KU basketball still hot ticket for ESPN

Jayhawks already have seven nonconference games set for TV

ESPN’s love affair with the Kansas University men’s basketball program will continue next season.

The Jayhawks, who had a whopping 13 games aired on ESPN or ESPN2 last season, including five nonconference games, easily will reach double-figures on the national sports cable network again next season.

So far, seven nonconference games are ticketed for one of the ESPN channels, including three games Nov. 21-23 at the EA Sports Maui Invitational.

KU’s home game against Kentucky on Jan. 7 and game against Cal-Berkeley on Dec. 10 at Kemper Arena also will be on ESPN. The KU-Saint Joseph’s game Dec. 6 at New York’s Madison Square Garden and KU-Georgia Tech game Dec. 17 in Atlanta also will be broadcast by the network.

“There could be others,” KU senior associate athletic director Larry Keating said Tuesday, noting the conference schedule — which usually has KU playing at least four Big Monday games — likely would be released in July.

This year marks the first time all the games in Maui will be aired on one of the ESPN stations. In the past, the network didn’t show some of the games on the second day of the three-game tourney.

“If you win the first game in Maui,” Keating said, “you are on ESPN all three days because the semifinals and finals and consolation finals are televised. Now the games on the morning of the second day, which never used to be televised, will be picked up by one of the ESPN affiliates.”

The 2005 Maui Invitational is being billed as one of the strongest in history. The field will be: KU, Arizona, UConn, Maryland, Arkansas, Michigan State, Gonzaga and Chaminade.

Rumors abound that the Maui tourney will be seeded for the first time, though that would surprise Keating.

“They’ve always made the matchups for television the first day,” Keating said. “The problem with a tournament that’s loaded like this, if it’s anywhere near seeded, once you win your first game, you are now playing a four-team tournament with three of the top 10 teams in the country.

“If you win the tournament,” he noted, “you’ll be in the top five in the country. You win two games, and you’ll probably be top 10. Three pretty good teams will have a couple of losses coming out of that.”

The Jayhawks will play Fort Hays State and Pittsburg State in exhibitions in the first two weeks of November. KU will open the regular season against Idaho State on Nov. 18. Dates for home games against Nevada, Western Illinois, Pepperdine and Northern Colorado have not yet been finalized. KU is searching for one more home foe. It’ll be a guarantee game against a mid-major-or-lower team.

“The top end of the schedule is probably better than last year,” Keating said. “We still have Georgia Tech and Kentucky at the top. Whomever you play in Maui will be better than anybody else we played last year.

“St. Joe’s will probably be better when we play them next year. Cal is supposed to be a lot better. Pepperdine and Nevada … I don’t know a lot about them, but I’m sure will be good again.”

As far as the bottom end of the slate …

“It’s probably not as strong as last year,” Keating said. “What happened last year (in KU having toughest schedule in country) you were not able to project that. Teams had to cooperate by doing the winning. It could happen again, but if you look at past results, Idaho State, Western Illinois and Northern Colorado have not had as strong a record (as teams on last year’s slate). Coach and I talked about it. You have to be a little careful (in scheduling). We could be starting three, four new guys.”

KU’s nonconference schedule will be complete next season before the start of conference play. In 2004-05, KU played at Villanova and Kentucky after the start of conference play.

“This is the way most coaches prefer it,” Keating said. “It doesn’t always work out that way. Last year we had two of ’em and both were away. That’s the worst scenario for that.”

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Recruiting update: Ray Hall, a 6-foot-11 junior from Denver, tells rivals.com he wants to visit KU and Illinois this fall. North Carolina, USC and UCLA complete his top five. … Dewayne Reed, 5-11 from Houston, and Dexter Pittman, 6-10 from Rosenburg, Texas, who both played in the Jayhawk Invitational last weekend, say they are considering KU. Reed said Texas and Texas A&M were his favorites; Pittman says he’d like to visit KU and Arizona State and also likes Texas, Texas A&M and Oklahoma State.