photo by: Contributed photo from Visit KC

The Sprint Center in downtown Kansas City, Mo.

The University of Kansas Jayhawks have about as close as it gets to a homecourt advantage for their Sweet 16 matchup against Purdue on Thursday: the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo. Besides being less than an hour’s drive away, there’s even a Johnny’s Tavern right across the street.

Here’s a roundup of what to know if you go.

The game: Tipoff will be approximately 8:39 p.m. Central Time on Thursday, after the Oregon-Michigan game ends.

The venue: Midwest region Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games are being played at the Sprint Center, 1407 Grand Blvd. in downtown Kansas City, Mo.

photo by: Contributed photo from Visit KC

The Sprint Center in downtown Kansas City, Mo.

The opponent: The Purdue University Boilermakers, a No. 4 seed. Purdue, a Big Ten Conference school, is located in West Lafayette, Indiana, and has more than 40,400 students, according to the school’s website.

Next?: If KU wins Thursday, the team will play Saturday at the Sprint Center against the winner Oregon v. Michigan. Saturday’s game time has yet to be announced.

Tickets: As is usually the case for tournament play, there are no tickets available to the public through KU, KU Athletics spokesman Jim Marchiony said. Fans may find tickets on secondary market ticket retailers’ websites. A quick check of one of the popular ticket resell sites on Wednesday afternoon showed there were tickets available. A limited number of upper level tickets were available for around $200, but prices went up quickly from there.

photo by: Nick Krug

Kansas head coach Bill Self talks with media members shortly after the Jayhawks' arrival at the Westin Crown Center in Kansas City, Mo., on Tuesday, March 21, 2017.

Open practice: KU practices from 3:10 to 4 p.m. Today (Wednesday) at the Sprint Center. Watching the practice is free and open to the public. KU is the last of the four Midwest Sweet 16 teams to practice.

Pregame party and pep rally: The KU Alumni Association pregame party is from 3 to 6 p.m. Thursday at No Other Pub, 1370 Grand Blvd. in Kansas City, Mo. That’s the Sporting KC-branded bar and restaurant in the KC Live! block across the street from Sprint Center. It also has a “gaming parlour” with bowling, foosball, golf simulators and other stuff.

The official KU pep rally starts at 5 p.m. Thursday on the main stage in the KC Live! block across Grand Boulevard from the Sprint Center.

photo by: Nick Krug

Big Jay works to get the fans fired up before tipoff against Oregon State on Friday, Nov. 30, 2012 at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri. Nick Krug/Journal-World Photo

The weather: Good news, since the pep rally is outside. The National Weather Service forecasts a high of 75 degrees Thursday, mostly sunny. The overnight low is expected to be around 60 degrees.

The drive: From campus, it’s just over 40 minutes via Interstate 70, or 50 minutes via Kansas Highway 10, according to Google Maps. If you’re taking I-70, you’ll need $2 each way for the Kansas Turnpike toll.

The city: Kansas City probably needs little explanation for people around here. But in case any Purdue fans are reading, here’s a few highlights of the downtown area.

One: The bar- and restaurant-packed Power and Light District and its open-air KC Live! block are right across the street from the Sprint Center. Party atmosphere — check.

Two: The new KC Streetcar runs up and down Main Street (just two blocks from Sprint Center) between the River Market area and Crown Center/Union Station — and riding it is free. For route details, visit kcstreetcar.org. At the south end of the streetcar line, Union Station has exhibits, Crown Center has shopping and the National World War I Museum and Memorial is a beautiful place to walk around on a nice day, even if you don’t go inside.

Three: As far as eating a couple blocks off the beaten path, the River Market is home to quite a few tiny ethnic restaurants (personal favorite: Hien Vuong Vietnamese inside the City Market). Located a couple blocks from Kansas City’s 18th and Vine Jazz District and its Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, one of Kansas City’s most famous barbecue joints is the original Arthur Bryant’s at 1727 Brooklyn Ave. (Another pro-tip from an ex-downtowner: Know what you want to order before you get to the counter — Bryant’s cooks have little patience for hem-hawing, and neither do the hungry people in line behind you.)

The National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Mo.

The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, 1616 E. 18th St. in Kansas City, Mo.

Staying home?: On television, tune to CBS. For full KU basketball coverage from the Journal-World, keep refreshing kusports.com. On Twitter, follow @KUsports.

If you don’t want to watch the game alone like the KU fan in that Coke commercial (I still can’t figure that out, but I guess Coke needed a setup that led to him allowing Kentucky fans in his living room?), find an official KU Alumni Association Watch Party in your town online at kualumni.org.

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• I’m the Journal-World’s KU and higher ed reporter. See all the newspaper’s KU coverage here. Reach me by email at sshepherd@ljworld.com, by phone at 832-7187, on Twitter @saramarieshep or via Facebook at Facebook.com/SaraShepherdNews.