Beating Kentucky, Iowa State and Colorado during a six-day stretch has rejuvenated Kansas University’s road-weary men’s basketball players.
“It’s the best week we’ve had since we’ve been here,” second-year KU coach Bill Self said.
Those three victories hiked the No. 2-ranked Jayhawks’ record to 13-0 and 3-0 in the Big 12 heading into a conference clash against Nebraska (8-5, 2-1) at 7:05 tonight at Allen Fieldhouse.
Tonight’s foe brings back memories of one of the most unpleasant stretches during Self’s two seasons at KU. Last year, KU fell at Oklahoma State, 80-60, and at Nebraska, 74-55, in games played Feb. 9 and 15.
“That was the worst week since we’ve been here,” Self said. “Oklahoma State and Nebraska butted against each other. If I’m not mistaken, we were up one at halftime (at NU) and lost by 19. They’ve got a nice team again this year.”
The Huskers have defeated Colorado and Kansas State and lost to Texas in league play. They’ve also beaten Tennessee, but lost to Minnesota, Creighton, UAB and Marquette.
“In some ways, they are a lot like us in that they go through phases where they struggle to score,” Self said. “Their defense has been great all year long. They will play smart.
(John) Turek is an excellent post player, and (Joe) McCray is one of the best newcomers in the league. They’ve got some nice pieces.”
McCray, a 6-foot-5 freshman guard from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., averages a team-leading 15.2 points per game and 17.3 in three Big 12 contests.
“I like his aggressiveness. He plays with no fear. Most freshmen don’t do that,” Self said of McCray, who scored 21 points and grabbed 11 rebounds Saturday against Texas for his first career double-double.
McCray has hit 41 of 107 three pointers and is just three shy of tying the NU freshman trey mark of 44 set by Eric Piatkowski in 1991.
“He’s not nervous about putting it up,” Self said. “On the flip side, he’s also got an in-between game.”
Overall, McCray has hit 69 of 167 shots for 41.3 percent.
“Joe is a basketball junkie who loves the game, loves to play, loves to be in the mix in games,” fifth-year NU coach Barry Collier said.
“I think his enthusiasm is pretty obvious. His skill level is the same way. Simply because he can put the ball in the basket with a fair amount of regularity it makes him popular with everybody.”
Seniors Turek (9.5 ppg, 4.8 rpg) and Jake Muhleisen (5.3 ppg) are joined by juniors Marcus Neal (11.3) and Jason Dourisseau (8.5 ppg) in the starting lineup.
Dourisseau suffered a sprained ankle and didn’t play the second half of the Texas game.
“In general, the Kansas teams have been well-coached with excellent personnel,” said Collier, who is 1-7 versus the Jayhawks. “We’ve had some success at different times, but there always seems to be a run the Jayhawks go on that has really put us in a bad state of affairs.
“I’ve been impressed with the poise they have, particularly their win at Kentucky. They’ve started the league going undefeated so far. They obviously are my No. 1 team in the voting.”
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Collier on Allen Fieldhouse: “There have been so many great games, teams, players and great coaches in there, both on the Kansas bench and the other bench as well.”
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Recruiting: DeAndre Thomas, a 6-7, 270-pound senior forward from Chicago Westinghouse High, recently received a qualifying score on the ACT.
Now eligible to make trips, he tells rivals.com he wants to visit KU, Illinois and Florida State. He’s also considering Purdue, Miami of Florida and others.
“I have liked coach Self since I was a freshman and he was at Illinois,” Thomas told rivals.com. “He saw me in the summer before my sophomore year and has watched me play against Julian Wright (KU signee). I really like Julian and his style of play.”
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Point-guard deluxe: Aaron Miles, who picked up his 829th career assist at Colorado, has cracked the NCAA’s all-time top-20 assist list. … Lee Barfknecht of the Omaha World Herald reports that just three Big 12 teams have a current player with as many points as Miles has assists. Those teams are KU (Keith Langford, Wayne Simien), Oklahoma State (Ivan McFarlin) and Iowa State (Jared Homan). … Miles is one of 18 finalists for the Bob Cousy Award, which goes to the country’s top point guard.
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Inconsistent Huskers next for red-hot Jayhawks
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