Notebook: Jayhawks notch milestone win; Rush’s number to be retired

Kansas guard Devonte' Graham (4) celebrates a late, second-half three-pointer next to Texas Tech forward Zach Smith (11) on Saturday, Jan. 7, 2017 at Allen Fieldhouse.

An 85-68 victory Saturday was win No. 2,200 all-time for the Kansas men’s basketball program, making the Jayhawks just the second program in college basketball history to reach the 2,200-win plateau.

“I’m getting older,” the 54-year-old Self joked after the win over Texas Tech at Allen Fieldhouse. “But I didn’t have much to do with the majority of those. It’s nice…. I don’t know if that’s a significant milestone for this particular team because they didn’t have much to do with it, but for fans that have supported KU, it’s something you can be proud of.”

Asked about the enormous win total, KU guards Devonte’ Graham and Frank Mason III said they were blown away.

“Yeah. It’s crazy,” Graham said. “They said we were only the second school, which is mind-blowing just to know that because there’s a lot of good programs out there that win and win big. Just to be a part of something like this is special and it can’t be put into words.”

Added Mason: “It means a lot. It’s just amazing, one program to win 2,200 games. It says a lot about the program and the history here at Kansas. It’s just unbelievable and there’s more to come.”

Rush to be retired

KU announced Saturday that former Kansas standout Brandon Rush would have his jersey retired at halftime of KU’s home game against TCU on Feb. 22.

Asked after the game what the Kansas City native thought about the honor, Self explained just how worthy the national champion was of seeing his name go up in the rafters.

“He was happy,” Self said. “He had gotten word. I let it slip to somebody that knew him pretty well that we were probably gonna do that and, unfortunately, that guy couldn’t (keep a secret) and he told him. So it wasn’t a shock to him. But I’m real happy for him. He was really, really, really genuinely excited when we told him what we were gonna do.

“If you look at what he accomplished here — the consistency, the best defensive player on maybe as good a run as we’ve ever had here, leading scorer three years in a row, Wooden All-American two years in a row, first-team all-Big 12 three years in a row. I mean, you’re looking at a guy that certainly deserves to have it hung and he’s very proud about that.”

Murderers Row?

While Texas Tech’s upset of No. 7 West Virginia on Tuesday night was nice, it did little to eliminate the sting of starting Big 12 Conference play with what easily could be one of the toughest three-game stretches to start the conference schedule in the history of the league.

At Iowa State, versus No. 7 West Virginia, at No. 3 Kansas. The Red Raiders went 1-2 in that stretch and head coach Chris Beard was glad to be done with it after the game.

“Coach Self asked me after the game, ‘Who do you play next?'” Beard said. “And I said, ‘I think (the) Golden State Warriors.'”

This and that…

Kansas now leads the all-time series with Texas Tech, 32-4, including its current stretch of 15 in a row and a 17-0 all-time record at Allen Fieldhouse…. KU’s current 14-game winning streak ties for the sixth longest in the Bill Self era…. Texas Tech became the first KU opponent this season to not shoot a free throw in the first half and did not attempt its first free throw in the game until the 11:56 mark of the second half…. KU finished 18-of-22 from the free throw line (.818 percent), good for its best performance of the season…. Junior guard Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk fouled out for the first time in 76 career games.