‘Hungry’ Jayhawks will end long layoff Saturday, play host to Tad Boyle’s Buffaloes
Kansas’ basketball players haven’t been sitting around admiring their 2019 Maui Invitational championship trophy the past 10 days while patiently awaiting the next game on the schedule.
What they’ve been doing is … “Practicing — a lot of practicing,” said KU junior guard Marcus Garrett.
He maintains the No. 2-ranked Jayhawks (6-1) have been looking to the future — not reliving the past — as they gear up for Saturday’s 6 p.m. home battle against No. 20-ranked (7-0) Colorado.
“We’re definitely hungry,” Garrett said. “We saw we were able to beat good teams in that tournament. We’re just hungry for more.”
KU coach Bill Self said his Jayhawks players, who returned to Lawrence at 9 a.m. Nov. 29 after downing Dayton 90-84 in overtime, at the Maui finale Nov. 27, immediately resumed a normal schedule in preparing for this weekend’s nonconference game against CU, a team picked to finish second in the Pac-12 this season.
“It has not been a rest week at all,” Self said. “We are trying to get better.”
The Jayhawks do not want the Maui title to be their only significant accomplishment in the 2019-20 season.
“I think we enjoyed winning it, don’t get me wrong, but we don’t make a big deal out of that. That is not something we’ll hang our hat on or anything like that,” Self said Thursday.
“Any time you play, you want to win,” he continued. “Any time there is a tournament, you want to take home the trophy. I think the way we played in the last game, especially, should give us some confidence moving forward, in many respects.
“I don’t think when we play on Saturday that tournament will be on our mind any way, shape or form. On how it impacts us moving forward … it probably gave us a springboard to have a decent week of practice. Past Saturday, we’ll only remember Saturday. We won’t remember Maui.”
Saturday’s game — a homecoming for CU coach and former KU guard Tad Boyle — features an intriguing matchup between a pair of Bob Cousy point-guard-of-the-year candidates: KU sophomore Devon Dotson and CU junior McKinley Wright.
“Fast on fast, speed on speed. That will be fun to watch,” Self said.
Dotson, a 6-2 native of Charlotte, North Carolina, averages 19.7 points a game on 50% shooting (10 of 32 threes for 31.3%) with 30 assists to 22 turnovers.
Wright, a 6-0 native of North Robbinsdale, Minnesota, averages 12.4 points on 41.6% shooting (3 of 12 threes) with 26 assists to 14 turnovers.
“Devon Dotson is a tremendous point guard. McKinley Wright is too,” Boyle said. “I know they both are probably going to look forward to that. McKinley comes from Minneapolis. He knows Tre Jones pretty well. That point guard matchup when KU played Duke was pretty big. It’ll be a fun one to watch.”
Minnesota native Jones had 15 points, seven assists and six rebounds, while Dotson had 17 points, one assist and six turnovers in KU’s 68-66 season-opening loss to Duke Nov. 5 in New York.
CU’s leading scorer, 6-7 junior forward Tyler Bey, averages 14 points and 12 rebounds per game. He’s made 46.4% of his shots, including 5 of 11 threes (45.5%).
Said Self: “Bey is a hard-matchup ‘4’ because he is a perimeter player who is tall and athletic, kind of like Toppin (Obi, of Dayton, who had 18 points and nine rebounds vs. KU). He averages 12 rebounds a game. He scores the ball.”
Meanwhile, CU must concern itself with 7-foot KU senior Udoka Azubuike.
“I’ve seen a lot of college basketball through the years. I’m not sure I’ve seen somebody shoot almost 80% like Azubuike. Those are video game-kind of numbers,” Boyle said.
Azubuike has made 47 of 59 shots for a 79.7% average this season. He averages 15.1 points and 7.6 rebounds.
“He is a big focal point of their offense,” Boyle said, “somebody we have to make sure we do a good job on as well.”
KU has averaged 83 points a game while allowing 64.7. CU has averaged 69 while allowing 56.3.
“They’ve got good personnel. They’ve got good players. They can really defend. That’s what they do best, is defend,” Self said of the Buffs.
Noted Boyle: “The good news is we are 7-0. The other good news is I think we are operating at 60% efficiency rate right now offensively. We are not as good as we need to be. We better get better in a hurry for Saturday. The last two games, we turned it over 18 and 19 times (vs. Loyola Marymount and Sacramento State). You can’t go into Allen Fieldhouse and do that. We all know that. We have a tough group of kids that love to compete. It’s going to be a heck of a challenge and heck of an opportunity.”
Boyle said the Buffs will have to play well on the defensive end Saturday.
“KU year in and out is one of the most efficient offensive teams in America,” Boyle said. “We know on a given possession good offense might beat good defense. Over a 40-minute game, defense has a way of creeping up there, so we can’t have mental mistakes. We can’t give them easy baskets. We’ve got to make them earn everything they get. We have to play really smart defensively.”
KU, which has won six in a row since losing to Duke, including its three wins in Hawaii, will also play host to Milwaukee at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Allen. CU will play host to Northern Iowa Tuesday.
This story was originally published December 6, 2019 at 3:23 PM with the headline "‘Hungry’ Jayhawks will end long layoff Saturday, play host to Tad Boyle’s Buffaloes."
