As losers of three consecutive games heading into the last week of January, the Kansas men’s basketball team cannot afford to look ahead.
So, yeah, Thursday’s home game against TCU at 7 p.m. at Allen Fieldhouse is a big one.
But a case can be made that the game that Kansas plays just two days later — 5 p.m. Saturday at No. 18 Tennessee — is the biggest game on the rest of the Jayhawks schedule.
Given how familiar KU fans are with tracking the Big 12 race all the way down to the wire, I know that might sound strange.
But it might be true simply because it’s the Jayhawks’ next chance to beat a good team.
If they don’t, we very well could be looking at the 2018-19 season all over again, with KU entering March just hoping to get out of the first weekend.
If they do take down Tennessee, however, a win over the Volunteers, especially on the road, could be enough to convince this team that they still can be as good as they thought they could be when the season began.
The other reason the Tennessee game is magnified a little right now is because it’s one of two games on the Jayhawks’ schedule in the next three weeks where KU is unlikely to be favored. At West Virginia on Feb. 6 is the other.
Outside of that, though, the Jayhawks are looking at two games with K-State, two games with Iowa State, Thursday’s rematch with TCU and a home game against Oklahoma State, all in a 20-day stretch before closing the regular season with a monster slate that includes Texas Tech and Baylor at home and Texas on the road.
There’s little debate that those last three are all massive games and each one figures to have a huge impact on this team’s seeding and psyche heading into March.
But if the Jayhawks don’t take care of business in the next three weeks and use the most favorable portion of their schedule to get right, those last three games will not matter nearly as much and could become much more daunting and dangerous.
One game at a time is the approach this team is taking right now. No more worrying about the Big 12 race or looking ahead at what’s down the road.
All that matters is what’s immediately in front of them and what they can do in that game to get back on track.
Here’s a quick look at KU’s win probabilities from KenPom.com for the rest of the season:
• Thursday vs. TCU – 86%
• Saturday at Tennessee – 44%
• Feb. 2 vs. K-State – 94%
• Feb. 6 at West Virginia – 42%
• Feb. 8 vs. Oklahoma State – 67%
• Feb. 11 vs. Iowa State – 89%
• Feb. 13 at Iowa State – 79%
• Feb. 16 at K-State – 88%
• Feb. 20 vs. Texas Tech – 56%
• Feb. 22 at Texas – 37%
• Feb. 27 vs. Baylor – 30%
