Roy Williams has never complained about playing on a Saturday afternoon, then playing again the following Monday night.
Williams knows his Kansas University men’s basketball team will face the Saturday-Monday gantlet four times during the Big 12 Conference season because four is the league maximum for Monday night appearances and the Jayhawks will always max out based on their TV popularity.
Thus it has been under the terms of Big Eight and now Big 12 television pacts with ESPN.
Still, this is the first time I can remember the Jayhawks having to work the Saturday-Monday shift four weeks in a row.
The month-long stretch started on Jan. 20 when the Jayhawks clobbered Texas A&M at home, then flew to Colorado for a Monday night game they were able to salvage when CU went cold down the stretch.
The next weekend the Jayhawks bounced Kansas State in Allen Fieldhouse on Saturday afternoon, then went to Columbia on Monday night where Missouri handed them their second loss of the season.
Then the Jayhawks, again at home on a Saturday afternoon, disposed on Texas before returning to Allen Fieldhouse for their lone Monday night home game and dropped a 79-77 decision to Iowa State.
Now the Jayhawks will play host to Oklahoma State this Saturday afternoon, then fly to Baylor for their last Monday night game.
Is it just a coincidence that two of the Jayhawks’ three losses have occurred on a Monday night following a Saturday afternoon game?
I don’t think so. I think fatigue has played a role in the loss at Missouri and again on Monday night when Iowa State withstood a furious KU rally for its second straight win in Allen Fieldhouse.
During most of Williams’ years on Mount Oread, the Jayhawks have come at opponents in waves, particularly on defense, wearing foes down with incessant trapping and non-stop hounding.
Not this year. Williams is committed to going with just seven players. He goes deeper than seven only because of foul trouble, and only in the first half at that.
Williams has used only seven players in the second half of each of the last three games. On Monday night against Iowa State, guard Mario Kinsey logged three minutes and forward Jeff Carey two minutes, all in the first half. Otherwise, Williams went with his Magnificent Seven.
Of course, if the Jayhawks are cruising to an easy victory, Williams will go deeper into his bench. But when Kansas is playing a quality team in a close game, Williams has been loathe to use Kinsey, Carey and Bryant Nash the eighth, ninth and 10th players on the roster.
What does this mean when the Big 12 Tournament rolls around? It means the Jayhawks may not have the depth necessary to win three games in three days.
In the NCAA Tournament, as you know, the Jayhawks will be facing a format with a rest break similar to the Saturday afternoon-Monday night setup that seems to be causing them some fatigue problems.
If the Jayhawks topple Oklahoma State here on Saturday afternoon you and I both know OSU will be a rough, physical test then fly to Waco and lose to Baylor on Monday night, then that will provide more evidence for the Saturday-Monday Syndrome.
But if the Jayhawks dispatch Baylor, we can change our tune and speculate that Kansas lost at Missouri and to Iowa State mainly because the Tigers and Cyclones made 19 of 36 three-point attempts combined while the Jayhawks made 10 of 26.
