KU basketball has found its footing in Big 12 play. Will it continue on the road?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- KU travels to Boulder for a 10 p.m. CT late tip, facing third road test.
- Altitude at 5,430 feet noted; KU says it won’t affect them mentally.
- Game spotlights former KU figures Boyle and Manning amid league standing push.
Kansas men’s basketball has won three home games while dropping two on the road during the still-early stages of the 2025-26 Big 12 season.
The Jayhawks, who have fallen to UCF and West Virginia outside of Lawrence while defeating Iowa State, TCU and Baylor in Allen Fieldhouse, will embark on league road game No. 3 under some difficult circumstances Tuesday.
No. 19-ranked KU (13-5, 3-2) will meet Colorado (12-6, 2-3) in an unusually late 10 p.m. Central start at CU Events Center in Boulder, where the local time will be 9 p.m. for the opening tip.
What’s more, there’s the problem of dealing with the high altitude of 5,430 feet above sea level in Boulder.
“We believe that everything is all mental, so we don’t feel like that’ll affect us at all,” said KU freshman forward Bryson Tiller. “We’ll get plenty of rest the night before, but we’ll be good to go at practice and good to go Tuesday.”
The Jayhawks will be playing a Buffs team that lost to West Virginia 72-61 Saturday in Morgantown, West Virgina. CU, coached by former KU guard Tad Boyle, opened Big 12 play with a 95-89 victory at Arizona State and 85-73 win over Utah in Boulder. CU then lost to Texas Tech 73-71 in Boulder and at Cincinnati 77-68.
“Super excited,” KU guard Elmarko Jackson said of the team’s mood entering the game. “I feel like road games, to me, are the most fun games to win, going into a hostile environment and trying to shut them up. So I feel like that’s fun. And, you know, all the guys in our locker room are ready for that challenge.”
It’s the first game of a two-game road trip. KU will meet Kansas State on Saturday in Manhattan.
A trip to Boulder means an extra meaningful pregame handshake for KU coach Bill Self with former KU players Boyle and Danny Manning. Boyle, who played guard for both Ted Owens and Larry Brown at KU, is 324-210 in 16 seasons as Buffs head coach.
Manning, the leading scorer and rebounder in KU history, is in his second season as a CU assistant to former KU teammate Boyle. Manning not only led KU to a national title as a player but was an assistant coach on KU’s 2008 national title team.
“I’ll talk to him, but I don’t know if I’m going to get a chance to hang out with him,” Self said of Manning. “He’s an enemy for a while. But he’s meant so much to this place — and Tad, too.
“Not very often when opponents play that are in the league, unless you have an affiliation with one of them when they play, you kind of hope they both lose the same game, which is impossible. But with Danny and Tad, you want them to win every game, except not at our expense.”
Of returning to the road after a pair of home wins over ISU and Baylor, Self said: “Well, we haven’t taken our act on the road and been very good. We won at N.C. State and we weren’t great. And of course, we lost in Orlando and Morgantown.
“So yes, this week is another two games. That’s a great opportunity to go and try to play well away from home. And even though homecourt doesn’t guarantee anything, it is different playing in this building (Allen Fieldhouse) when you know guys are so confident playing here.”
The Buffs, who are led by double-digit scorers Isaiah Johnson (15.8 ppg), Barrington Hargress (13.7 ppg), Sebastian Rancik (13.2 ppg) and Bangot Dak (11.4 ppg), enter on a three-game league losing streak.
“Everybody’s going to drop games in the league with the exception of maybe Arizona, Houston or whatnot, and they’ll still end up losing some in this league,” Self said.
“Tad’s got a good team. And playing in altitude, even though we won’t talk about it, is a little bit different. Last year, we won there (71-64), but we had to fight and play 40 minutes. And I’m sure this game will be like that as well,” Self added.
The Jayhawks opened the week tied for fifth in the league standings.
“I feel like our confidence level has definitely risen since the Iowa State game,” soph guard Jackson said. “I feel like that game has been a building block for us, and as a team, just trying to continue to stack days and stack games where we could be dominant and make a push for this Big 12 regular season championship.”
