‘Don’t sell them’: Self says of KU tickets after Creighton fans invade Allen Fieldhouse
Kansas Chancellor Douglas Girod’s decision to allow 2,500 mask-clad fans into 16,300-seat Allen Fieldhouse for Tuesday’s Big 12/Big East Battle against Creighton was supposed to provide a boost to the No. 5-ranked Jayhawks — in theory at least.
Instead, several hundred Bluejays fans secured tickets and made their presence known. They cheered wildly much of the game to the dismay of KU men’s basketball coach Bill Self.
“It felt like an NCAA Tournament game,” Self said in a video call with reporters after KU’s 73-72 victory, “because there were obviously fans from both sides, call it like it is. Creighton brought 500, 700 fans. Even at 2,500 I thought it didn’t have the full homecourt (advantage).”
Self, KU’s 18th-year coach who has directed the Jayhawks to a 267-14 record in Allen Fieldhouse, admitted he was, “a little disappointed, take this for what it is worth, nobody probably cares.
“If our fans can’t come to games, don’t sell them (tickets) on the secondary market. Give them to a Jayhawk fan, sell them to a Jayhawk fan. Call the ticket office and let us pay you back for them. Hell, I’ll pay you back. I’ll personally pay you back for your tickets if you cannot come and give them to a Kansas fan.
“That was the only thing about today that was remotely negative even though it was still great we had people in the building,” Self added.
Self also addressed Tuesday’s crowd in an interview with Greg Gurley on the postgame radio show.
“I am happy we had people here (during COVID-19 pandemic). Unfortunately, a quarter of the crowd is from Creighton,” Self told Gurley. “We had people here and I thought that the fans that did come that supported us were loud and did a nice job. It was disappointing to have more Creighton fans here during the pandemic than we have had ever. I think it was great for the fans that came here that supported KU, there just wasn’t enough. Having a mixed crowd is better than having no fans,” Self added.
Creighton had about 100 fans seated in the southwest corner of the fieldhouse, which is where the print media was stationed. One Bluejays fan told The Star he bought his tickets through KU for $75.
The fans in that section cheered loudly for the Bluejays of the Big East Conference when they were on defense.
“First of all, I don’t know how many tickets our fans ended up finagling to get into this building. There were some defensive chants that rang pretty loud to our team a few times when we were on the defensive end of the floor,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said. “It’s fun. It adds certainly an element of enthusiasm to the game I think for both teams, home and away. There’s a lot more energy in the building. I’m glad we got to play in front of some fans. Hopefully if things work out OK we can move in that direction on our home floor.”
Creighton had just 200 fans on hand for its Friday’s home win over Kennesaw State. KU will allow 2,500 fans again for its next game Friday versus Omaha (6 p.m. in Allen Fieldhouse).
At one point during Tuesday’s game, the public address announcer said fans must wear their masks or be removed from the fieldhouse.
McDermott fell to 0-9 against Kansas. The previous eight meetings came between 2006 and 2010 when he was the head coach at Iowa State. KU’s Self improved to 3-3 versus Creighton (0-3 at Oral Roberts, 1-0 at Tulsa, 1-0 at Illinois, 1-0 at KU).
McDermott said the Bluejays (3-1) took the loss hard.
“I hope we are mature enough to handle it,” he said “I am a firm believer you learn when you win, you learn when you lose. You wipe it and move on to the next game. That’ll be our challenge because our guys are hurting. We had some guys miss some free throws the second half, not just Marcus (Zegarowski, who missed free throw that could have forced overtime).
“We had several guys miss free throws that normally are good foul shooters. That’s going to weigh on their minds tonight onto tomorrow.”
Creighton hit 9 of 18 free throws to (5-1) KU’s 11 of 17.
“Nebraska isn’t going to feel sorry for us because we came up a little short. We’ve got to hit that practice floor tomorrow ready to prepare,” McDermott added.
Creighton will next meet Nebraska at 6 p.m., Friday in Omaha. KU will follow Friday’s game versus Omaha of the Summit League with a home game at 1 p.m. Sunday versus Tarleton State.
This story was originally published December 9, 2020 at 9:16 AM with the headline "‘Don’t sell them’: Self says of KU tickets after Creighton fans invade Allen Fieldhouse."
