You won’t find many bigger fans of looking in advance at the start of the Kansas men’s basketball team’s Big 12 schedule than me.
And I was at it again on Tuesday night, following the [fifth-ranked Jayhawks’ 73-72 victory over No. 8 Creighton][1] at Allen Fieldhouse.
Conference play arrives in a week, when the Jayhawks next Thursday head south to Lubbock, Texas, to open the 2020-21 Big 12 slate in the same building where they ended the 2019-20 conference season, just before all hell broke loose and the rest of the season was cancelled.
Kansas coach Bill Self mentioned that time frame in his postgame meeting with the media on Tuesday at Allen Fieldhouse. And, with all due respect to Omaha and Tarleton State, which rank 215th and 334th respectively in the latest KenPom.com rankings, Dec. 17 is going to be here in the blink of an eye.
That gives the Jayhawks roughly a week to fine-tune the things they need to address before they head into a stretch of Big 12 games that right now, on paper, looks as daunting as any three-game stretch that any team in America will face.
You thought Gonzaga, Kentucky and Creighton was bad, with their No. 1, No. 21 and No. 15 KenPom rankings when KU faced those programs in the season’s first six games?
KU’s first three Big 12 foes currently carry KenPom rankings of No. 4 (Texas Tech), No. 7 (vs. West Virginia on Dec. 22) and No. 5 (vs. Texas on Jan. 2).
The good news for KU is that two of the three games are at home. The better news is the Jayhawks will get 10 days to rest and prep between games 2 and 3, which should only help in both relieving the physical toll that this sprint of a start to the season has taken and in terms of allowing the Jayhawks the time they need to truly self-scout and start to take strides toward rounding into form for the January and February grind that is the Big 12 schedule.
Here’s the crazy thing about the Big 12 this season: It’s so loaded and well respected by KenPom, that the Jayhawks actually have another three-game stretch that’s even tougher on paper. At least as of today.
KU is scheduled to close the regular season with three straight games against Texas Tech, Texas and Baylor, with the Tech and Baylor games both at home.
That trio is ranked No. 4, No. 5 and No. 2 in the current KenPom rankings. But who knows where they’ll be when those games finally roll around in late February.
For now, we’re talking about what’s on the immediate horizon, and the three games KU has scheduled to close 2020 and kickoff 2021 are as tough as you’ll find.
They’ll also go a long way in determining where this Kansas team stands in a conference race that figures to be an absolute battle from start to finish.
You know the fifth-ranked Jayhawks (5-1) are doing what they have to do to prepare for Friday’s game vs. Omaha (6 p.m. on ESPN2) and Sunday’s contest against longtime Self friend Billy Gillispie and Tarleton State (1 p.m. on ESPN+).
But with those Big 12 battles and that kind of opportunity and challenge looming starting next week, it’s not hard to envision this team starting to take a quick peek at its challengers in the Big 12.
“I think that is pretty impressive that we found a way to grind it out and different guys contributed in different ways,” Self said of KU emerging from a season-opening stretch of six games in 13 days with just one loss. “But we can’t take a breath now. Obviously, you have two more games (Friday and Sunday), but the games that really matter start in Lubbock (next) Thursday (and) we’ve got a lot of stuff we’ve got to improve on before we’re ready to take on those first two league games.”
[1]: http://www2.kusports.com/news/2020/dec/08/dudes-got-no-fear-jalen-wilsons-clutch-3-keys-ku-w/
