A lot has been made this season about the lack of true road tests thrown at the Kansas men’s basketball team.
From opening the season on neutral floors in Honolulu and New York City to three games at nearby Sprint Center and catching Big 12 foes TCU and Oklahoma over winter break, with many of each school’s students still home for the holidays, Kansas entered Monday’s 76-72 victory at always-charged-up Hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa, having avoided hostile territory.
No longer.
The Kansas players and coaches were harassed and jeered by 14,000 fired-up Iowa State fans and this team got its first true taste of playing in an environment so loud that it was difficult to hear the guy standing next to you.
For the most part, it was the barrage of boos the Iowa State fan base sent toward the floor that accounted for Monday’s noisiest moments. But each time ISU appeared poised to make a run or found a way to hit a big shot, the sound explosion reached levels unlike any the current Kansas team had heard this season. And Kansas coach Bill Self loved every second of it.
“I thought we would enjoy it,” Self said of competing in a venue many believe to be the Big 12’s second most difficult place to play. “I think our guys like this. Doesn’t mean you’re always gonna play well and it’s much harder to win in an atmosphere like this. We haven’t been flat, but we haven’t been as geeked-up to play in some other buildings. We get pretty spoiled with the building we play in, and our guys really enjoy a building like this.”
Self and the Jayhawks, who had not won in Ames since the 2013-14 season, were and always have been complimentary of the challenge of playing the Cyclones in their home arena and remained such after emerging victorious in Monday’s battle.
“It’s always tough,” said senior forward Landen Lucas, recalling last year’s loss in which KU led by seven at halftime and lost by 13. “It seems like no matter what they’re gonna go on runs and they’re gonna make it a close game and you’re gonna have to fight to get a win. We did that tonight…. We should be very proud of coming in here and getting a win. The new guys that don’t really understand it as much, it’s tough. And that’s a big road win in the Big 12.”
Added Self: “I think (winning in Ames is) important regardless of what we have coming up. This is gonna be one of the hardest games we play all year. We know that…. Getting out of here with a W is pretty important in the big picture, for sure.”
The timing of the Jayhawks’ Big Monday, ear-drum challenge at Iowa State could not have been better. KU’s next three road games — three of the next six games on the schedule — come in environments that could come close to matching or surpassing the experience of playing in Ames on Monday night.
Kansas plays at No. 7 West Virginia next Tuesday, travels to No. 5 Kentucky Jan. 28 and will head west to Manhattan for a rematch with Kansas State on Feb. 6.
“I think it was very important,” Lucas said of having success in enemy territory. “These next couple games are big for us and we know that. We didn’t want to start it off with a loss tonight and it was nice to come into a tough environment and get it done.”