If Kansas doesn’t find a way to beat West Virginia on Saturday inside Allen Fieldhouse, Cole Aldrich might not know how to react.
Once an ultimate defender of James Naismith Court, Aldrich will be back in Lawrence for the game, and to watch his jersey join those of various other former KU greats in the rafters.
While reflecting on his time with the Jayhawks during a media conference call Thursday, Aldrich spoke of the pride he feels every time he steps foot on KU’s home floor.
“You kind of sit back and you think about all the times and all the games you went through in the fieldhouse. One of the most special things about walking in that building is I never lost at home in three years,” Aldrich shared.
Indeed, the 6-foot-11 center from Bloomington, Minn., was part of KU’s longest home-court winning streak in program history — 69 games — a stretch that began in February of 2007, before his arrival, and concluded in January of 2011, after he left for the NBA.
The Jayhawks went 19-0 inside Allen Fieldhouse during Aldrich’s freshman season, when he was a role player for a national championship team. But KU was just as difficult to beat when the big man took on a starring role as a sophomore (18-0) and a junior (18-0).
Following Aldrich’s final season at Kansas, the program lost just one game (four years) or went unbeaten in the fieldhouse (three years) each of the ensuing seven campaigns.
Then came this season.
With three games remaining on the home schedule, the 2017-18 Jayhawks already have dropped three games in Allen Fieldhouse, the most in Bill Self’s 15 seasons as head coach.
“You kind of look at this year with them losing three at home,” Aldrich said of KU’s 11-3 mark entering Saturday’s matchup with West Virginia (5:15 p.m., ESPN). “Most teams around the country would be happy with losing just three games at home. This year for us it’s kind of a rarity.”
No one, of course, is more keenly aware of that than KU’s current team leader. Kansas senior point guard Devonte’ Graham went close to three seasons before experiencing his first fieldhouse loss, against Iowa State, in February of his junior year.
At times former players such as Aldrich or Sherron Collins, who now lives in town and will watch his jersey go up in the fieldhouse on Monday, come around and offer advice. Graham said those discussions don’t typically involve past greats emphasizing the importance of protecting KU’s home court.
“But we’ve definitely talked about it as a team, how we’ve been losing games at home and it’s just not normal,” Graham said of his discussions within the Kansas locker room. “It’s not normal for the team or the fans that experience it. And we’ve done it way too much this year.”
Self said Thursday he hadn’t at that point laid out any specific plans for former players, including other members of the 2008 national title team, who will be in town this weekend to address his current Jayhawks. But you have to think some “this is our house” type of pep talks are on the way, and just in time. The Jayhawks (20-6 overall, 9-4 Big 12) must defeat WVU, Oklahoma and Texas inside the fieldhouse to put themselves in position to extend the program’s Big 12 title streak to a record 14 seasons.
Finding some gratification in closing out the home schedule in style would be a great step for this KU team, already 6-2 in road games and 3-0 on neutral floors (note: the Sprint Center loss to Washington technically counts as a home game, too).
“You know, you usually don’t lose that many at home — maybe one,” Aldrich said of Allen Fieldhouse. “And every once in a while you’ll have a few years when you don’t lose at all. So going 55-0 at home was really kind of a testament to how good our fans were.”
And how well the Jayhawks defended and rebounded when Aldrich manned the paint.
