Jayhawks soaring toward St. Louis?

KU among elite at midpoint, but February looms as tough test for senior-heavy squad

If the past is prologue, then Kansas University very well could boast one of the four men’s college basketball teams still needing its uniforms in April.

The NCAA Final Four will be April 2 and 4 at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, and the senior-laden Jayhawks obviously hope to be one of the participants.

However, this is no time to be counting chickens because the dog days of February have shuttered many a coop.

In the Big 12 Conference, February can be particularly daunting because of the Saturday-Monday factor. Performing at a high level on one day of rest wasn’t a strength of last year’s KU team. In coach Bill Self’s first season, the Jayhawks split their three Saturday-Monday assignments.

Kansas also has three Saturday-Monday tests this season, starting this weekend with a Texas-Missouri twinbill. Both games are in Allen Fieldhouse, and that’s a rarity because customarily one game is on the road and the other at home.

KU’s other two Saturday-Monday dates this season fall under the more familiar home-road format.

The Jayhawks will play host to Colorado on Saturday, Feb. 12, then fly to Lubbock, Texas, where they’ll meet Texas Tech Feb. 14 in a Valentine’s Day Big Monday battle on ESPN. Also scheduled is a Saturday Feb. 19 game against Iowa State in Allen Fieldhouse, then a clash with Oklahoma on Monday, Feb. 21.

Of the Jayhawks’ 11 remaining regular-season games, six will be at home and five on the road.

Texas, OSU at home

Kansas University's J.R. Giddens pulls down a rebound against Nebraska's Bronsen Schliep. KU's Russell Robinson is at left.

Perhaps more important, Kansas will have both Texas and Oklahoma State — the two teams regarded as the most legitimate threats to the Jayhawks’ conference title hopes — in Allen Fieldhouse. KU played both Texas and Oklahoma State on the road last season and struggled mightily, bowing 82-67 in Austin, Texas, and 80-60 in Stillwater, Okla.

Oklahoma State hasn’t won in Lawrence since 1989, the year the Jayhawks were on NCAA probation. Texas, which has made four trips to Lawrence since the formation of the Big 12, is 0-4 in Allen Fieldhouse.

The KU-Oklahoma State game, virtually certain to lure a large media throng, will be a featured CBS presentation with a 3 p.m. tipoff on Sunday, Feb. 27. The winner likely will have a stranglehold on the league championship and the resultant No. 1 seed in the Big 12 Tournament.

Of less importance on the regional scene, but with a high profile in the Sunflower State will be the home-and-road clashes with Kansas State. Both are scheduled on Wednesday nights — Feb. 9 in Manhattan and March 2 in Lawrence.

Kansas will be putting two streaks on the line against the improved Wildcats. KU has won 28 straight in the series and an astounding 21 in a row in Manhattan. Kansas never has lost in KSU’s Bramlage Coliseum, which opened in 1989. Prior to that, KU had won five in a row in old Ahearn Fieldhouse.

The March 2 KU-KSU collision, incidentally, will double as the official 50th anniversary of Allen Fieldhouse. Both teams will don retro uniforms (except for tight-fitting shorts) as part of the celebration. The first game in the venerable fieldhouse was March 1, 1995. Gene Elstun scored 21 points that day to spark the Jayhawks to a 77-66 victory over the Wildcats.

Kansas freshman Sasha Kaun, left, shoots over Villanova's Marcus Austin. Kaun had 11 points and five rebounds in the Jayhawks' 83-62 loss Jan. 22 in Philadelphia.

Two with Mizzou

Kansas also has two games remaining with Missouri, its other long-time geographic rival, starting with Monday night’s 6 p.m. battle on ESPN. KU has captured eight of the last nine meetings with the Tigers.

The rematch will be Sunday, March 6, in Columbia, Mo., and will be the Jayhawks’ first visit to the new Mizzou Arena. Kansas won the last three meetings in the old Hearnes Building, all by narrow margins. KU’s all-time record in the Hearnes Building was 14-18.

Also left on KU’s slate is a trip to Nebraska a week from today. ESPN has set a brunch-like 11 a.m. tipoff for the game at the Devaney Center in Lincoln, Neb.

Of the Jayhawks’ 11 remaining games, four will be televised live on ESPN (Missouri, at Nebraska, at Texas Tech and at Oklahoma), two on ABC (Colorado, Iowa State), two on CBS (Oklahoma State, at Missouri), one on ESPN2 (Texas), one on the Big 12 Network (at Kansas State) and one on the Jayhawk Network (Kansas State).

Kansas senior Michael Lee makes a pass over Iowa State's Damian Staple in the second half of the Jayhawks' 71-66 victory on Jan. 12.

This year’s Big 12 tournament is scheduled March 10-13 and will be at Kansas City’s Kemper Arena after being staged the last two years at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. KU hasn’t won a conference tournament since 1999 and has been in the championship game just once since then, bowing to Oklahoma in 2002, then winning four in a row in the NCAA Tournament to advance to the Final Four at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

Kansas seems well positioned to make its 22nd NCAA Tournament appearance in the last 23 years. Only the 1989 probation year has interrupted the streak.

How the Jayhawks perform during the February gantlet will go a long way toward determining where they will be assigned by the NCAA Basketball Committee. A strong finish would almost certainly assure them a trip to the Ford Center in Oklahoma City in keeping with the NCAA policy of sending high seeds to the first- and second-round sites nearest their campus. If not Oklahoma City, the next-closest place is Indianapolis.

No guarantees

If the Jayhawks are sent to Oklahoma City, it wouldn’t necessarily mean they are in the Midwest Regional. For example, Kansas was assigned to Oklahoma City in 2003 as part of a West Regional pod and wound up in Anaheim, Calif., before advancing to the Final Four in New Orleans.

Jayhawks, from left, C.J. Giles, Moulaye Niang and Nick Bahe celebrate a KU free throw late in Kansas' 59-57 victory over Nebraska on Jan. 19 in Allen Fieldhouse.

In other words, two victories at the first stop could send the Jayhawks to any one of four regional sites — the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, N.Y.; the Erwin Center in Austin, Texas; Allstate Arena in Chicago; and University Arena (The Pit) in Albuquerque, N.M.

Kansas never has played a basketball game in the Carrier Dome (KU’s football team played there in 1980) or in New Mexico University’s arena. The Allstate Arena is a refurbished Rosemont Horizon, and KU played two NCAA Tourney games at the Horizon in 1993. KU last played in the Erwin Center in 2004.