Conspiracy theorists might accuse Big 12 Conference officials of picking on the Kansas schools this year.
Kansas and Kansas State are the only teams in the league that open conference play with a pair of road games.
The Jayhawks, 11-1 in the nonconference season, head to Texas Tech on Saturday and Oklahoma on Jan. 13. Kansas State, 6-5, opens at Texas A&M on Saturday and heads to Texas Wednesday.
Texas and Texas Tech open with two straight home games. Every other team opens with a game at home and game on the road.
“One of our assistants said, ‘I think we do that every year,”‘ KU coach Roy Williams said of opening with a pair of road games. “We have done it several times.”
The Jayhawks have opened with a pair of road games in conference play four times in Williams’ first 12 years at KU. This makes five times in 13 years.
KU went 2-0 to open the 1991-92 and 1995-96 seasons and won league both times. KU went 1-1 in 1994-95 and won the league. The Jayhawks went 0-2 in 1990-91, tying for the conference title that year.
“I have zero complaints about the schedule,” Williams said, lauding assistant conference commissioner Tim Allen for his work on the league’s master schedule.
“I’ve said many times, ‘You’ve got to play the schedule and where it falls is not necessarily to your liking.’ The fact is we play everybody in our division twice and the people in the other division once.
“You don’t like to play on the road Saturday and again Monday. You don’t like to have more than two games in a row at home or on the road. You don’t like to finish with four straight road games. That means somebody finishes with four straight home games.”
KU won’t face any of those issues this year.
The Jayhawks’ nonconference schedule, meanwhile, has been deemed the most difficult in the conference by a pair of organizations.
In the RPI index, KU’s nonconference schedule has been ranked toughest in the country, followed by Missouri (43), Nebraska (54), Texas (59), Oklahoma State (115), Iowa State (140), Kansas State (142), Oklahoma (155), Colorado (164), Texas A&M (183), Texas Tech (295) and Baylor, which ranked 316th of 325 schools.
The Sagarin rankings deem KU’s schedule 13th toughest in the U.S., followed by NU (78), K-State (105), Texas (114), MU (120), CU (156), OSU (187), A&M (227), ISU (257), OU (282), Tech (301) and Baylor (324).
“I’m not saying it’s the end-all by any means or the gospel, but the computer had our pre-conference schedule rated 13th in the country. You look at our won-loss record and we’ve done OK,” Williams said. “Now it’s a whole different ballgame. We’re anxious to see how we do.”
As far as overall team strength, both the RPI and Sagarin rank the Jayhawks as the Big 12’s strongest squad.
In RPI, Kansas is ranked second nationally followed by UT (19), ISU (30), OU (33), MU (36), OSU (49), CU (72), NU (98), Baylor (109), KSU (123), A&M (179) and Tech (220).
In Sagarin, KU is ranked seventh nationally, followed by OU (15), ISU (21), UT (26), BU (32), MU (36), CU (43), OSU (60), NU (105), KSU (142), A&M (188) and Tech (220).
KU’s Williams on senior center Eric Chenowith, who has hit five of 21 shots and scored 14 points the past two games:
“Whether you like to admit it or not, two weeks ago you thought, ‘Here he’s finally arrived,”‘ Williams said. Chenowith had 24 points versus Tulsa on Dec. 16 “Now people are about ready to kick dirt on him like they’re ready to bury him.”
Williams said he’s not necessarily going to delegate Chenowith to a non-starting role because of two off games offensively.
“I’m not ready to be married to any one lineup and probably will not be,” Williams said. “As I said I might start rotating guys, big guys particularly because all three big people have had good moments. I was impressed the other night.
“Eric had everything in the world going in the opposite direction. The ball was not going in the basket (he missed his first eight shots versus SW Missouri State). Yet he kept plugging along, ends up with 11 rebounds and makes four of his last five shots.”
Williams said he would watch Wednesday night’s national title football game between Oklahoma and Florida State.
“I think Oklahoma is in the best position you could possibly be in a huge underdog where you are by golly good,” Williams said. “Florida State on paper is the favorite. I’d love to be in a situation where I was a huge underdog and deep down inside I knew was good.
“If I was coach I’d throw that sucker to Roy Williams every time and see what he could do and let it go at that,” he quipped.
Oklahoma has a standout defensive back named Roy Williams.
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