Jayhawks home for holidays after beating two ranked teams to open Big 12 campaign
The Kansas men’s basketball team is undefeated in Big 12 Conference play two-thirds of the way through its treacherous run of three games against ranked teams to open the 2020-21 league campaign.
“We’ve got two great wins and it sets us up great. But if we don’t beat Texas, this win doesn’t mean anything,” KU coach Bill Self said after his No. 3-ranked Jayhawks defeated No. 7 West Virginia 79-65 Tuesday night in Allen Fieldhouse.
KU (8-1, 2-0) opened league play with a 58-57 victory over then-No. 14 Texas Tech (7-2, 1-1) on Dec. 17 in Lubbock. The final game of this rugged three-game stretch is against No. 10 Texas (7-1, 1-0) at 11 a.m. Jan. 2 at Allen Fieldhouse.
“Obviously you’ve got to hold serve at home (by beating Texas) even though it’s obviously not a true homecourt like years past,” Self said.
KU is allowing 2,500 fans into the fieldhouse for home games during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The league did us no favors by (scheduling) these first two games. The favor is if you can get (win) these two games, you can build some positive momentum,” Self said.
This actually is the first time in school history KU has opened conference play against three ranked foes.
“The way our league is there are no off days. Anybody can beat anybody. It is nice to be 2-0 right now considering who we played.” Self said.
Tuesday’s crowd of 2,500 consisted of almost all KU fans, unlike the Jayhawks’ Dec. 8 home game versus Creighton, for which about 800 CU fans were able to secure tickets.
“I thought the crowd was great. I don’t know how many were here. The stat sheet says 2,500. It actually looked more crowded to me because of the cutouts. The cutouts made it look like 5,000, 6,000 people. I guess there were that many if you count the cutouts,” Self said with a smile.
Indeed, there were numerous cutouts of fans placed in seats in the stands.
“It was by far our best atmosphere this year,” Self added, “certainly better than Creighton (73-72 KU victory) which was our other big home game so far. I was excited with the crowd. Even though the crowd didn’t pull us through (as they do) when it’s a tie game, I think if we’d been in that situation they could have made a difference. I think it (crowd) was potentially good enough tonight that could have been the case.”
The crowd roared its approval as KU knocked down 16 threes in 37 tries in handing West Virginia coach Bob Huggins his 10th career loss in Allen Fieldhouse against no victories (nine losses at WVU; one as Kansas State coach).
The Jayhawks have broken for the Christmas holiday. Self allowed his players to head to their hometowns or hometowns of friends. They have been asked to return Sunday, leaving plenty of time to prepare for Texas.
“We need to practice,” Self said. “We need to come up with some things to get better at and put in some stuff (additional plays). I also think we need to find a way to occupy our guys’ time with some type of social activity or some type of fun. We haven’t had much (during pandemic). The only fun things we’ve done this year is play ball.”
Self noted that the team grade-point average for the first semester was a stellar 3.4.
“We’ve had a good first semester,” Self said. “We need to (go to) Top Golf (for an outing). We need to be doing something that’s fun, that’s safe that we can socially distance and watch movies together. We’ve got to do something to create some kind of social activity because they come back the 27th and having no students here until Feb. 1 (for start of second semester classes), that’s a long time. We’ve got to come up with something where the guys can do more than just play ball,” he added.
He’s told his players to enjoy their Christmas vacation away from school and the team.
“With our guys going home, I said, ‘OK you can’t hang out with your buddies. Wear a mask in your own house. If anybody comes to the house say, ‘Hey mask up,’ and stay away from them,’’ Self said. “That is just not the way that we are used to celebrating Christmas.
“But in this one year I think it is the right thing to do and I certainly have encouraged our guys to be smart and do it. Of course, we have to lead by example. It is a special time and we have so much to be thankful for. Not only within our program, but within our university and within our community. I hope everyone has a good one.
“Now, hopefully everybody goes home and is smart and has a good Christmas and comes back and let’s turn it up, you know, get ready to start the new year,” Self added.
This story was originally published December 23, 2020 at 9:33 AM with the headline "Jayhawks home for holidays after beating two ranked teams to open Big 12 campaign."
