Kansas University basketball coach Bill Self spoke of the importance of tonight’s ESPN Big Monday battle against Iowa State on this morning’s Big 12 teleconference. KU enters 18-3 overall and 7-1 in the league; ISU is 16-4, 6-2.
The Cyclones defeated KU, 86-81, on Jan. 17 at Hilton Coliseum in Ames.
“This is about as big a game as you can have halfway through a conference season,” Self said, indicating he was referring to “both teams, Iowa State and us.”
“There will be bigger games later as you get down to the finish line, but the whole thing is, I’m not even thinking about the league race. I don’t want our guys to think about the league race,” Self stated. “I want our guys thinking they have an opportunity to play against a team that definitely played better than us the first time we went out and we deserved exactly what we got. That’s what I want my team to think about.
“I don’t want them thinking about the league race at all,” he repeated. “We have an opportunity to compete against somebody that made us look foolish at times last time. That’s what our focus is.”
Self said it would take a great effort to even the season series against Iowa State.
“Certainly tonight we need to play 40 minutes. We can’t play 24, can’t play 28, can’t play a half,” Self said of the 8 p.m., tip. “We need to play 40 minutes tonight and we’ve only done that a few times this year. Of course very few teams do it 40 minutes throughout the entire season. Even the best teams go through periods of time where they labor. A lot of that may be youth, maybe leadership, maybe some other things but I think we’re gaining on it.”
He said a key tonight may be slowing ISU’s Jameel McKay, a 6-9 junior who had 11 points and three blocks in 21 minutes off the bench in the first meeting.
“Obviously we have to have somebody that can match his energy because he killed us last time,” Self said.