¢ This is the first meeting between the schools.

¢ UNC freshman guard Marcus Frye is from Overland Park and attended Blue Valley Northwest High. Frye is taking a redshirt this season.

¢ UNC radio play-by-play announcer Troy Coverdale is from Circleville and is a 1993 graduate of Kansas State.

¢ The Bears have played nine of their first 13 games away from home. The 13 games the Bears have played are tied for the most among Division I teams so far this year. Western Carolina also has played 13.

¢ Craig Rasmuson has a 58-118 record in seven seasons at Northern Colorado. Rasmuson is in his 12th season overall with a 124-184 record. He has coached the Bears in all three seasons of NCAA Division I competition. His 2001-02 team went 14-13 to post its first winning season since the 1997-98 season.

¢ The game will mark the regular-season debut of sophomore forward Darnell Jackson, who missed the first nine games of the season because of an eligibility issue. Jackson started one game last season and averaged two points and 1.7 rebounds.

¢ Kansas leads the Big 12 Conference in blocked shots at seven per game.

¢ Northern Colorado has dropped 16 straight dating to last season. The squad’s 0-13 start is the worst in school history, surpassing an 0-12 in 1944-45.

¢ Kansas has held every opponent to under 50 percent shooting and has outshot eight of nine foes.

¢ UNC is in the midst of a four-game road swing – to Oregon State, Loyola Marymount, Northern Arizona and KU – that has it traveling nearly 4,800 miles.

¢ KU leads the Big 12 in field-goal percentage defense (32.1 percent). The Jayhawks also are outrebounding opponents by an average of 6.3 caroms per game. Freshman guard Brandon Rush paces KU in scoring at 12.9 points per game. Rush also leads the team in three-point field-goal percentage at 54.5 and free-throw percentage at 76.2. Sophomore centers Sasha Kaun and C.J. Giles are next in scoring at 11.9 and 9.7. Giles leads Kansas in rebounding at 7.4 per game and blocked shots at 2.4 per contest.

¢ KU’s top seven scorers are either freshmen or sophomores.