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Preview: To kick things off, KU will welcome K-State to Allen Fieldhouse

Preview: To kick things off, KU will welcome K-State to Allen Fieldhouse

On January 19, 2025By Littum

Photo by AP/Charlie Neibergall

Kansas guard AJ Storr drives upcourt during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Iowa State, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, in Ames, Iowa.

The Kansas men’s basketball team, which had been riding high after three straight wins led by a dominant defensive effort, came crashing back down with a double-digit loss at Iowa State on Wednesday.

When center Hunter Dickinson reached the media room for his postgame press conference, he and his teammates wasted no time looking ahead to their next challenge, Kansas State, just two and a half days away.

“We know they’re going to play their tails off,” Dickinson said, “and we’ve got to try to get back on track.”

The ninth-ranked Jayhawks will look to return to their winning ways and maintain an 18-season winning streak in games against their rival at Allen Fieldhouse as they welcome the struggling Wildcats to Lawrence on Saturday.

“I’m not sure if they’ll be in the tournament or not, but if they don’t, it’s the type of game they’ll be talking about in their banquet if they beat us at our place, so we can’t allow that to happen,” guard Rylan Griffen said on the radio after the game. “And we know this is a season-defining type (of) game for them. Their season will be very much based on the two times we play them, so we just have to make sure we don’t let them have a great banquet.”

The Jayhawks will have to tackle Saturday’s challenge without senior forward KJ Adams, who suffered a shoulder injury against ISU. On Friday, KU coach Bill Self said Adams had a separated shoulder and would be “week to week.”

Like KU, K-State is trying to get its season back on track, but in the Wildcats’ case, they’re working through much more significant setbacks.

After missing the NCAA Tournament last season, K-State revamped its roster with big investments in the transfer portal that have yet to fully pay off. The Wildcats suffered non-conference losses to teams like Liberty, Drake and Wichita State and have since opened Big 12 play 1-4, making them the only team in the Big 12 with a losing record on the season.

Cold spells in the late games have been particularly deadly for KSU. At TCU on January 4, the Wildcats went ahead 62–56 on a 3-pointer by Max Jones and did not score the rest of the night in what became a one-point loss. Most recently, hosting Texas Tech on Tuesday, K-State made exactly one shot in the final eight minutes, 17 seconds.

The Wildcats’ biggest name transfer, Coleman Hawkins, formerly played at Illinois, is a versatile 6-foot-10 forward averaging 10.6 points, 6.9 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 2.2 steals per game. -9 returned David N’Guessan (12.6 points, 7.4 rebounds, a league-leading 64.3% field-goal percentage). Junior guard and Villanova transfer Brendan Hausen provides a contrasting style as one of the league’s best, highest-volume outside shooters — he’s 50-for-124 (40.3%) from deep on the year and has taken just 20 shots inside the arc .

“To me, they’re a scary team offensively because they can shoot and haven’t shot it well consistently,” Self said.

K-State’s rotation has fluctuated quite a bit from game to game. Most recently, head coach Jerome Tang has selected a starting lineup of Hausen, Hawkins and N’Guessan, along with transfers Dug McDaniel, a former teammate of Dickinson’s at Michigan, and Jones, from Cal State Fullerton.

Statistics are not flattering the Wildcats this season. They are 14th in the Big 12 in scoring offense and 13th in scoring defense and have been particularly lacking on the glass, where despite the efforts of Hawkins and N’Guessan, they are last in the league in rebounding (33.9 per game) and defensive rebounds. (23.2, 308th in the nation).

“They’ll be desperate because they’re under .500, but we’ll also be desperate because we’re in the middle of the pack of Big 12 positions right now,” Griffen said Friday. “We also have no room for error right now. It will be two desperate teams playing, and we have to be on our home ground, so we have to be even more desperate than them.”

Tang has split its four matchups with KU since taking over. The rivals will meet for the second time in Manhattan on February 8.

No. 9 Kansas Jayhawks (12-4, 3-2 Big 12) vs. Kansas State Wildcats (7-9, 1-4 Big 12)

• Allen Fieldhouse, Lawrence, at 12.00

• Send out: CBS

• Radio: Jayhawk Radio Network (in Lawrence, KLWN AM 1320 / K269GB FM 101.7 / KMXN FM 92.9)

Keep an eye out

The most significant storyline coming into Saturday’s game for KU is the impending absence of Adams.

Adams has been a fixture in KU’s starting lineup for so long that it’s hard to imagine one without him. (Self said Friday that he hasn’t decided who to start yet.) Adams hasn’t missed a game since the Jayhawks played Providence in the Sweet 16 in 2022, making 89 straight appearances. and he has started 84 of them, including every game this season.

“He’s played so well the last four games,” Self said. “He’s been arguably our best and most consistent player. I think it’s a blow, but it’s also a great opportunity…Hopefully someone can develop through this as well.”

One of the main assets Adams brings to KU is his versatility on defense as an extremely physical and athletic 6-foot-7 forward, allowing him to guard all five positions. It would have been useful against Hawkins and N’Guessan. Freshman center Flory Bidunga has shown flashes of being able to do the same and will be a likely candidate to fill some of Adams’ minutes, especially given the Wildcats’ frontcourt athleticism. He and Dickinson will need to stay out of foul trouble, which has been a challenge at times for Bidunga in particular.

KU could also miss Adams’ intangible assets.

“We’ve got to pick up his energy,” Griffen said. “He always has great energy on the pitch. You always know he’s on the field.”

The other players who can expect to stay on the floor longer in Adams’ absence are transfers Rylan Griffen and AJ Storr, both of whom have struggled to establish a rhythm this season on both sides of the ball, especially Storr.

Freshman wing Rakease Passmore, who acquitted himself well in spot minutes at ISU to the point Self said he was second only to Adams in “production per minute,” could also find his way into the rotation, especially if Griffen and Storr does not live up. to expectations.

“AJ, Flory, Rylan (and) Rakease will have significantly bigger roles than what they’ve had up until now,” Self said. “So I can see it’s different, and can we play small? Are we tough enough, can we rebound well enough to actually play small? Could we even play Rylan or Rakease at the 4 some — and AJ will definitely be have to play there something.”

A possible silver lining could be improved spacing for the Jayhawks. Opposing defenses have been known to sink by Adams to clog the paint, both preventing the guards’ opportunities to drive and denying possible paint pipes for Dickinson. Especially against lineups with wings like Griffen, Passmore or Storr, opponents need to respect the 3-pointer opportunity a little more.