Kansas Jayhawks add game against UTEP to close out regular season next week
Kansas’ men’s basketball team has added a nonconference game to its 2020-21 men’s basketball schedule.
The Jayhawks will play UTEP at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 4 in Allen Fieldhouse, both schools announced Thursday.
The game will replace the KU-Tarleton State contest that was canceled in December because of COVID-19 issues in Tarleton’s program. It will provide KU a game during a break in the schedule that was to last from Sunday until the Big 12 Tournament on March 10-13 at T-Mobile Center.
The KU-UTEP game will be televised on an ESPN platform with specifics to be announced, KU officials indicated in a release. UTEP’s athletic department website said in a release that the game will be streamed on ESPN+.
The Miners will also play at KU during the 2021-22 season, UTEP officials announced Thursday.
KU will conclude the Big 12 regular season with a game against Baylor set for 7 p.m. Saturday in Allen Fieldhouse. UTEP (10-10, 6-8 in Conference USA) will complete league play with games against Charlotte on Saturday and Sunday in El Paso, Texas.
A KU official said Thursday that the KU-Baylor game would remain “Senior Night” for the Jayhawks’ senior class of Marcus Garrett, Mitch Lightfoot and Chris Teahan.
Asked recently about possibly scheduling a game to play next week, KU coach Bill Self said the Jayhawks had found “some opponents that possibly could play.” He said playing a game prior to the postseason tournament would help “rhythm, shaking the rust off and everything.”
UTEP, which is coached by Rodney Terry, is 3-1 all-time versus Kansas. KU won the last meeting, 67-63, in the third-place game of the 2013 Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in Bahamas.
The school, formerly named Texas Western, edged KU, 81-80, in double overtime in a NCAA Regional on March 12, 1966 in Lubbock, Texas. UTEP defeated KU the following season, 71-67, on Dec. 17, 1966 in Chicago. The Miners defeated No. 1 seed KU, 66-60, on March 22, 1992 in a second-round NCAA Tournament game in Dayton, Ohio.
