Top rookie

Kansas University freshman Tyshawn Taylor on Monday was named Big 12 rookie of the week. Taylor scored 11 points and had eight assists in Saturday’s 71-59 victory over Temple. He has won the award two times this season.

Front and centers

Tonight’s Kansas-Arizona game will feature a matchup between centers Cole Aldrich and Jordan Hill.

“He’s really good. He averages 12 rebounds a game. He will be a real force on the boards for them,” said KU sophomore Aldrich, who averages 14.0 points and 10.5 boards.

Hill, a 6-foot-10 junior from Atlanta, averages 18.5 points and 11.9 boards.

“It’s fun. It’s always a good thing going against a great center,” Aldrich said. “I played one or two minutes against him last year. It’s exciting going against a good big guy.”

Aldrich didn’t score in one minute of action in KU’s 76-72 overtime victory over the Wildcats last Nov. 25 in Allen Fieldhouse. Hill had five points and five boards in 24 minutes.

Coaching ties

Arizona interim coach Russ Pennell and Kansas coach Bill Self worked two years together on Eddie Sutton’s Oklahoma State staff in the early 1990s.

“He’s won every place he’s been,” Pennell said of Self at Monday’s Fiesta Bowl Classic news conference. “He’s a great recruiter and a very good X and O guy.”

Of Pittsburg High grad and former Pitt State assistant Pennell, Self said: “I’ve always thought he had a good basketball mind, and he’s a good people person. At the core, he cares about people, and I’ll bet his players certainly see that when he communicates with them.”

Pennell, by the way, said he grew up a fan of both KU and Kansas State.

Shorts weather

The Jayhawks, who are staying at Ventana Canyon Resort, are loving the warm 70-degree weather here.

“We were back home in the blistering cold walking to the gym, and the wind’s blowing. We were like, ‘Jeez, it would be nice to have 50 degrees. Even 25 degrees,'” Aldrich said at the news conference.

It was nearly 70 degrees Monday.

“Just walking outside this morning was great,” Aldrich said.

‘Blah game’

Last year’s KU-Arizona game was the game in which, inexplicably, the northwest corner of the fieldhouse was empty.

“It was the day after the Missouri football game (in KC’s Arrowhead Stadium). The students were definitely hung over that game. I don’t mean literally hung over,” Self said with a laugh. “I mean hung over from the disappointment of not winning that (football) game. It was a blah game. They hung around and basically controlled the game. We played well down the stretch.”

First road test

Nobody knows what to expect from the young Jayhawks during their first road game of the season.

“I enjoy playing on the road. This is where teams get made,” Aldrich said. “Getting tough wins on the road is important. This will be a good experience for us, a big challenge for us. Last year we had all our losses on the road. Besides the K-State game, they were all within a few points.”

Self said: “I look forward to it. We’ll know a lot more about our team (after tonight). It’ll be fun for me to learn how they will react on the road in certain situations. The thing I love about coaching is no matter what the situation, you know what to expect from your team. I am not there yet with this team. We’ve been emotionally up and down.

“We’ve given one (game) away, possibly two away where we should have come away with it. When you give them away, you’ve got to get it back somewhere else. That is the road and hold serve at home.”

This, that

KU leads the all-time series, 7-3. The Jayhawks won five of the first six in the series. … The Jayhawks will return via charter right after the game, not arriving until 5 a.m. The players will head to their hometowns early Christmas Eve and return to Lawrence for practice on Saturday.