photo by: Associated Press

Kansas center Udoka Azubuike, left, is defended by Stanford forward Lukas Kisunas, center, and forward Oscar da Silva during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in Stanford, Calif., Sunday, Dec. 29, 2019. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Stanford, Calif. — Kansas basketball coach Bill Self entered Sunday’s 72-56 win at Stanford with one major goal in mind — don’t let last season’s road struggles carry over into the current season.

After years of winning the Big 12 Conference on the strength of its road record, the Kansas men’s basketball team struggled to a 3-8 mark in true road games a season ago.

And given the fact that KU already had dropped its first true road game of the 2019-20 season last weekend in Philadelphia, Self made sure to emphasize putting an end to the skid as early as possible.

“He told us (on Saturday) about our (recent) record on the road,” said KU freshman Tristan Enaruna after Sunday’s victory. “He told us that we couldn’t lose this one. So it feels pretty good.”

The conversation was short and sweet or “pretty simple,” as Enaruna called it.

“He asked (sophomore guard) Ochai (Agbaji), because he was a freshman last year, what the record was on the road,” Enaruna explained. “I think it was like 3-9. So it was basically just for us, he wanted to get our minds right and let us know that we can’t take it easy any more on the road.”

Enaruna said he was “surprised” by the 2018-19 team’s tough time away from home and added that he thought the reminder helped the current team lock in a little more for Sunday’s clash with Stanford.

“It just made me really realize that we had to win this game,” Enaruna said.

The Jayhawks now have won five times away from their home venue this season, but only one of them — Sunday’s win on Stanford’s campus — goes down as a true road victory.

KU also has defeated Chaminade, BYU and Dayton in Maui and Kansas City at Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo.

After opening Big 12 play at home against West Virginia at 3 p.m. Saturday, the Jayhawks (10-2) will be on the road for three of their first five Big 12 games during the next three weeks.

Garrett good for 31 minutes

After missing the final 25 minutes of KU’s loss at Villanova because of a sprained ankle, junior guard Marcus Garrett was back in the starting lineup on Sunday at Stanford.

Garrett finished with 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting to go along with five rebounds, four assists and three turnovers in 31 minutes on Sunday.

While his coaches and teammates said they saw nothing that limited the junior combo guard against Stanford, Garrett admitted that it took him a bit to get going.

“At the beginning of the game, I fell twice,” he said. “I felt I just couldn’t turn the corner and it started off a little stiff. It wasn’t my shoes.”

Self said he thought Garrett looked “100% healthy,” adding, “I didn’t see anything about an ankle that was bothering him today, and I thought he was good.”

And Enaruna said it was a relief to have their most experienced teammate back on the floor.

“He was good, as usual,” Enaruna said. “You can always really feel when he’s out there and when he’s not. He’s just so active on both ends, always trying to make something happen.”

Special series

Sunday’s KU victory wrapped up a four-game series with Stanford that included two games in Allen Fieldhouse, one at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento and the finale at Maples Pavilion.

The Jayhawks finished 4-0 against former Jayhawk great Jerod Haase’s Stanford squad, winning by an average score of 82-67.

Both Haase and Self said this week that they had no knowledge of any future games in the works between the two programs.

“It’s actually been a good series for us,” said Self, who noted that he planned to ask the team bus driver to drive around Stanford’s campus following Sunday’s victory since most of KU’s players and staff had never seen it.

Self also said the chance to play in Sacramento and have two tough home games, including last season’s overtime win, helped his team over the past four years.

Haase agreed even if he wasn’t in the mood to celebrate the 0-4 record in the series on Sunday.

“We’re trying to build up our schedule and put ourselves in the best position possible,” Haase said of facing KU during recent years. “It’s good to get national exposure and play a national brand like Kansas, and I also feel like we’re building a foundation here that we will be a national brand. It’s positive, and I certainly have a lot of fond memories of Kansas, but I’m pretty locked into Stanford right now and everything we’re doing.

Scary trip home

According to a team representative, KU’s team charter plane “lost an engine” shortly after taking off during its flight back to Kansas after Sunday’s victory.

The flight crew elected to turn around and return to San Jose International Airport and the Jayhawks were back on the ground safely as of 5:30 p.m. local time.

KU coach Bill Self, who was on the plane along with players, coaches, managers and other team personnel and KU administrators, told the Journal-World, “We’re fine,” in a text message after the incident.

KU issued the following statement shortly after arriving back in San Jose.

“Upon our return flight home from San Jose, roughly 20 minutes into the flight, one of the engines failed. The pilot immediately contacted the San Jose Airport, where we returned and made a safe landing. We are grateful to the pilots and the entire flight crew of Swift Air. We will stay the night in San Jose and return to Lawrence once the plans have been finalized.”

Faces in the crowd

In addition to the hundreds of KU fans who took over Maples Pavilion on Sunday, there were a couple of notable names in the crowd, as well.

Former Secretary of State and former Stanford provost Condoleezza Rice was in attendance at Sunday’s game as the home team’s honorary captain. She sat on the end of the bench with the team.

Rice, who also recently headed up the commission into corruption in college basketball, met with officials and other team captains prior to Sunday’s tipoff.

Current Golden State Warriors player development coach Aaron Miles also was in attendance on Sunday, driving over from the Bay Area to check out his alma mater.

Decked out in a KU blue polo shirt, Miles sat behind the Kansas bench during Sunday’s victory.

This and that…

The Jayhawks’ win on Sunday improved Kansas to 10-2 or better for the sixth consecutive season and the 13th time in the 17-year Self era… KU now leads the all-time series with Stanford, 12-3… Stanford’s 18 points and five field goals were both season lows for KU opponents in a half this season… The Jayhawks are now 95-13 in games following a loss since the 2003-04 season… With its next game coming in January 2020, KU closed the decade of the 2010s with a 302-68 record, which marks the second most wins in Division I basketball, behind Gonzaga, and also is the second-best winning percentage (81.6%) for a single decade in school history, second only to the 1990s during which KU won 82% of its games.