GAMEDAY! Kansas hosts Iowa State!

KUAD: Kansas host Iowa State Pregame Notes


2/1/15, 10:26 AM
Pray that Virginia-North Carolina on Monday doesn't run long. The start of the Iowa State-Kansas will be unlike anything you've witnesses!
@franfraschilla


2/1/15, 1:06 PM
Monday's Iowa State at Kansas game will be @Big12Conference's 15th straight game involving at least one ranked team. Crazy.
@franfraschilla


LJW Keegan: Iowa State, not KSU, Kansas’s top hoops rival

LJW image

I can't blame the Kansas basketball team for wanting revenge, payback or whatever you want to call it during ESPN's Big Monday game. As Jayhawk Wayne Selden Jr. told reporters after beating Kansas State Saturday:

"We owe them."

You'd want to get even too if you're playing an Iowa State team that's beaten you twice in a row.

…"It's my fifth time (playing at Kansas) as a coach," Fred Hoiberg said after Saturday's 17-point win against a Texas Christian outfit that lost to Kansas by just three points a few days earlier. "It's a heck of a challenge. We're chasing them right now."

Actually, the Cyclones have caught the Jayhawks, starting with last season's 94-83 victory in the semifinal round of the Big 12 Tournament. And you remember what happened last month in Ames, right? Iowa State 86, Kansas 81 in a game that the Cyclones were so good in that they ran successful fast breaks after Jayhawks baskets.

…And did I mention that Hogue enters this Big Monday game with confidence after how he helped defeat the Kansas beast a month ago?

"For sure," he said. "The fact that we got them this year — if we stick together and play basketball like we know we can, we can beat anybody."
Des Moines Register


Forget the league standings.

Kansas coach Bill Self knows Monday’s home game against No. 15 Iowa State is important for the Big 12 race, but he hopes for his team, the game is more about pride.

“Our guys will be jacked and ready,” Self said. “(The Cyclones) made us look foolish many possessions up there in Ames. Even though it was still a two-possession game late, we didn’t feel like we put our best foot forward there.”

…“I’d say it’s like a redemption game for us, because I know we didn’t play the way we wanted to,” KU forward Jamari Traylor said. “So we’ve just got to go out there and execute and defend a lot better.”

…“For us to be 18-3 now and to have our bell rocked a couple of times, I’m really proud of them,” Self said. “You go back and look at it — since the middle of November, this team has played a pretty good schedule and we’ve had one bad performance, and that was at Temple. Losing at Ames two possessions — there’s a lot of teams that have lost at Ames. They’re good.”

Iowa State has competed well in Allen Fieldhouse during its last two trips. KU needed a banked-in 3 from Ben McLemore to force overtime in a 108-96 victory two years ago, while the Cyclones pulled within one late before the Jayhawks scored on their final nine possessions in a 92-81 victory last year.
TCJ


The Cyclones, who possess the nation’s seventh-most efficient offense, regularly put opposing defenses on their heels. In an era when the pace of the game has slowed, Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg has cranked up the tempo to full blast. According to numbers at statistical site KenPom.com, Iowa State features the seventh fastest offense in the country, averaging more than 70 possessions per game.

For a night in Ames, the Jayhawks just weren’t ready for that kind of speed. Still, Self believes some of KU’s wounds were self-inflicted.

So on Saturday afternoon, in the moments after the victory over K-State, Self was simple and direct when asked how KU could combat Iowa State’s transition game.

“We can start by running,” Self deadpanned. “But no, we’ll do something to make sure that we give ourselves an opportunity for them to play five against five, as opposed to three against two and two against one.”
KC Star


ABOUT IOWA STATE (16-4, 6-2 Big 12): After defeating Kansas at Hilton Coliseum on Jan. 17, the Cyclones have gone 3-1, dropping a road game at Big 12 bottom-feeder Texas Tech. Iowa State has been a different team on the road in Big 12 play. The Cyclones are just 1-2 on the road in conference play. Iowa State continues to have one of the nation’s most dangerous offensive units. The Cyclones rank seventh nationally in offensive efficiency, averaging 1.17 points per possession. Iowa State can score from all five spots on the floor, and in the first matchup with Kansas, junior big man Jameel McKay came off the bench and finished with 11 points. But the Cyclones’ defense can be vulnerable. After 20 games, they rank 115th nationally in defensive efficiency. Iowa State has won two straight against Kansas, counting last season’s victory in the Big 12 tournament. If the Cyclones win Monday, they will become the first Big 12 team to beat Kansas three straight times in the Bill Self era. The last Big 12 team to beat KU three straight: Iowa State, which won five straight against Kansas during 1999-2001.
KC Star


“It’s tough because their team is really good,” Hogue said. “Playing against them, they are always going to bring their A game. It’s hard to match that intensity sometimes when their crowd gets into it as much as they do, their sixth man.”

Hogue, who averages 11.1 points and 5.1 rebounds after marks of 11.6 points and 8.4 boards his first year out of juco, came up with a unique answer when asked to identify the Jayhawk player he respects most.

“Somewhere between (Jamari) Traylor and (Perry) Ellis,” Hogue said. “Their games are pretty unique. Perry Ellis has a good game against us all the time (19 points, 11 rebounds in KU’s most recent loss in Hilton). Traylor, like myself, is a big energy guy. He’s always going to play pretty hard, do little things on the court that nobody really recognizes. Watching a guy play hard like that is pretty humbling.”
LJW


Kansas sophomore Brannen Greene is 27-of-34 on 3-point attempts. Thanks to research of Jesse Newell of the Topeka Capital-Journal, : among 1,160 Division I basketball players that have attempted at least 20 3-pointers during their teams' conference play, Greene currently ranks ... first in conference games, making 13 of 21 3-pointers. He’s on pace to be the best long-range shooter of the Bill Self Era. "I think Brannen Greene jumps up and shoots it as well as anybody we've had," Self said. "I like it when the ball leaves his hand."
Big12Sports.com

We are pleased to announce that, our very own @KevinYoung40 has been named @NBLCanada Player of the week!
@HalifaxRainmen

The School of Education teamed up with Scot Pollard, a School of Education alumnus and retired NBA player, on Saturday to raise money for academic scholarships in its first Bowling Luau.

Participants were able to sign up in teams of five to bowl or pay to sponsor a lane. More than half the lanes at Royal Crest Lanes bowling alley were filled with bowlers and sponsors.

All students and alumni were encouraged to dress in luau-themed clothing for a fun tradition that Pollard and his wife, Dawn, came up with.

“We just decided we wanted to do something fun,” Pollard said. “We know the School of Education does the golfing tournament every year, but we wanted to do something different. Not everyone golfs, but everyone bowls. The luau theme was just to add some fun to it, and Dawn actually came up with that.”
UDK

UDK image

“Pay Heed. The game you love began here. Respect those who came before you. Make their legacy your own. Because destiny favors the dedicated. And rings don’t replace work. In this game you don’t get what you want. You get what you earn. We are Kansas. Together we rise. Rock Chalk Jayhawk! 

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Big 12 / College News

There are two truths about the 2014-15 college basketball season that we know so far.

First: Kentucky is the best team in the country. Second: The Big 12 is the toughest, deepest conference in the country.

In spite of this, the top-heavy ACC has the best chance to win the national title with five legitimate contenders. A wild Saturday that featured Duke edging Virginia and Louisville knocking off North Carolina only furthered this notion.

The conference doesn't have the odds-on favorite to win it all, but it does have several teams capable of taking down Kentucky. The conference doesn't have the overall depth of the toughest league in the country, but its top half easily is better than the Kansas-led Big 12.
USA Today


Complete ESPN Networks schedule


Big 12 Composite Schedule & Results

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Recruiting

While Malik Newman’s father has "no idea" where his son will play in college right now, he did tell WLAP 630 in Lexington that he believes he will commit in April.

The five-star prospect has offers from Kansas, Kentucky, Arizona, UConn and North Carolina, among others. Newman, who is ranked by ESPN as the No.4 player in the 2015 class, visited Kentucky, Texas A&M and Ole Miss in October and has been visited recently by Kentucky and Kansas. The Crystal Ball from 247Sports says Kentucky has the greatest chance at landing him with a 59% shot, Kansas is next at 30% and Mississippi State follows standing at 16%.
SBnation


Recruiting Calendar


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