Why the KU Jayhawks must ‘move on’ from Houston game with Sunflower Showdown next
After defeating a top-five ranked team on Saturday, the No. 8-ranked Kansas Jayhawks will now prepare for a Big Monday clash against an unranked Kansas State team that’s dropped four consecutive Big 12 games.
Tipoff for the Sunflower Showdown between the Jayhawks (18-4, 6-3) and Wildcats (14-8, 4-5) is 8 p.m. Monday at Bramlage Coliseum with a live telecast on ESPN.
“It doesn’t matter what the records are or what they’ve done. They’re going to play their butts off. They always do against us, especially over there,” KU coach Bill Self said of the Wildcats after Saturday’s 78-65 victory over the No. 4-ranked Houston Cougars at Allen Fieldhouse.
The Jayhawks are 28-6 all-time at Bramlage Coliseum, but just 5-4 in their last nine games in Manhattan.
“We’ll have to have a performance like we did today in order to go there and leave out of there happy,” Self stated.
The Jayhawks hit 68.9% of their shots in Saturday’s victory over UH. K-State hit 46.8% of its shots, knocking down 9 of 24 3s in a 75-72 loss to Oklahoma State on Saturday in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Guards Tylor Perry and Cam Carter combined to hit 8 3s in 15 attempts for the Wildcats, who are 3-1 at home and 1-4 on the road in Big 12 action this season.
“We’ve all got to move on,” Self said of putting to rest Saturday’s impressive victory. “We’ve got to rest tonight (Saturday) because we are going to be emotionally spent. We’ve got to get ready in a short amount of time and go to Manhattan and play in an atmosphere Houston had to play in today. We’ll have an opportunity to play in that atmosphere in Manhattan.”
KU’s starters played a lot of minutes Saturday.
“We played our starters 36 (KJ Adams), 33 (Hunter Dickinson), 37 (Dajuan Harris), 35 (Johnny Furphy) and 37 (Kevin McCullar),” Self said. ”That’s more a concern with a quick turnaround, having those guys rested and ready to go.”
K-State’s Carter and Perry played 39 and 38 minutes respectively at Oklahoma State, while Arthur Kaluma played 30 minutes and Will McNair 24 minutes to lead the Wildcats, who had nine players play eight or more minutes vs. OSU. KU had seven players play eight or more minutes vs. UH.
McCullar, who has a bruised knee that forced him to miss Tuesday’s home win over Oklahoma State, hit 7 of 8 shots (1-of-2 from 3 and 2-of-2 from the line), good for 17 points with three assists, five turnovers and seven boards in his 37 minutes.
“He hit it (knee) early then he asked to come out a brief moment,” Self said of the senior guard from San Antonio, Texas. “I thought he played great, played big. We did a really good job on their guards with the exception of (LJ) Cryer, who went nuts there late (six 3s, 24 points). I thought we were sound defensively and did a good job on the glass (outrebounding Houston 40-24) for the most part,” Self added.
The Jayhawks will travel to Manhattan on Sunday and have a shootaround before the game Monday.
“This was definitely a stepping stone but now we have two games that are most important, that can help us get back in that conference talk,” junior KJ Adams said of Monday’s game against K-State and Saturday’s home contest against Baylor.
Adams said the Jayhawks would try to get their rest for Big Monday.
“Obviously we can’t get too hyped tonight (Saturday). I think everybody agreed we’re going to rest tonight, try to get ready for the next game. We leave tomorrow (Sunday). The atmosphere we had today at home we’re going to have there at Kansas State,” Adams said.
Of the K-State game, freshman Johnny Furphy said: “I’ve heard it’s a pretty hostile rivalry. Coach said this environment (vs. Houston) will be like what we will be going into on Monday except we’re going in as the opponent. I’m excited. It should be a battle.”
Here’s a look at the Big 12 standings after Saturday’s contests: Kansas 6-3, Houston 6-3, Baylor 5-3, Texas Tech 5-3, Iowa State 5-3, TCU 5-4, BYU 4-4, Kansas State 4-5, Oklahoma 4-5, Texas 4-5, Cincinnati 4-5, UCF 4-5, West Virginia 3-6, Oklahoma State 2-7.
