Reaction from KU basketball as Sunday’s game is canceled and Big 12 play is up next
Kansas’ men’s basketball players learned of the first, and what they hope will be the last, cancellation of an upcoming KU game during the COVID-19 riddled 2020-21 season shortly before the start of Friday’s 95-50 victory over Omaha at Allen Fieldhouse.
“We found out right before the game. (It’s) kind of weird. We don’t know what’s going to happen for the rest of the season going forward,” KU junior guard Ochai Agbaji said, reacting to the news that Tarleton State’s basketball team has a positive case of the virus, preventing them from playing Kansas as originally planned Sunday in Lawrence.
“That’s part of it, part of what’s going on now,” Agbaji added matter-of-factly of cancellations occurring around college basketball.
KU coach Bill Self spent much of Friday afternoon communicating with both Tarleton coach Billy Gillispie and KU athletic department officials.
“Billy called me around 2 o’clock (Friday),” Self said of Gillispie, first-year coach of Tarleton State who worked as an assistant on Self’s coaching staffs at Tulsa and Illinois. “He called to let me know that it’s possible there could be a positive (test on his team). I notified our people, of course they got with their people. Medical staffs became involved.
“I found out at 2 (p.m.) there was a positive. The medical people got together, visited after that. I don’t know exactly when the decision was made (to cancel Sunday’s game), probably in that 5 o’clock range,” added Self, whose team tipped against Omaha at 6 p.m.
The Tarleton game was to have been KU’s final tuneup for Big 12 play.
The No. 5-ranked Jayhawks (6-1) will open against No. 17-ranked Texas Tech at 6 p.m. Thursday in Lubbock. The Red Raiders were to take a 5-1 record into a home game against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Saturday, their last tune-up before the KU game.
“I’d love to play the (Tarleton) game,” Self said. “The primary reason we would love to play the game — I’m not saying we’d win the game for sure, I’m not saying that — but getting a chance to get those guys that haven’t had a chance to play as many minutes would be important. It’d be the most important thing if it was possible,” he added of bench players gaining experience.
The good news is the cancellation gives KU more preparation time for Tech.
“The reality of it is if you play Sunday — and you’ll probably be tested because they play so hard — you’ve got Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday to get ready for the (Tech) game with tired legs,” Self said.
“I’ll spin it as a positive. We’ll have fresher legs (since) we won’t play the game. Maybe we can work on some things we haven’t been very good at the next couple days,” he added.
Self said, “I don’t think so,” when asked if KU would try to schedule another opponent as a replacement in coming days.
“It’s harder than what you think,” Self said. “If we say, ‘Let’s play a Div. II (school) or this or that,’ they still can’t play unless they follow our testing protocol the Big 12 has — three times a week (on) non-consecutive days. Maybe there are some (teams) that have (completed those protocols at this time). That’s not the direction we want to go right now,” Self added.
Gillispie issued a statement on Friday night from Tarleton’s campus in Stephenville, Texas, regarding the cancellation.
“We’re obviously very disappointed that we aren’t able be a part of the great basketball tradition at Allen Fieldhouse. Our players were so excited to compete at one of the greatest college basketball venues in the country,” Gillispie said. “We’re thankful that coach Self and the administration at the University of Kansas were gracious enough to offer us an invitation to play and we’re hopeful to reschedule in the future – or maybe even this season, if schedules permit. But at the end of the day, the safety of our players, our staff, and everyone involved with our program is and has always been our No. 1 priority,” Gillispie added.
The Texans (2-2), who played Texas A&M quite tough before falling, 73-66, on Dec. 2 in College Station, Texas, scheduled the game against KU just before the start of the 2020-21 regular season.
“I didn’t plan on coaching against him this year,” Self said during a Zoom call with reporters Thursday of Gillispie, who comes to Tarleton State from Ranger Junior College where Gillispie earned national juco coach of the year honors in 2019.
“This is a game we scheduled strictly because of the COVID stuff and our schedules changing. I’m just happy we got a game and happy it fit in our schedule in our time slot,” Self added.
Gillispie, the former University of Kentucky and Texas A&M head coach, who had a successful kidney transplant in 2018, brought with him five players from Ranger Junior College.
Of Gillispie’s style of play, Self said: “Our core philosophy is probably very similar as far as what we think wins, but how he goes about getting to that point is probably a little bit different than what we do offensively. He is a guy that believes strongly in making others beat you, don’t beat yourself, certainly always be the aggressor regardless of the situation. His teams have always been really good at that. They’ll be much better (this season, the school’s first in Div. I) just because of the intensity and how hard they’ll play.”
Tarleton, which is a member of the Western Athletic Conference, is scheduled to meet No. 2 Baylor on Tuesday in Waco, Texas. That game had not been canceled as of Friday.
