Let’s see : LSU’s top-ranked football team lost to Arkansas in three overtimes on Friday, meaning Kansas University conceivably could be ranked No. 1 in the country come Sunday.
No. 1, that is, if the Jayhawks defeat Missouri’s Tigers at 7 tonight at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo.
Gridiron excitement was evident everywhere in Lawrence on Friday, including Allen Fieldhouse, where the Jayhawk basketball players practiced and studied scouting report on Sunday’s hoops foe – traditional Pac-10 power Arizona.
“It will be hyped. It’s going to be real hyped. We’re not going to be able to go, but I’m going to watch it with the guys. It’s going to be pretty fun,” KU forward Darrell Arthur said about tonight’s football clash of the Big 12 titans.
The Jayhawk basketball players will huddle around the TV rather than attend the game in person, just because they need their rest for Sunday’s 7 p.m. home game against 3-1 Arizona.
“The football team is doing their thing. They are not losing any games,” Arthur said. “They are a well coached team. They do what their coach tells them to do. They are getting it done. It’s really fun to watch.”
Sunday’s KU-UA hoops battle could be equally exciting, though the implications won’t be nearly as great this early in the 2007-08 campaign.
“I’m ready. I’m amped up. The whole team is amped up about it, too,” said Arthur, who was recruited by Arizona his junior and senior year at South Oak Cliff High in Dallas.
“I played with Chase (Budinger, 6-foot-7 forward) and Nic (Wise, 5-10 guard) in the McDonald’s game and Nic when he was on Houston Hoops AAU. We know their players. They know ours. It should be a great game.”
“Great,” is the way KU coach Bill Self described today’s KU-Missouri football game, which he’ll view at a watch party, not wanting to burn the midnight oil the night before an important hoops contest.
“They are by far the best team we’ve played so far,” Self said of Arizona, which has beaten Northern Arizona (76-69), UMKC (81-62) and Adams State (88-74) and lost to Virginia (75-72). “They are good defensively and react well and cover for each other. They can score and are good in transition.”
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Lute won’t be here: An Arizona official said veteran coach Lute Olson will not be with the Wildcats this weekend. He continues an indefinite leave of absence for undisclosed personal reasons.
Kevin O’Neill, who has been head coach at Marquette, Tennessee and Northwestern, is running the team in Olson’s absence.
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Walters may play more: Fifth-year Arizona senior Kirk Walters, who scored 13 points in a victory over KU in the 2005 Maui Invitational, missed all of last season due to a concussion, as well as mono.
The 6-11, 247-pounder has played two minutes in four games as he continues to work on his conditioning.
“Kirk’s played very well in practice, so I’d assume Kirk will be playing in the next game,” O’Neill told the Arizona Daily Star.
