Team USA forced to change from Kansas jerseys to USA jerseys at World University Games

The World University Games are currently going on in Gwangju, South Korea. It's a busy couple of weeks for international basketball competitions that the US has to send teams to -- the U-19 games just wrapped up in Greece, the Pan-American Games are about to start in Toronto. So rather than assemble a third team primarily comprised of college players, we just sent Kansas over to represent be Team USA in South Korea.

So for their first game, Kansas came out in special edition Kansas jerseys, with a USA patch, special trim, and a star/red-white-and-blue pattern down the side:

But it's a little awkward, since it's not actually Kansas' basketball team. It's Team USA. That player in the middle is SMU's Nic Moore, one of two players on the Team USA roster who doesn't play for Kansas (one Jayhawk, Brannen Greene, is injured, and one, Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk, is Ukranian and ineligible to play for the American team.)

The Kansas-centric uniforms didn't fly with FIBA officials, who apparently told Bill Self the team would begin to forfeit games if they didn't have their country name featured more prominently on their jerseys. So they went to a local seamstress and got their jerseys updated.

There are still some telltale signs they're actually Kansas -- there's a big KU patch on the leg and one on the back of the jersey, too:

Kansas is doing just fine, opening the tournament 3-0 as they hope to capture the first USA title at the Universiade since 2005. Recent World University Games teams had featured all-star teams, so hopefully a more familiar group will perform better.

There are actually a bunch of Kansas fans in Korea watching the team play!