Kansas Jayhawks’ Agbaji on limited crowd at Bramlage: ‘We won’t get as much hate’
Kansas junior Ochai Agbaji has played two games in Bramlage Coliseum during his college basketball career, both games close, emotionally-charged contests — one won by KU, the other by rival Kansas State.
“I definitely don’t like playing at a full, packed Bramlage Coliseum,” Agbaji, a 6-foot-5 guard out of Oak Park High School, said of the 12,528-seat arena, normally filled to capacity, or close to it, for the annual KU-K-State game in Manhattan.
“I really don’t like playing there when there are fans. Without fans I think it might be a little bit better. We won’t get as much hate. (But) the hate will still be there from them, so ….” Agbaji added, his voice drifting off.
He and his KU teammates will only have to deal with 1,875 fans — designated capacity for games amid the COVID-19 pandemic — during the second Sunflower Showdown of the 2020-21 season.
Tipoff for the Big 12 game between the No. 23-ranked Jayhawks (15-7, 9-5) and unranked Wildcats (5-17, 1-12) is 7 p.m. Wednesday with a live stream on ESPN+.
One year ago, Agbaji scored five points on 2-of-7 shooting and grabbed five rebounds in No. 1-ranked KU’s narrow 62-58 victory on Feb. 29 at Bramlage. As a freshman, he scored six points on 3-of-7 shooting and grabbed four boards in KU’s 74-67 loss to the Wildcats on Feb. 5, 2019 in Manhattan.
The K-State students, who displayed several signs from their seats for the Jayhawks to read during warmups before the game, stormed onto the court to celebrate that victory.
“We know it’s a rivalry. We know they are always going to come out aggressively and play hard,” said Agbaji, who is 3-0 versus the Wildcats in his career at Allen Fieldhouse and 4-1 overall. He had 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting and two boards in the school’s first meeting this season — KU’s 74-51 win on Feb. 5 at Allen Fieldhouse.
The Wildcats, who have lost 12 straight games, in that contest received a combined 27 points, 14 rebounds and three assists from freshmen starters Nijel Pack, Selton Miguel and Davion Bradford.
“They are all going to be really good players in our league. They already are on the verge of becoming that,” KU coach Bill Self said of first-year guards Pack and Miguel and forward Bradford.
“I think K-State next to Kentucky and Duke have more freshmen starts than just about anybody in America. They’re going to be good players. They’re probably a lot like some other good ones that have been in their program, whether it be (Kamau) Stokes, (Barry) Brown, (Dean) Wade. I’m sure they are hopeful they’ll become those type players. They are off to a good start,” Self added.
K-State in fact is one of eight schools (Duke, Kentucky, James Madison, Marist, North Carolina, Sacred Heart and Washington State) to start at least three true freshmen in at least one game in 2020-21. The Wildcats’ 51 combined starts by true freshmen rank second nationally to Kentucky (56).
KU senior forward Mitch Lightfoot said the fact KU played Kansas State just two weeks ago will help game preparation for the rematch. KU is 3-1 since that game.
“I think it’s similar to how it was at Iowa State in you get to play against those players very recently,” Lightfoot said. KU beat the Cyclones 97-64 on Thursday in Lawrence and 64-50 on Saturday in Ames.
“It’s very beneficial to get to see the team, get to see their players. You kind of get an in-person scouting report. You get to see how those guys play, how they operate as a team. Sometimes that’s hard to understand on film. There’s nothing quite like first-hand experience. I think that will play a big factor in this upcoming game,” Lightfoot noted.
Following the K-State game, KU will return home to meet Texas Tech at 1 p.m. Saturday in Allen Fieldhouse. KU will conclude the regular season with an 8 p.m. game at Texas on Feb. 23 and 7 p.m. home game versus Baylor on Feb. 27.
“I think we understand the fact if the other team can’t score it’ll be hard to lose,” Lightfoot said. “We need to continue to play defense and continue to understand scouting report. If we can do that, we have the ability to win a lot of games and ability to win important games. That will be important in the future.”
This story was originally published February 17, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Kansas Jayhawks’ Agbaji on limited crowd at Bramlage: ‘We won’t get as much hate’."
