Kansas Preview: Power and prestige in Lawrence

The UConn Huskies are hours away from tipping off in one of the biggest college basketball games of the season.

Dan Hurley’s reigning national champions are meeting the previous year’s champions and one of the country’s perennial powers in the University of Kansas. It will be their first road game of the season, and they’ll be without one of their best players in Stephon Castle.

While history won’t impact anything on the court Friday night, this clash of powers also presents a clash of styles. Some may say this is an old-school power versus a new one, or a “blue blood” versus a “new blood.”

But those monikers or honorifics aren’t as important as the philosophies clashing.

Kansas is a team built on blue-chip recruits. Their head coach stacks them up despite questionable recruiting methods while piling up Big 12 championships and earning 10 nods for a 1-seed in the NCAA Tournament through Bill Self’s tenure, which has also seen two national championships. Self has been the head coach since 2003, succeeding Roy Williams’ 15-year run there.

UConn, as we all know, has had a much different journey.

The Husky men’s hoops program was a budding power under Jim Calhoun in the old Big East, but realignment and coaching malpractice essentially left it for dead, meeting Tulsa and East Carolina in conference play and losing every ounce of juice it had. The UConn program in the AAC that Dan Hurley inherited in 2018 was in a valley that the fans and leadership at Kansas could never imagine.

But, despite the odds, UConn is now fully back, ready to show off the program’s new place in the national college basketball hierarchy. Dan Hurley and his staff roared into gear with last year’s national championship run. They didn’t do it with blue-chip recruits. They didn’t overload on transfers. Hurley’s a grinder who’s been building something since he got here and it culminated in much more than last year’s title. They built a foundation that bore last year’s juggernaut and another team poised for success the following year.

Going forward, Dan Hurley’s Huskies should be in games like this every year.

It’s great to be back.

UConn vs. Kansas Matchup Preview

When: Friday, December 1, 9:00 PM ET

Where: Allen Fieldhouse – Lawrence, KS

TV: ESPN2

KenPom Projection: Kansas win 75-74

Pre-Game Notes

• UConn is 0-3 all-time against Kansas, with the first meetings coming in 1995 and 1997 against Jayhawk teams featuring Paul Pierce and Raef LaFrentz followed by a 2016 meeting in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

• UConn will be without five-star guard Stephon Castle, who has been out since the third game of the season. Hurley said Castle could return for Tuesday’s matchup against North Carolina on Dec. 5 at MSG.

• Alex Karaban goes into the game 0-for-8 on his three-point attempts in the last two games, a disappointing follow-up performance to the Empire Classic, where he was one of the Huskies’ most dependable players, dropping 20 in the win over Texas while hitting multiple clutch shots.

• Hunter Dickinson vs. Donovan Clingan is the matchup on everyone’s mind, including the NBA scouts, of which there will be dozens. It will be a huge test for Clingan, who has mostly faced much smaller teams this year except Indiana and Texas, which was missing one of its big men.

• Hurley and Clingan have addressed the potential for seeing both of UConn’s big men, Clingan and Samson Johnson, on the floor at the same time.

• Tristen Newton goes into the game as UConn’s leading rebounder (8.1 RPG) and assist-maker (6.9 AGP) and has notched two straight double-doubles since the Empire Classic, where he won the tournament’s MVP honors. He put up a triple-double in the Manhattan game to secure sole possession of the UConn career record, with three triple-doubles to his name as a Husky.

• Cam Spencer is UConn’s leading scorer (16.3 PPG) and a model of consistency, dropping 16 or more points in every game of Stephon Castle’s absence. He scored 18 points against Indiana and 16 against Texas, to highlight his performances against top competition, and is a major key to success for the Huskies tonight.

• Kansas is 6-1 on the season, having taken a loss to Marquette on a neutral site, 73-59. The Jayhawks have an opponent in common with UConn in Manhattan, who they beat 99-61. Jaspers’ head coach Jon Gallagher said UConn is “a couple baskets” better after playing both.

Stats Comparison

It’s still early in the season, but UConn is slightly ahead of Kansas in nearly all offensive categories, with a narrow edge for Kansas in eFG%. UConn also grades out slightly better on the defensive end, having a greater overall defensive efficiency and rebound percentage, among others.

UConn is 6th in KenPom offensively and 10th defensively, while Kansas is 35th offensively and 4th defensively.

Via TeamRankings.com

Via TeamRankings.com