Jayhawks head west looking for payback

Two years later, Wayne Selden prefers the memory to be short and simple. If the loss haunts, he will not show it. If it serves as fuel, he is keeping his feelings close to the vest.

On the afternoon of Jan. 5, 2014, the Kansas Jayhawks played host to the San Diego State Aztecs inside Allen Fieldhouse and absorbed a 61-57 defeat. Selden was a freshman guard then, a member of a recruiting class that featured Andrew Wiggins and Joel Embiid. The loss snapped a 68-game home winning streak against nonconference opponents, tagged Kansas coach Bill Self with his ninth home loss, and offered painful baptism for a young Kansas team.

Two years later, Selden doesn’t need to hear the particulars.

“We lost,” Selden said, standing inside Allen Fieldhouse after Kansas’ victory over Montana on Saturday. “Plain and simple. We’re ready to … ”

He stopped, pausing for a split-second before veering in a different direction.

“We’re excited for the game,” Selden said.

Two years after suffering a unexpected home loss, No. 2 Kansas will make the trek to Viejas Arena, taking on San Diego State at 10 p.m. Tuesday in the Jayhawks’ first true road game of the season.

The night will offer payback for the players on the floor two years ago. Senior forward Perry Ellis can make up for a 1-for-8 performance against the Aztecs’ frontline. Kansas can forget the post double-teams that coaxed it into into shooting just 29.8 percent.

For Self, though, Tuesday will have different meaning beyond the obvious storyline.

“I told our guys: ‘We need this,’ ” Self said. “We need to go somewhere.”

To be specific, the Jayhawks, 9-1, need a true road game after starting the season with five home games and five games at neutral sites. In most seasons, the Jayhawks will play just one or two true road games during the nonconference season. This year, the number is one, and that means Kansas has just one opportunity to prepare itself for the rigors of playing on the road in the Big 12.

“It’s a great building,” Self said of Viejas Arena. “It’ll be 500 KU fans and everybody else will be pulling for the Aztecs. And we know that they can beat us, because they already have. It’ll be good for us to go get tested.”

For Kansas, the test comes at a pivotal moment in the schedule. The Jayhawks have won eight straight games, ascended to No. 2 in The Associated Press poll, and after an early slip against Michigan State, have burnished their credentials as a Final Four contender. The Jayhawks’ backcourt has cemented itself as one of the nation’s best. The offense has locked into a groove and is averaging nearly 90 points per game.

The flaws still exist, of course. The Jayhawks still possess question marks in the frontcourt. Self is sorting through lineup combinations while freshmen big men Cheick Diallo and Carlton Bragg continue their development. But with two nonconference games remaining before the start of Big 12 play on Jan. 2, Self believes he has the time to experiment.

“We're still trying to figure it out,” Self said. “I think we will figure it out sooner rather than later, but it's not a terrible problem to have. You know, it would be a bad problem if it's the middle of February and you're still experimenting, but I don't think this is a terrible problem to have right now.”

For the moment, the Jayhawks can focus on San Diego State, a team that was supposed to provide one of the stiffer tests of the calendar year. That was before the Aztecs stumbled to a 7-5 record, losing games to Arkansas Little Rock and Grand Canyon. But if Kansas was in danger of overlooking a road opponent, Self has two games to point to. The first, of course, is that San Diego State loss two years ago. The second is last year’s blowout loss at Temple, which came just days before the Christmas holiday.

“We historically haven’t played great the game before Christmas,” Self said.

In the moments after Kansas defeated Montana on Saturday afternoon, the focus had already turned to San Diego State. Self stood before his players and referenced the previous matchup. The players nodded. Everybody knew what was at stake.

“Then again, it’s a new team,” Selden said. “It’s a new year. We’re not really dwelling on the past. We know what happened.”

This story was originally published December 21, 2015 at 8:27 PM with the headline "Jayhawks head west looking for payback."