Kansas Jayhawks hosting Oklahoma Sooners

It just hasn’t happened recently so all the things that endeared him to the college basketball world in November and December has turned him into a quasi-villain through no fault of his own.

Kruger made a drastic change to his team’s starting lineup, replacing three starters before tonight’s game. And if it’s the start of a new trend, Kansas just might be the new favorite to win the national championship. His last two teams made the Elite Eight. But this year KU has seemed a little off their game. The Jayhawks beat West Virginia Saturday at home.

The Oklahoma Sooners are just over one week removed from being named as a preliminary top four seed in the NCAA Tournament by the Selection Committee, but their grasp on the honor is slipping quickly. Their problem is that they can’t stop anyone.

This week, the state of Oklahoma can either be really good to Kansas, or really bad. Nothing helped. OU has surrendered at least seven 3s in every game since beating Texas Tech on January 9, and five opponents have made double-digit 3-pointers in that span. The cover snapped a four game payless streak for Kansas. While the Kansas Jayhawks have had their struggles this season, they’re outscoring teams by 16.5 points at home this season and are solid defensively.

On this night, it was Kansas senior Devonte’ Graham, the preseason Big 12 player of the year, who looked like the best player in the league – not the 19-year-old out of Norman North High School. He’s committed 90 turnovers in 14 conference games, adding 4.5 rebounds each outing.

Kameron McGusty led the way for Oklahoma with 22 points while Jamuni McNeace added 18 in his first career start.

The reason Oklahoma was slotted as a 4-seed, despite the recent evidence of poor play, was because of the number of quality wins they accumulated before February. The negative rants of gamblers are fully justified.

Oklahoma has been struggling, losing five straight while failing to cover in their last seven. They have lost six of the past seven games. His defense ranks 337 in the country.

Udoka should be the story line of the game, especially after his last performance.

The Sooners are trying to rebound after their 77-66 loss to the Texas Longhorns in their last contest.

The celebrated impact of Trae Young continues to lose some luster, though the freshman guard still leads the nation with averages of 29.1 points and 9.3 assists.

Oklahoma has covered the spread in four of their last five against Kansas.

Asked if he would say anything to Azubuike before the OU rematch about focusing in on his free throws this time around, Self dismissed the idea and praised his center’s work ethic in the weeks since. How about a win inside Allen Fieldhouse against first-place Kansas.

Kerry Miller covers men’s college basketball for Bleacher Report. The public will be all over Kansas.

And maybe the most interesting event of the night came postgame, when Young came out of the locker room, signed autographs and took pictures with fans despite the ugly losses. “When they double-team her we need to make them pay for that”. Kansas met Trae Young with two defenders soon after he passed midcourt. Oklahoma is the contrarian call!