could experiment with a big lineup that could feature 6-foot-7 Adams, 7-2 Dickinson and 6-10 Braun at the same time or maybe a small lineup, which has been effective the past couple seasons.

“You could put Juan, Elmarko, Arterio, Kevin McCullar and KJ out there,” Self said. “You could put a team out there that you could say may cause other teams problems. We will be more gifted on the perimeter than we’ve been without question.”

Another benefit of embarking on this trip is the new players can get a true feel for how Self coaches in games.

“I mean for me, just getting the understanding of playing for coach Self is huge,” said Timberlake, who played at Towson before transferring to KU. “I was very excited getting to know we were going on a foreign trip just to know that we get to play with each other against different competition than ourselves from June until November, so it’s going to be fun.”

This marks the Jayhawks’ fifth preseason exhibition excursion in the Self era, which included trips to Canada in 2004 and 2008, Switzerland and France in 2012, and Italy in 2017. KU also represented the USA at the 2015 World University Games in Gwangju, South Korea, where it won the gold medal.

Here’s a look at how the Jayhawks fared in their summer excursions in the 21-year Self era:

Prior to 2004-05 season

The Jayhawks prior to Self’s second season headed to Vancouver, Canada, where KU went 4-0 (with wins over Langara College and three local all-star teams), scoring over 100 points in two games and 98 in another.

It was a chance for seniors Keith Langford, Wayne Simien, Michael Lee and Aaron Miles to get a head start working with freshmen such as Darnell Jackson, Sasha Kaun and Russell Robinson.

The 04-05 Jayhawks ultimately went 23-7 overall and 12-4 in the Big 12 Conference, good for second place. KU lost to Bucknell in the first round of the NCAAs.

Prior to 2008-09 season

KU headed to Ottawa, Canada, where it went 3-0 against Canadian college teams McGill, Cameron and Ottawa. Freshmen Marcus and Markieff Morris, Travis Releford, Tyshawn Taylor and junior-college transfer Mario Little had a chance to work with veterans Sherron Collins, Cole Aldrich, Tyrel Reed and others.

The 08-09 Jayhawks went 27-8 overall and 14-2 in the Big 12, good for first place. That team lost to Michigan State in the Sweet 16 of the NCAAs.

Prior to 2012-13 season

KU headed to Switzerland and France where the Jayhawks beat the Swiss nationals twice but lost two games to a pro team from France called AMW France. Freshmen Perry Ellis, Landen Lucas and Andrew White and redshirt-freshman Ben McLemore were able to begin bonding with the likes of seniors Jeff Withey, Elijah Johnson, Releford and Kevin Young.

The 2012-13 Jayhawks ultimately went 31-8 overall and 14-4 in the league, good for a first-place tie with Kansas State. The Jayhawks lost to Michigan in the Sweet 16.

Prior to 2015-16 season

KU had some big-time incentive to win in representing the USA at the World University Games in South Korea.

The Jayhawks — led by seniors Ellis and Jamari Traylor and juniors Lucas, Frank Mason and Wayne Selden — joined with freshmen Lagerald Vick, Carlton Bragg and Cheick Diallo, plus sophs Svi Mykhailiuk and Devonte Graham in winning gold and getting an early start on the season.

That KU team went 8-0 in Korea and 33-5 during the regular season, including a 15-3 mark in the Big 12, good for first place. The squad lost to Villanova in the Elite Eight.

Prior to 2017-18 season

The Jayhawks, who brought in freshman Marcus Garrett with transfers Dedric Lawson, KJ Lawson, Charlie Moore and Sam Cunliffe, joined with seniors Mykhailiuk and Graham plus sophs Udoka Azubuike and Malik Newman to go 4-0 on a trip to Italy where the Jayhawks played Italian all-star teams. Those included Stella Azzurra and the Italian All-Stars.

During that season, KU went 31-8 overall and 13-5 in the Big 12. KU lost to Villanova in the Final Four.

It all adds to a 21-2 record in exhibition tour contests during the Self era heading into this trip.

KU’s games in San Juan will be broadcast on the Jayhawk radio network. They will all be played at Ruben Rodriguez Coliseum located in Bayamón, Puerto Rico.

As far as conditions for beach time? Well, weather.com has rain in the forecast in San Juan for every day of the journey. However accuweather.com only mentions possible rain for three of the seven days with temperatures in the high 80s, low 90s.