No. 5 Kansas enters Friday night's highly anticipated showdown against Connecticut with an overall record of 6-1. On the season, the Jayhawks own victories over North Carolina Central, Manhattan, No. 17 (at the time) Kentucky, Chaminade, No. 7 (at the time) Tennessee, and, recently, Eastern Illinois. For Kansas, its only loss of the season came at the hands of No. 4 (at the time) Marquette in Maui.
Connecticut will arrive in Lawrence with a perfect 7-0 record on the season. The Huskies, on the season, have cruised past Northern Arizona, Stonehill, Mississippi Valley State, Indiana, Texas, Manhattan, and New Hampshire.
Connecticut, ahead of Friday night's game against No. 5 Kansas, has won 24 consecutive non-conference games by double-digits.
While addressing the media on Thursday afternoon, Kansas head coach Bill Self talked about a few things his squad must do to be successful on Friday night.
“I would say obvious things would be defensive rebounding,” said Self. “You know, they get 42 percent of their misses back and we haven't been a great defensive rebounding team thus far. So that's something that we have to do a better job of (on Friday night). Our ball screen defense needs to be on point, because of the way they run stuff.
“They do such a great job of lifting guys and taking away the tag men and making different guys be the tag guys and stuff like that, that we've got to do a really good job on ball screen defense,” he added. “And, and then, you know, offensively, we need to play with pace. You know, we don't do that as well as what we're capable of doing, yet.”
Connecticut, without question, will never Friday night’s game against Kansas clicking on all cylinders. The Huskies have five players, Cam Spencer (16.3), Tristen Newton (15.6), Donovan Clingan (15.0), Alex Karaban (14.6), and Stephon Castle (14.5) who average double-figures in scoring.
As a team, Connecticut averages 88.7 points per game. The Huskies shoot 51.4 percent from the field, 31 percent from behind the arc, and 76 percent from the free-throw line. They average 43.1 rebounds per game and own a rebound margin of 16.1 per game.
After seven games Connecticut averages 19.1 assists per game to just 10.6 turnovers.
Self, on Thursday afternoon, said Connecticut has the pieces to win a second straight national championship.
“Well, they've got all the pieces,” said Self. “They've got perimeter shooting, even though they haven't shot it great yet from the arc, but they got shooters. They’ve got size and they got length and they got experience and toughness. I mean, they're a complete team. They could win it again this year.
“I mean, Danny's (Hurley) got a good enough bunch that they could do that,” he added. And of course, or, you know, run great stuff and well drilled and everything else, so that I don't see a lot of glaring type deficiencies. I see a team that will continue to get better and better and they're playing without one of the very best players that you know, he may be ready for us but he's been out the last couple of weeks.”
