‘See you in two weeks’: Bill Self, Kansas ready for rematch against Colorado Buffaloes
At least one member of Colorado’s basketball team has been looking forward to Monday’s rematch against Kansas ever since the final horn sounded in the Buffs’ 71-59 loss to the Jayhawks on Feb. 11 at Allen Fieldhouse.
“I had one of their players in the (handshake) line tell me, ‘We will see you in two weeks,’’’ KU coach Bill Self said, not identifying the player who was especially proud of the Buffs’ effort in a game in which CU, 0-12 in the league at game time, trailed by just five points with 13:17 remaining.
“That’s how you want your players to be,” Self added, taking the player’s comment as a sign of confidence, not arrogance.
Former KU guard Tad Boyle’s Buffs, who are 2-1 since the game in Lawrence (win over UCF, loss to Iowa State, win over Baylor) will just 13 days after the first meeting play host to KU in a 10 p.m. Central tipoff Monday at CU Events Center. The Big Monday contest will be shown on ESPN.
KU led 40-26 at halftime of the first meeting, only to have Colorado outscore the Jayhawks 19-10 to open the second stanza.
“They’ll scout us. We’ll scout them,” said 15th-year CU coach Boyle, who has a 1-6 record in games coached against his alma mater. “It’s going to be a whole different game, and I’m hoping that we can have the kind of crowd that they had and we keep the Jayhawks (fans) out of there. I’m a little worried about that, given our year, but hey, we’ll be ready to go.”
It appears Buffs fans are not concerned about the records of the teams entering a game between old conference rivals. Kansas (18-9, 9-7) is 125-40 all-time versus CU (11-16, 2-14) and 25-8 in the Events Center. Monday’s game was deemed a sellout on Jan. 29. It’s possible some tickets were sold to KU fans. KU has a large contingent of alumni in Denver and western Kansas.
Colorado’s last home sellout came on Feb. 26, 2022, as the Buffaloes defeated No. 2 Arizona 79-63 backed by a capacity crowd of 11,079. The Colorado-Kansas series accounts for 10 of the top-25 attendance figures all-time at CU Events Center.
It will be the first meeting between the two programs in Boulder since Dec. 7, 2013, in what an article on the CU athletic department website called, “one of the most memorable games in modern Buffaloes history as Askia Booker’s 30-foot heave at the buzzer downed the No. 6-ranked Jayhawks 75-72 in front of a crowd of 11,113.”
The two teams were supposed to play a game at CU on Dec. 21, 2021. However the Jayhawks were informed two hours before tip at their team hotel in Boulder that the game would have to be called off because of several COVID-19 cases in CU’s program.
“Our top priority since the start of the pandemic has been the health and safety of our student-athletes, staff and the community. While we’re disappointed for our student-athletes and fans to have to cancel the game, both schools agreed this is the best decision,” CU athletic director Rick George said at the time.
As far as this matchup, Self, whose Jayhawks snapped a two-game losing streak by blasting Oklahoma State 96-64 on Saturday in Lawrence, is hoping his group of guards play as well defensively versus Colorado’s backcourt duo of Julian Hammond and Javon Ruffin on Monday as they did in Lawrence.
Hammond, a 6-2 senior from Denver, scored two points on 1-of-7 shooting with three assists to one turnover in 32 minutes while Ruffin, a 6-5 junior from New Orleans, missed four shots and did not score while dishing two assists to one turnover in 29 minutes versus the Jayhawks.
“Juan did a great job on him. Shak (Moore) in the (14) minutes he played did a great job on him,” Self said of Hammond, who averages 12.9 points a game. “But you know, No. 23 (forward Andrej Jakimovski, three 3-pointers, good for nine points vs. KU) or any of those guys are capable of stepping out and making two, three, four 3s. You do that, that changes the whole complexion of your team.”
KU forward KJ Adams was effective in the first KU-CU game with 10 points on 5-of-7 shooting plus five rebounds and five assists in 33 minutes.
“He had good momentum moving forward, finding the pocket,” Self said of Adams, who was effective on his short jumpers in the lane. “I think we can get it twice as much if he would focus on that. A lot of that is maybe playing too many minutes, but he’s good in (the lane). And the other thing that he’s good at, he’s a good passer.”
Adams and Hunter Dickinson each had a dunk while Flory Bidunga had two slams the first half of that first game.
“Hunter Dickinson is a really good passer, obviously. He just throws it up and KJ goes and gets it and vice versa,” Boyle said. “Their freshman big (Bidunga, 16 rebounds Saturday vs. OSU) is just going to get better and better. But KJ Adams … his athleticism, his ability to jump and get off the floor so quickly. I was disappointed in our bigs not going up, and I wasn’t expecting to steal those passes (lobs). But just deflect them, deflect them out of bounds and don’t give them a dunk.
“KU shot 57% in the first half. They were all dunks and layups. Got to take those away from KU if you want to have a chance to beat them.”
Sebastian Rancik, a 6-9 freshman from Bratislava, Slovakia, had 19 points on 7-of-13 shooting (1-5 from 3) and nine rebounds in the first meeting.
“Toughness … he’s just got to play smarter. He’s just got to start recognizing situations,” Boyle said, asked about the freshman’s skill set. “Like, for example, when there’s one second in the shot clock, we know they are running a lob, yell, ‘Lob.’ He’s 6-10. All you’ve got to do is get a hand on it. Those are the little things. We didn’t lose the game on that play. But that’s an example of where he can get better and he will get better, but he’s not afraid, and he’s going to keep getting better and better. I’m proud of all of our guys, but Sebastian played well on the offensive end.”
The Jayhawks enter the game 3-5 on the road in Big 12 action.
“More competitive (than the first meeting),” Self said of what he expects in KU’s second meeting with the Buffs. “They won two of their last three. They beat Baylor today, a team that obviously we held to 60 in a half (KU blew a 21-point lead in 81-70 loss to the Bears on Feb. 1 in Waco). I think they’re probably as confident, and they’ll be as fired up as ever.
“I’m sure the game is sold out, and it’ll be a great crowd and everything. It’ll be a pro Colorado crowd, and we’ll have to certainly build off of what we did today (vs. OSU), and go out there and be a confident, connected group.”
KU, which has four games left in the regular season, will return home to meet Texas Tech on Saturday in a 1 p.m. tipoff at Allen Fieldhouse.
