The Kansas basketball program has produced many notable professional players, including Clyde Lovellette, Wilt Chamberlain, Jo Jo White, Danny Manning, Raef LaFrentz, Paul Pierce, Nick Collison, Kirk Hinrich, Mario Chalmers, Andrew Wiggins, and Joel Embiid.

Beyond inventing the game, his next greatest basketball legacy may be his coaching tree, whose two trunks are the well-known Phog Allen and Kansas native John McLendon.

On December 10, 2010, the David Booth family purchased Dr. James Naismith's 13 Original Rules of the game at a Sotheby's auction in New York City for the sum of $4.3 million.

Allen coached KU for 39 seasons and amassed a record of 590–219, with two retroactively-awarded Helms Foundation national titles and one NCAA Tournament championship in 1952.

Numerous basketball greats would play at Kansas during Allen's era, including Dean Smith, Adolph Rupp, Dutch Lonborg, and Ralph Miller (all future Hall of Fame coaches), Paul Endacott, Bill Johnson, and Clyde Lovellette (Hall of Fame players), two-time Olympic Gold Medalist Bill Hougland, and even former United States Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole.

Allen had recruited legendary Wilt Chamberlain to Kansas, but would not get to coach him because freshmen were not eligible to play varsity basketball in 1956.

In his first varsity game, Chamberlain scored 52 points and grabbed 31 rebounds, breaking both all-time college records in an 87–69 win against Northwestern.

The Jayhawks' 55-game homecourt winning streak in Allen Fieldhouse was snapped with a loss to rival Kansas State, and they would also lose two more home games to Duke and Oklahoma.

Shortly following Brown's departure, Kansas hired then North Carolina assistant Roy Williams as head coach.

On Roy's first KU team Patrick Richey, Adonis Jordan and Richard Scott could not visit campus because of recruiting violations by Larry Brown, so they committed sight unseen.

The team shot better than 50 percent from the floor for seven different seasons under Williams, and led the country in field goal percentage in 1990 (53.3) and 2002 (50.6).

Following the national championship loss in 2003, Williams left Kansas and returned to coach at his alma mater, North Carolina.

They began the season ranked #1 and started off 20–1, but then they slumped and lost six of their final nine games, including a loss to Bucknell in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

The Jayhawks played overall number 1 tournament seed North Carolina in the semifinals, a team coached by former KU head man Roy Williams.

With only seconds on the clock, Sherron Collins drove the ball the length of the court and threaded a pass to Mario Chalmers, who connected on a deep three-pointer to force overtime.

On April 23, top high school recruit Xavier Henry made his commitment to play at Kansas in the fall, prompting ESPN to name the Jayhawks as "the team to beat in 2009–10."

Despite 7 games against top 10 ranked opponents, Kansas finished the regular season 26–5, earned their 8th consecutive Big 12 title, and advanced to their 14th Final Four in school history.

The Jayhawks faced another 2 seed, the Ohio State Buckeyes, in the National Semifinals, and came back from a 13-point first-half deficit to win the game, 64–62.

Although the team made an early exit from the Big 12 Tournament with a quarterfinal loss to TCU, the Jayhawks got the #1 seed in the NCAA Midwest Region.

The 2017–18 Jayhawks lost a number of players to graduation, the NBA Draft, and transfer; but appeared to be poised for another spectacular season.

Star freshman Billy Preston was sidelined by an NCAA inquiry into the financial picture surrounding his car, and ultimately left the team to play professional basketball in Europe.

Seeded #1 in the NCAA Midwest Region, the Jayhawks defeated Penn, Seton Hall, Clemson, and Duke to reach Bill Self's third Final Four appearance and the program's 15th overall.

[22] In August 2017, Self and the Jayhawks traveled to Italy to play four exhibition matches against local professional Italian teams.

Phog Allen, Dick Harp, Ted Owens, Larry Brown, Roy Williams, and Bill Self have all led Kansas to NCAA Final Four appearances.

[45] He served as the acting head coach again for Kansas in the Big 12 and NCAA Tournaments while Bill Self was away from the team following a heart procedure.

Before 1907 the Jayhawks played in various venues, ranging from the basement of the original Snow Hall (even though the ceiling was only 14 feet high) to the skating rink at the local YMCA.

Such nicknames were in reference to the difficulty opposing teams had in dealing with the tight area surrounding the court and the curved walls and decorative lattice work directly behind the backboards.

On November 4, 2010, ESPN The Magazine named Allen Fieldhouse the loudest college basketball arena in the country, reaching sustained decibel levels over 120.

Post-game, the band will play a rendition of the Kansas state song "Home on the Range", which the crowd will stand up for similar to the national anthem.

If the Jayhawks are leading comfortably near the end of the game, the crowd begins a slow version of the Rock Chalk Chant, which has become the signature tradition of Allen Fieldhouse.