Kansas vs Cal Baptist: Get to Know the Jayhawks’ NCAA Tournament Opponent

The Kansas Jayhawks now know their seeding and who their first round opponent will be in the upcoming 2026 NCAA Tournament.

On Sunday, it was announced that KU will be a No. 4 seed tipping off against the No. 13 seeded California Baptist University (Cal Baptist or CBU) Lancers at approximately 8:45 p.m. CT on Friday night in Viejas Arena in San Diego, California. This will be the Jayhawks’ 36th consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament – the longest streak of any Division I men’s college basketball program in the country – and the program’s 53rd appearance all time.

Kansas is 9-6 all time as a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament. They’ve been a No. 4 seed six times under head coach Bill Self with only one loss in the first round during that span – a loss to No. 13 seed Bradley in 2006.

Meanwhile, this will be the first NCAA Tournament appearance for Cal Baptist. The Lancers earned a spot in the Big Dance by upsetting No. 1 seed Utah Valley 63-61 in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Tournament championship game in dramatic fashion on Saturday night in Las Vegas.

In case you were wondering how Utah Valley ML lost last night at 2AM...

They missed a dunk 😭 pic.twitter.com/VItURjCQw9
— br_betting (@br_betting) March 15, 2026

History

Friday marks the first ever meeting between Kansas and Cal Baptist.

The Lancers first joined Division I back in July 2018 after competing as members of the Pacific West Conference at the Division II level from 2011 through the spring of 2018. They did not become eligible for Division I postseason play until the 2022-23 season.

Record

Cal Baptist enters the NCAA Tournament with a record of 25-8 (13-5 in WAC play during the regular season). The Lancers were a perfect 15-0 at home this year but struggled on the road going 7-7. They were 3-1 on neutral courts.

CBU played just three games this year against Power 4 opponents – only one of which was against a ranked team (No. 9 BYU in early December) – and lost all three. The Lancers were blown out by the Cougars 91-60 but suffered close losses to Colorado (78-70) and Utah (91-85).

Cal Baptist has never defeated an Associated Press Top 25 team in the history of their program.

Key Players

The key to the Cal Baptist offense is 5-foot-10 guard Dominique Daniels Jr. The graduate senior from Compton, California, who was just recently named WAC Player of the Year, averages 23.2 points per game while shooting 43.7% from the field and 32.8% from 3-point range. He also shoots nearly 82% from the free throw line and averages 3.1 assists and 3.7 rebounds per game.

Daniels dropped 41 points in the semifinals of the WAC Tournament this weekend and then scored 23 – including the game winner – in the championship game on Saturday. He holds multiple scoring records in CBU history.

Only one other player on Cal Baptist averages double-figure scoring and that is 6-foot-3 senior guard Martel Williams. He averages 12.7 points per game and secures an average of 4.9 rebounds. Fellow senior Jayden Jackson is also an impactful player for the Lancers as he averages 9.3 points per game.

Coaching

The Lancers are led by 13-year head coach Rick Croy. The 48-year-old Croy owns a 275-136 (.669) record as head coach at CBU dating back to 2013. He became the school’s all-time winningest coach in 2023 when he surpassed Jerry King in a win over NJIT.

Betting

The Jayhawks opened as a 9.5-point favorite over the Lancers but the spread has now grown to
-14.5 on FanDuel and DraftKings. KU is -1200 to win the game outright and the over/under on total points is set at 136.5.