5 things to know about the Kansas Jayhawks, presented by UK Federal Credit Union

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1. Who’s back?

Any time Kentucky faces a big name opponent like this early in the season, the first thing a lot of fans do is look at the opponent’s roster or recent box scores to see what names they recognize from last year. Looking down Kansas’ roster, you’ll notice a few big names no longer there, most notably Devon Dotson, who just signed a two-way deal with the Chicago Bulls, and Udoka Azubuike, who was picked by the Utah Jazz with the 27th overall pick in the draft. Another name you won’t see is Silvio De Sousa, who was supposed to be a returning senior this season, but announced he was leaving the team, and is reportedly facing aggravated battery charges following a bar fight.

With those three major contributors gone, who is back for Kansas? The three main returning names you’ll recognize are junior guard Ochai Agbaji, senior guard Marcus Garrett, and junior forward David McCormack. Agbaji was last year’s third-leading scorer, finishing the year with 10 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 1.2 steals per game. Garrett was nationally recognized for his defensive abilities last season, and he averaged 9.2 points, 4.6 assists, 4.5 rebounds, and 1.8 steals per game. Lastly, McCormack was one of two bench bigs last season for Bill Self. The 6’10” – 265 pound junior put up 6.9 points and 4.1 rebounds last year, while shooting nearly 53% from the field in less than 15 minutes per game.

2. A tale of two 1-1’s

Similar to Kentucky, Kansas played their first two games of the season this past weekend, finishing at 1-1. However, the two teams have very dissimilar 1-1 records. While Kentucky opened the season with an emphatic win over in-state foe, Morehead State, Kansas took on the number one team in country, Gonzaga, for their season opener. The Jayhawks put up an impressive 90 points to start the year, but it came in a losing effort, as Gonzaga proved to be too much to handle.

We all know Kentucky’s second game was a disappointing loss to an experienced and talented Richmond squad on Sunday afternoon. On the flip side, Kansas’ second game of the year was against St. Joseph’s the day following their season opening loss to Gonzaga. Despite giving up 13 made threes, Kansas still managed to put the Hawks away with relative ease, this time racking up 94 points of their own. Kentucky’s 1-1 doesn’t seem all that imposing when you stack it up against Kansas’ 1-1 record. One team will come out of tonight with a losing record, but a great chance for the other team to get their first marquee win of the season.

3. Four guard lineup

In Kansas’ Friday night win over St. Joseph’s, the Jayhawks started the game with four guards around one big, and then played the majority of the game with a modern small-ball lineup. The starting lineup measured in at 6’5″, 6’5″, 6’5″, 6’6″, and 6’10”. The lone big, David McCormack played just 11 minutes, while freshman 6’8″ forward, Jalen Wilson, came off the bench to play 24 minutes. A lineup of players that can all play on the perimeter poses a ton of match up problems for any defense, especially when the players can be interchangeable at four of the five positions.

Isaiah Jackson is said to be back to 100% after tweaking his ankle in the Morehead State game, so if we assume Kentucky’s starting lineup has both Jackson and Sarr, then there’s one guard for Kansas matching up with a big for Kentucky. Flip that around and that would mean Jackson would be forced to defend a perimeter player on the other end of the floor. One of these coaches will have to adjust their lineup to make up for that potential mismatch.

4. Thick as thieves

Going off of the four guard lineup point I just touched on, Kansas uses this lineup to be extremely solid defensively on the ball. The reasoning is simple, that they can switch off on screens on the perimeter without ever really losing anything from a size standpoint. Starting guard, Marcus Garrett is one of the best defensive players in the country, and was named both the conference and national defensive player of the year last season.

Through the first two games of the season, the Jayhawks have totaled 16 steals and forced a total of 30 turnovers. Kentucky has shown through two games that they will be a team that turns it over at a high rate early in the season, having already committed 36 turnovers. If Kentucky’s ball handlers are as careless as they were on Sunday, that turnover column will continue to be an issue. And it isn’t just on ball defense that will cause issues for the Cats. Lazy passes and not communicating will lead to help defense forced turnovers, just as it did against Richmond.

5. Lucky number 33

Tonight’s match up between the Kentucky Wildcats and the Kansas Jayhawks will be the 33rd time the two teams have met in their storied histories. Kentucky leads the all time series 23-9 and the Cats have won two of three over the Jayhawks in the Champions Classic. While it may seem like Kentucky has dominated the overall series with Kansas, Bill Self’s squad has been quite successful against the Wildcats in recent years. Since 2005, the two teams have met on ten occasions, with the Jayhawks taking six of the ten.

In the last 15 years, the two teams have gone on three separate three game streaks. Kansas won three straight meetings from 2005-2007, Kentucky followed with three wins of their own from 2011-2014, and Kansas answered back with three more consecutive wins from 2016-2018. John Calipari’s Cats took the most recent match up in 2019 and Kentucky has never won just one game in a row against Kansas. A few different streaks on the line tonight, and we’ll see if history repeats itself in the Cats’ favor.

Go Cats. Beat Jayhawks.

@BrettBibbinsKSR