KU basketball hopes to salvage Arizona trip against an injured opponent Tuesday
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- KU basketball seeks rebound Tuesday at ASU after 84-61 loss to Arizona.
- ASU leans on injured players’ grit in matchup at Desert Financial Arena.
- KU aims for top-four finish and double-bye with critical late-season wins.
Listed anywhere between an 8.5 to 10.5-point underdog, No. 14-ranked Kansas, in the eyes of the oddsmakers, did not stand much of a chance against No. 2 Arizona on Saturday afternoon at McKale Center in Tucson, Arizona.
So it did not come as much of a surprise U of A drilled the Jayhawks 84-61, staking claim to at least a share of the Big 12 regular-season title while also gaining revenge on a KU team (21-8, 11-5) that handed the Wildcats (27-2, 14-2) their first loss of the season on Feb. 9 at Allen Fieldhouse.
“I’m not being negative at all. This was going to be a hard game to win no matter what, so getting a split here wouldn’t be the worst thing that’s ever happened,” KU coach Bill Self said Saturday after the Jayhawks suffered their third loss in five games.
He was referring to going 1-1 on the Jayhawks’ current two-game, five-day road trip to the state of Arizona for games against Arizona and Arizona State.
“We’ve got to make sure — in order to do that — we’ve got to win the second one, and hopefully we’ll be a lot better on Tuesday than we were tonight. We’ve got to regroup,” he added.
Tipoff for the game between KU and ASU (15-14, 6-10) will be 8 p.m. Central on Tuesday at Desert Financial Arena in Tempe with a live telecast on FS1.
“I was just disappointed in how together we were, and how unconnected we were in sharing the basketball. I thought we played very selfish offensively,” Self said after a game in which the Jayhawks trailed by just two points with 12 minutes remaining only to get buried late.
To gain a split on this road trip, KU will need to defeat a Sun Devils team that snapped a two-game losing streak with a 73-60 home victory over Utah on Saturday. The Sun Devils have won five of their last 10 games, including a 72-67 home victory over No. 13 Texas Tech on Feb. 17. They defeated Utah despite three of their players (in an eight-man rotation) playing at less than 100%.
“I have to compliment Allen Mukeba and Moe Odum,” ASU coach Bobby Hurley said Saturday. “I’ve had some teams that if the guys had injuries, they might be out for six to eight weeks. A testament to the character of those two is that Allen had an ankle injury in the TCU game (on Feb. 24). Moe, at the end of the TCU game, came up with a foot injury. He’s got a mid-foot sprain. Neither guy practiced the last two days and especially Moe, there was no hesitation when I said, ‘How are you feeling? What do you think?’
“There was not a chance in the world that he (Odum) wouldn’t play (vs. Utah), the way that kid looked before the game, and Allen, same thing, gutted it out.”
Odum, a 6-2 senior from the Bronx, New York, scored 15 points on 6-of-11 shooting (3-of-5 from 3) with four assists in 35 minutes, while Mukeba, a 6-8 senior from Belgium, contributed six points on 3-of-3 shooting in 14 minutes.
Hurley noted that Santiago Trouet, a 6-11 sophomore from Argentina, also played hurt on Saturday. He finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds in 29 minutes.
“Santi had both ankles hurt over the last couple weeks and he made such a huge impact in this (Utah) game, especially in the first four minutes of the second half, when a lot of guys would put their head down if they missed a layup,” Hurley said. “He just kept going after the ball and going after the ball and going after the ball (after the missed layup), so he personifies the type of players that I like to coach.”
A fourth Sun Devil, Noah Meeusen, was forced to leave the Utah game midway through the second half after being elbowed in the face by Utah’s Terrence Brown. Meeusen, a 6-5 sophomore guard from Belgium, finished with five points in 24 minutes.
Hurley said Meeusen should be available for the KU game.
“He came back out and supported the team. At the end he was eligible to go back in the game, but at that point I didn’t think it was necessary to put him back in. He should be fine. He’s he got a couple of stitches and he was prepared to go back in the game if he could,” Hurley said.
Asked about carrying momentum into the KU game, Odum said: “We just have to keep going over the film, looking at what we did correctly and just follow the scout every game. Coach gives us a great scout, and if we lose it’s just because we didn’t follow the scouts. ... We should have some wins rolling.”
The Jayhawks will return home after Tuesday’s game to take on Kansas State at 1 p.m. Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse.
“We’ve just got to take it out on somebody else. You can’t get it back. We’ve got to just play on Tuesday,” KU guard Melvin Council Jr. said after Saturday’s lopsided loss.
“The next two are big. We’ve got to get that double bye for the Big 12 tournament,” Council added.
KU needs to finish in the top four in the regular season league standings to attain a double bye in the Big 12 tourney.
Arizona leads the pack at 14-2, followed by Houston and Texas Tech (both 12-4), KU and Iowa State (11-5), UCF and TCU (9-7), West Virginia, BYU and Cincinnati (all 8-8), Colorado and ASU (6-10), Baylor and Oklahoma State (5-11) and Kansas State and Utah (2-14).
“I would say the biggest thing is toughness. We’ve got to keep playing tough. We can’t back down from anybody,” Council said. “We can’t take shortcuts when we take the lead. We take the lead, we’ve got to keep playing”
This story was originally published March 2, 2026 at 10:22 AM with the headline "KU basketball hopes to salvage Arizona trip against an injured opponent Tuesday."
