KU’s Big 12 finale against Baylor to remain Senior Night for Jayhawks men’s basketball
Kansas’ Big 12 showdown against undefeated Baylor on Saturday night is no longer the last home game listed on the Jayhawks’ 2020-21 men’s basketball schedule.
On Thursday, KU and UTEP finalized an agreement to play at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 4 at Allen Fieldhouse as a tune-up for postseason tournaments.
Even with UTEP now on KU’s slate, Saturday’s 7 p.m. Big 12 game between the No. 17-ranked Jayhawks (17-8, 11-6) and No. 2-ranked Bears (18-0, 10-0) will remain designated as Kansas’ Senior Night contest.
Seniors Marcus Garrett, Mitch Lightfoot and Chris Teahan are set to be honored during ceremonies before and after the game at Allen Fieldhouse with one caveat. The players might elect to delay being honored a year. The NCAA, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, has made it possible for seniors to play another season if they so desire. All Division I athletes have been granted an additional year of eligibility.
So in theory, Garrett, Lightfoot and Teahan could be back for the 2021-22 campaign.
“Senior Night will be on Saturday. It’ll be good. It’s end of the (Big 12) season and what we’ve always done,” KU assistant coach Norm Roberts said Thursday in filling in for KU coach Bill Self on Self’s weekly Hawk Talk radio show.
As far as specific plans for Senior Night and perhaps next season, Roberts said: “I think we’re expecting to know something maybe by tomorrow. I know coach is still talking to those guys. They are still making decisions on what they want to do. I think we’ll know something hopefully by tomorrow.”
Roberts, who coaches KU’s big men, said, “I would,” when asked by Hawk Talk host Brian Hanni if he’d like to have 6-foot-8 Gilbert, Arizona native Lightfoot come back for a sixth year. Lightfoot redshirted the 2019-20 campaign.
“I’d love to have gone to college six years, believe me,” Roberts added, laughing. “Mitch is so unselfish. The guy bleeds Jayhawk (colors). If you open his chest a Jayhawk is definitely flying out. The guy has loved this place his whole life. As a kid it was a dream of his to play at Kansas. He has exceeded all our expectations of what he can do, what he brought to the table, how good a teammate he’s been.”
Of walk-on guard Teahan, a 6-4 graduate of Rockhurst High School, Roberts said: “He has grown up as much as any kid I’ve been around here at Kansas. He does an unbelievable job helping us at practice. He’s so unselfish, such a mature kid. I’m happy for him, happy we’ve had him here for the time we have.”
Of senior point guard Garrett, who on Thursday was chosen as one of 10 finalists for the Naismith defensive player of the year award, which he won last year, Roberts said: “I don’t know if Coach has had that definite talk with him yet (about next year) with so much going on. We’d love to have Marcus back another year. That depends on a lot of other factors. Marcus has been unbelievable. He’s won so much. He is a winner. He’s tough, has played multiple positions. We ask him to do so much for our team. He has to be the main ballhandler. He has to try to score. He has to guard the best player. He has to be a guy who facilitates, makes the other guys better. I’m really proud of him.”
The Atlanta Tipoff Club will announce the four finalists for the Naismith defensive award on March 12. The award is voted on by a national panel of media with the final announcement being made Final Four weekend. Garrett, a 6-5 native of Dallas, is a finalist with Davion Mitchell and Mark Vital, Baylor; Yves Pons, Tennessee; Charles Bassey, Western Kentucky; Kihei Clark, Virginia; Jacob Gilyard, Richmond; Herb Jones, Alabama, Evan Mobley, USC and Neemias Queta, Utah State.
More on KU vs. UTEP
The KU-UTEP game replaces a Jayhawks game against Tarleton State that was canceled in December because of COVID-19 protocols in Tarleton’s program.
“I know Coach (Self) had been talking to various schools on what he wanted to do,” Roberts said on Hawk Talk. “We were going to be off such a long period of time (from Sunday until the Big 12 Tournament, which runs March 10-13 in T-Mobile Center). Coach wants to keep our guys in a decent rhythm going into the Big 12 Tournament. UTEP (10-10) has a terrific program, a young coach in Rodney Terry who we know. It’ll be a good opportunity for us to play another game.”
KU, by the way, has won 37 consecutive home finales, a streak which began in 1983-84.
