Kansas Jayhawks basketball heads to TCU for first of three Big 12 games this week
Kansas’ men’s basketball team was supposed to open its 2021-22 Big 12 Conference season with a home game versus TCU on New Year’s Day.
Instead, that contest was postponed because of COVID-19 health and safety protocols within the Horned Frogs’ program.
In order to make sure the No. 6-ranked Jayhawks (23-5, 12-3) and Horned Frogs (18-9, 7-8) played a complete 18-game league schedule, the league assigned the teams back-to-back contests this week, which happens to be the final week of the regular season.
Yes, KU and TCU, a team fresh off a 69-66 home victory over then-No. 9-ranked Texas Tech on Saturday, will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Schollmaier Arena in Fort Worth, Texas and then again at 7 p.m. Thursday at Allen Fieldhouse. Both games will be streamed on ESPN+.
“We’ll just try to play well Tuesday then we’ll worry about the second time after the game Tuesday and Wednesday (practice),” KU coach Bill Self said Monday. “I’ve looked at it more how do we approach the whole week from a practice standpoint and rest standpoint than just playing TCU.”
With his team also playing Texas in the regular-season finale on Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse, Self has to consider how many minutes he’ll allot his main players as well as the size of KU’s rotation.
Senior guard Ochai Agbaji, who averages a team-leading 34.9 minutes a game, should not be affected, Self said.
“I am not worried about his minutes this week, I’m not,” Self said of Agbaji, who leads the squad in scoring at 20.4 points a game. “Ochai is a different dude when it comes to conditioning. He runs more than anybody else in a game. To me he plays harder than everybody the way he runs the floor. Other guys play hard don’t get me wrong, but nobody runs the floor like he does in our program.
“David’s minutes I’d be more concerned with,” Self added of senior power forward David McCormack, whose surgically repaired right foot bothers him at times. Also, “Juan’s (minutes),” he added of point guard Dajuan Harris, who averages 30.1 minutes a game. “But the other guys I’m not concerned about.”
Self — he used 11 players in Saturday’s 80-70 loss at Baylor, said he could envision a nine-man rotation in the three games this week. KU plays Texas at 3 p.m. Saturday in Allen Fieldhouse.
“I thought our bench was just OK the other day. I’m not sure I gave them a lot of opportunities to play through maybe just being OK,” Self said. “Joe (Yesufu, no points, no assists four minutes) didn’t play bad. He didn’t really do anything and didn’t get much of an opportunity after that. Remy was fine,” Self added of Remy Martin, who had five points in 11 minutes in his return from a right knee bruise that kept him out the previous seven games.
“He did a couple things offensively the first half (scoring all five points). Defensively he had a couple blunders. We’ve got to get more out of Mitch (Lightfoot, who had four fouls and no points in four minutes at BU). I thought KJ (Adams, power forward, four points three minutes) did some good things. If Remy is back, that’s going to make it nine (man rotation). If he’s not back it’ll make it eight. All signs are he’s going to be back,” Self stated of former Arizona State player Martin.
This is a busy week — one the first-place Jayhawks have been looking forward to a long time. KU (12-3) as the week begins is one game up in the loss column on Baylor (12-4) and two up on Texas Tech (11-5).
“It (this week) will determine if we win it or not,” Self said of the Big 12 crown. “We control our own destiny. If we take care of business in all three games we don’t need any help. If we win two out of three we can get a piece of it. If you go 1-2 you are begging for help.
“On paper you’d think we put ourselves in a pretty favorable position because two of three are at home,” Self added. “Home games don’t guarantee anything. I don’t want to say we missed an opportunity (at Baylor). That takes credit away from Baylor. They deserved to win the other day but we could have been in a much more favorable position if we’d closed the game better.
“Bottom line is we would have given anything at the start of the season to say we’ve got a one-game lead with a week left. The guys have done what we hoped they would do.
“We have everything still to play for in front of us. We can control our own destiny. That’s about all you can hope for being a competitor, having a lead going into the back nine. If we play well, we’ll be OK. If we don’t then we’ll be disappointed and sad. It’s fun to be in this position rather than to not be in this position,” Self stated.
TCU on Tuesday will be trying to win its second straight game against a top ten ranked team.
TCU, which is just one under .500 in the league, is led by sophomore guard Mike Miles, who averages 15.3 points a game. He scored 26 points in Saturday’s win over Texas Tech. Junior forward Emanuel Miller and junior guard Damion Baugh average 10.5 and 10.4 points respectively.
“He is capable of putting up big numbers. That’ll obviously be a huge emphasis for us,” Self said of trying to contain Miles. “TCU has always been pretty athletic. This year they are very athletic. I think Oklahoma State overall is still probably the quickest team in the league. TCU has a very athletic group.”
