Kansas Jayhawks vs Arizona Wild Cats Game Chat Mon. 2/9 8:00 CT
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Big Monday. Big Game.
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Self is 38-0 at home on Big Monday. Believe he's 13-2 at home vs Top 5 opponents.
KU has never beaten a #1 team at home. Crazy to think.
If KU enters the Top 10 in the polls today, there have been 14 games in which KU was not the higher ranked team when playing the opponent in Allen Fieldhouse. KU is 14-0 in those games.
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Expect the most physical game of the season tonight. That's been a theme from other teams that have faced Arizona this year.
Arizona attempts the 8th fewest 3 pointers in the country at just 16 per game but average just under 90 ppg (11th best). They crush you around the rim. They get to the FT line at will.
I've seen that Peterson will likely be defended by their freshman Euro freshman Kharchenkov. He can match size of Peterson. DP, this your time to shine again after a pedestrian Saturday.
Big matchup for Flory again. Krivas is 7'2 and will really test him down low. Awaka & Peat are athletic and physical freaks of nature. Tiller & White are going to have to play big.
Arizona is going to try and pack the lane and draw fouls on our Bigs. Staying out of foul trouble is paramount. I'm wondering if KU is going to sag heavily and force outside shots to try and bait them into perimeter shots.
They start 3 freshman & the top 2 are leading them in scoring (Burries, Peat). 4 freshmen in total are in their top 8.
Rebounding is a huge issue tonight. Arizona is #2 in the country in rebounding.
There's not really a weakness to this team unless the 3-point shooting/playing 4 freshman become an issue on the road in what should be an absolutely electric environment. The Phog needs to help tonight.
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I see the Vegas line has Arizona favored by 2.5. If following Analytics this would be more like a 10 pt favorite as just looking at Kenpom, Zona is nearly +10 pts in NET rating over KU with the #2 overall rank (#6 and #2 Offense/Defense.). Bettors are smart and obviously know the historical numbers and Allen Fieldhouse are great equalizers.
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KU with the #43 ranked Offense, Arizona with the #2 defense. Seems like in order for KU to win they are going to have to find a way to make Top 2 defense look average tonight (Paging Peterson). Hopefully he had this one circled.
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Kenpom absolutely hated the Utah game for KU's offense.
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It will be an interesting night for sure. Looking at the numbers which side gives? Self 38-0 on big Monday in Lawrence, Arizona 23-0 on the year and KU 0-5 against #1 teams in the Phog. I think it’s a coin flip game going in.
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@BShark said in Kansas Jayhawks vs Arizona Wild Cats Game Chat Mon. 2/9 8:00 CT:
Kenpom absolutely hated the Utah game for KU's offense.
Well, they faced the equivalent of a below average Mid-Major defensive team on analytics and really didn't move the needle against them. I know Utah has played teams tough but also been blown out in similar situations (playing inferior teams on the road). Their defense played by far their best game. There's been a ton of variance with the KU offense after every game. It was in the 20's not even 2 weeks ago and has fluctuated nearly 10 spots in either direction after each game
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It's a heavyweight matchup between a rock-solid Arizona team & an improved KU team with an immense home court advantage.
This is the best team Arizona has faced since they beat UConn. BYU was the best team they had faced in Conference Play to date & Zona dominated them outside the last couple of minutes which made it interesting. They've controlled or dominated every other game which makes it hard to be really confident about a positive outcome. I do expect them to rise to the occasion and hopefully that's enough to hold serve at home. This is the best team KU has faced all year by far. It's a significant challenge. We'll learn a lot about how tough this team really is this week.
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It's gameday! I think Self will have the boys ready and they will play well. Unfortunately, I think Arizona brings their A-game too. My guess: Arizona wins simply because they are the better team this year. Their defense will make us labor and they will win the interior scoring battle and dominate the boards. But, we have a chance because we have the home court advantage, the most talented player on the court, and one of the best big-game coaches to ever do it. Let's give Arizona a hell of a game. Rock Chalk!
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@BeddieKU23 said in Kansas Jayhawks vs Arizona Wild Cats Game Chat Mon. 2/9 8:00 CT:
@BShark said in Kansas Jayhawks vs Arizona Wild Cats Game Chat Mon. 2/9 8:00 CT:
Kenpom absolutely hated the Utah game for KU's offense.
Well, they faced the equivalent of a below average Mid-Major defensive team on analytics and really didn't move the needle against them. I know Utah has played teams tough but also been blown out in similar situations (playing inferior teams on the road). Their defense played by far their best game. There's been a ton of variance with the KU offense after every game. It was in the 20's not even 2 weeks ago and has fluctuated nearly 10 spots in either direction after each game
For sure. A lot of it was KU was pretty bad from three but it also felt like it was a low energy game in general. Apart from Flory anyway.
Absolutely do not click (new video sept 30 2025): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjs1LR1sarQ
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Super Bowl schmooper bowl. The real game's tonight! Can't wait!
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@BShark @beddieku23 I think we can all agree that we can’t go 3/18 from the 3 point line tonight. I also feel like we missed a fair share of shots up close Saturday. One of those games when the ball just won’t go in the hole. Fortunately we were playing Utah for that game.
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Classic look ahead game for the players. Lot of missed bunnies/open shots. Utah for some reason scored off a lot of our misses too for a stretch.
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Will DP take his matchup with Burries as personally as he took his matchup with Dybansta?
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Well KU is now #9 in both AP and the coaches polls. 4 Big 12 teams in the top 9.
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Saw someone comment earlier that we'll be going against our future coach tonight. Could that happen? Turns 50 this year so has some run left in him, but of course so does Bill.
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I'm gonna predict a KU 82-79 victory.
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We are still finding ourselves with DP. If he can average 25 PPG we can score over eighty. But we can win under 70 also. If we can get on top early and avoid our twice a game stagnation periods it will help. About anyone from this team can have that breakout game like our bench.
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We have a bad habit of giving up way too many ORBs. That is the Wildcats particular strength - 5th in the country. If we can be competitive on the boards, we can and will win this game (absent another 3-18 performance from 3)...
