Playing on Saturday at Oklahoma, Kansas University’s men’s basketball team did not have a lot of time to prepare for a Big Monday home game against Oklahoma State.
“We only practiced about 40 minutes yesterday,” KU coach Bill Self revealed after the Jayhawks took care of OSU, 94-67. “We watched a lot of tape on Oklahoma State going back to our first game (Pokes’ 86-67 victory on Jan. 19 in Stillwater), showing some things we did that were not very good at all, some things they did to hurt us. It wasn’t a revenge-type message at all, but it was one, ‘we haven’t had a chance to obviously play well against the Cowboys. They handled us quite easily, probably easier than anybody has handled us this year the first time.”
Graham honored: KU sophomore guard Devonté Graham on Monday was named Big 12 player of the week following his 27-point outing against Oklahoma.
The 6-foot-2 native of Raleigh, N.C., scored 16 points in the final eight minutes of Saturday’s victory in Norman and also guarded OU standout Buddy Hield.
In wins over OU and West Virginia, Graham averaged 18.5 points and 3.5 rebounds while converting 57.9 percent of his shots, including 61.5 percent of his threes. He hit 87.5 percent of his free throws.
“Devonté had the best game of his young career,” KU coach Bill Self said on the Big 12 coaches teleconference. “He has really played well against OU. He had 22 the first game (a win in Lawrence). This game he totally gave himself up defensively trying to guard Buddy and still had enough in the tank to be aggressive offensively especially in late game situations when we had kind of a make-shift lineup. He was terrific. We would have had no chance to win without him,” Self added.
Self called Hield “one of the top players (in country) and certainly is deserving of all the accolades he’s received and will be our national player of the year.”
Deonte Burton of Iowa State was named newcomer of the week.
RPI talk: KU is No. 1 in the NCAA’s men’s basketball RPI rankings, released on Monday. Oklahoma is No. 2, followed by Villanova, Oregon, Virginia, Maryland, Xavier, North Carolina, Miami Florida and Iowa.
Big O in house: Former KU center Greg Ostertag attended the game with his son, Cody, and was introduced to the fans during a time out.
— See what people were saying about KU’s rematch with the Cowboys during KUsports.com’s live coverage