By the time the snow stops around Lawrence, Kansas, the Jayhawks would be hours off of their latest Sunflower Showdown against archrivals Kansas State. Leading into Saturday’s matchup, the Jayhawks pushed themselves past Colorado in a 75-69 win.
Tuesday’s win was anything but clean. To start, head coach Bill Self missed out as he was admitted to LMH Health.
While Self is fully healthy and set to be on the sideline against the Wildcats, star guard Darryn Peterson suffered an ankle sprain against the Buffaloes, and his status is a lot murkier.
Prior to the Jayhawks’ trip to Manhattan, Self spoke with the media, where he spoke about what he learned when having to watch Kansas’ latest game away from the court.
“I actually think we're maybe 80% of where I think we should be,” quoted Self Thursday afternoon.
“I saw things last week that give me a thought, saying, ‘we could be really good at a lot of things.’ And then I saw something the other day against Colorado, which leads me to believe that we can also be very average at many of those same things.”
By no means would any coach lament too much over a win. However, it does not take a keen eye to realize that the Jayhawks’ free-flowing momentum was slightly stuttered. It was not something you would see greatly influenced by the box score, yet when you look at how much zip each possession has had over the last couple of weeks, there was a stark dropoff in said momentum, creating a new list of questions ahead of Saturday.
Self went on to explain the complexities of playing in a high altitude place like the CU Events Center, believing that it could have added to why the Jayhawks played off their recent pace.
The Sunflower Showdown is the time to get things right
Saturday night presents the latest opportunity for the Jayhawks to reestablish the forward steps that have seen Kansas reel off three-straight wins. ESPN Analytics gives Kansas a 72.4% chance of doing something they haven’t done since the 2021-22 NCAA National Championship-winning campaign.
The Wildcats have opened up this season with a 10-9 record which has only seen a 1-5 mark in Big 12 play for Jerome Tang's side.
Tipoff for the highly anticipated clash is set for 7 p.m. CT with streaming available on FOX.
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