KU hopes to end skid at Oklahoma: ‘We’ve been kind of slacking a little bit lately’
Losers of two in a row and three of its last five Big 12 contests, Kansas’ men’s basketball team must win Saturday at Oklahoma to remain over .500 through eight games of the Big 12 season.
“I think we really need that. We all know it,” KU sophomore wing Tristan Enaruna said of a victory — one that would be KU’s second over the Sooners in 14 days. “We’ve been kind of slacking a little bit lately. I think we all have got to get together and get that win on Saturday.”
The No. 9-ranked Jayhawks (10-4, 4-3), who edged OU 63-59 on Jan. 9 at Allen Fieldhouse, will take on the Sooners (8-4, 4-3) at 11 a.m. Saturday at Lloyd Noble Center in Norman. The game will be shown live on ESPN.
KU is already off to its worst start through seven games of a conference season since the 1988-89 campaign, when the Jayhawks opened 3-4. The last time KU lost three straight games was in 2012-13, when KU was defeated by Oklahoma State in Lawrence and TCU and OU on the road.
“I don’t think we’ve had our true response game,” KU junior guard Ochai Agbaji said. KU followed a 75-70 loss to Oklahoma State on Jan. 12 in Stillwater with a 77-69 setback to Baylor on Monday in Waco, Texas. KU did pound TCU, 93-64, on Jan. 5 in Fort Worth, Texas, after losing to Texas, 84-59, on Jan. 2 in Lawrence.
“Coming off a loss against Oklahoma State, coming into Baylor, we wanted to bounce back in that game (vs. the No. 2-ranked Bears). I feel our true bounceback game could come against Oklahoma this Saturday,” Agbaji added.
The two teams are trending in opposite directions.
While KU is 2-3 in its last five games, OU has won two straight blowouts. The Sooners rolled over TCU, 82-46, on Jan. 12, and following a postponement versus Oklahoma State on Jan. 16, rocked Kansas State, 76-50, on Tuesday — both games in Norman.
“I’ve been reminding the guys that in this situation you really can’t get too high or too low,” said Agbaji. “We’ve been up here. We’ve been down here. We’ve got to keep level and keep moving and stay positive, try to get better every single day and come out with wins in these games.”
The Sooners — they led KU by two points at halftime and one point with 2 1/2 minutes left in a 63-59 loss to KU on Jan. 9 at Allen Fieldhouse — nearly won that game despite playing without starting forward Brady Manek and key reserve Jalen Hill. They missed the game because of COVID-19 protocols.. The two are back and ready to play Saturday.
Manek, a 6-foot-9, 230-pound senior forward from Harrah, Oklahoma, averages 12.5 points and 4.1 rebounds a game. A 44.4% shooter overall, he’s made 22 of 54 threes for 40.7%.
“How many guys that are 6-9 have a quick release like that from the perimeter?” KU coach Bill Self said of Manek, a third-team all-Big 12 pick a year ago. “That makes him extremely hard to guard because he needs no space to get a shot off. He’s always catch-and-ready to score. We can’t let him make five or six threes. If he gets off six or seven (three-point tries) he’s capable of making that number. We’ve got to do a real good job on him.”
Manek is the only player in OU history to accumulate at least 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, 150 three-pointers and 75 blocked shots. His career high in scoring is 31 points versus TCU on Jan. 18, 2020. His season high is 29 points in OU’s opener versus UTSA. He had a career-best eight three-point baskets in that UTSA game.
“Leading up to game time is when we found out he wouldn’t be playing,” Agbaji said of Manek missing the game in Lawrence. “It’s the same mindset going into playing Oklahoma — (recognize) how they run their offense through him, attack him and try to take away from what his game is.”
OU senior guard Austin Reaves, a transfer from Wichita State, scored 20 points and grabbed nine rebounds against KU two weeks ago. Junior power forward David McCormack led the Jayhawks with 17 points and two blocked shots, while Agbaji scored 14 points with six rebounds. Sophomore wing Jalen Wilson had 11 boards and nine points.
“Probably the way they move the ball and the way they move without the ball,” Enaruna said of what he remembers as strengths of the Sooners. “They are a really good shooting team as well. Their offense is smooth. They played pretty strong defense against us.”
KU hit 48.9% of its shots to OU’s 38.3% in the first meeting. Both teams went 6-of-20 from three.
“Being more disruptive, getting more deflections and steals leading to easy baskets for us,” Agbaji said of goals for the game. “Making them make bad decisions off our aggressiveness and defensive presence more.”
Agbaji said entering a third straight road game the Jayhawks are “needing guys to step up. We have to have energy and intangibles that go into winning games. I think we have to get a better grasp on that, understand better so that moving forward we can be successful.”
After the OU game, KU will return home to face TCU at 7 p.m. Thursday. KU will travel to Tennessee for a 5 p.m. Big 12/SEC Challenge game on Saturday, Jan. 30.
