¢ Kansas has won won the only meeting between the teams, 55-49, in the first round of the 1991 NCAA Tournament at Freedom Hall in Lexington, Ky. Kansas was a No. 3 seed in the Southeast Regional, while New Orleans was a No. 14 seed. KU went on to finish runner-up to Duke in the 1991 NCAA Tournament.

¢ Coach Monte Towe is 62-66 in five seasons at University of New Orleans. Towe’s teams are 32-28 in Sun Belt Conference play. Towe was a member of North Carolina State’s 1974 national-championship squad. He was a junior-college head coach at Chipola College (1995-96) and Santa Fe CC (1999-2001). Towe has also coached in professional leagues both at home and abroad, including the CBA domestically and in Venezuela.

¢ UNO last reached the NCAA Tournament during the 1996 season. As a No. 11 seed, the Privateers lost to No. 6 seed North Carolina in the first round.

¢ New Orleans is 8-17 all-time against Big 12 Conference teams.

¢ The Privateers have played and lost three straight road games. New Orleans lost at LSU, 94-53; Purdue, 68-56, and Vanderbilt, 78-72, leading to this game.`

¢ Junior guard Bo McCalebb, a top-50 preseason Naismith Award candidate, was lost for the remainder of the season after suffering a fractured right wrist against Mississippi State on Nov. 30. He is the school’s No. 16 all-time leading scorer. He finished fifth in the country in scoring last year at 22.6 points per game and had been averaging 19.0 ppg this year. Junior center Ben Elias, who tore his ACL in preseason practice, is out for the year. He averaged 4.9 points and 4.7 boards last year.

¢ UNO was picked to finish third of six teams in the West Division of the Sun Belt. Louisiana-Lafayette was tapped first.

¢ KU freshman Brandon Rush is 9-for-11 (81.8 percent) from three-point range in his last four games.

¢ Senior Stephen Vinson has averaged 17.8 minutes in his last four games. His career minutes per outing is 3.9. Vinson also has averaged four assists in his last four games.

¢ Freshman Julian Wright has led KU in scoring three times in the last five games. He paced the Jayhawks with a career-high seven rebounds against Northern Colorado in his last outing.

¢ Since fighting the flu against Saint Joseph’s and California, sophomore Sasha Kaun has averaged 12 points and 8.5 rebounds in his last two games, including a double-double (18 points, 12 rebounds) against Pepperdine.

¢ Kansas leads the Big 12 in field-goal-percentage defense at 35.6 percent and in blocked shots with 6.7 per contest. Its 60.6 scoring defense average is second in the league.

¢ Through 10 games, Kansas has had four different players lead the team in scoring, four in rebounding, six in assists, six in steals and four in blocked shots.

¢ On Dec. 29, 1951, KU notched its 700th victory with a 75-65 victory over Missouri in Kansas City, Mo. Helms Foundation National Player of the Year Clyde Lovellette led the Jayhawks that season, averaging 28.4 points and 14.6 rebounds. Head coach Phog Allen made Lovellette and the Jayhawks NCAA champions after finishing 11-1 and first in the Big Seven Conference. Kansas finished the season 28-3 overall. Allen then took his squad to the U.S. Olympic Playoffs and placed second.