Arizona forward Tobe Awaka is well aware of the mystique about playing in Kansas’ home gym.
“Even from like from when I was in middle school, high school, you know, I’ve heard it was one of the best college basketball environments,” Awaka said. “It’s going to be exciting.
“First and foremost, our goal is to win, to take care of business. But I think it’s definitely going to be a fun experience and environment.”
Awaka and his teammates will dive into the environment on Saturday afternoon when No. 24 Arizona tips off against Kansas in a Big 12 Conference regular-season finale in Lawrence, Kan.
Arizona (20-10, 14-5) is coming off a 113-100 home win against Arizona State on Tuesday. The Wildcats have won three of their past five games.
Wildcats coach Tommy Lloyd praised his entire team in the victory over the Sun Devils, including bench contributor KJ Lewis, who scored 21 points in 29 minutes on 7-for-13 shooting from the field.
“He knows how teams are guarding him now,” Lloyd said. “He’s picking and choosing his spots pretty well.”
That said, Lloyd would like to see improvement from his players on defense. He called attention to the fact that Arizona recently has given up 96 points against BYU (Feb. 22), 84 points against then-No. 9 Iowa State (last Saturday), and 100 against Arizona State.
“Obviously, it’s three out of four games where teams have played pretty well offensively against us,” Lloyd said. “So, we’ve got to figure out: Is there a code that’s been cracked? Is it a little bit of the code being cracked and a little bit of bad luck? Sometimes they just make the shots, right? We’ve got to dig a little deeper and look into it.”
Kansas (19-11, 10-9) is led by Hunter Dickinson, who averages 16.9 points and 9.9 rebounds per game. Zeke Mayo ranks second on the team with 13.8 points per game, and Dajaun Harris Jr. is third with 9.1 points to go with a team-high 5.6 assists.
Arizona’s top scorer is Caleb Love, who averages 16.4 points per game. Jaden Bradley is scoring 11.6 points per contest, and Lewis is third at 10.8.
Self said the Jayhawks need to be ready for their regular-season finale against a tough opponent.
“I think they’re really talented,” he said of Arizona. “I think they’re fast. I think Tommy has got a terrific team.
“They got off to a rough start, and they’ve been really good since they got off to that rough start. They’ve lost some games that they could have really easily won. I love their personnel. I think they’re really good. We picked three good teams to play the last three games.
“But it’s a great opportunity for us.”
Kansas is 13-3 at home this season. Arizona is 6-4 on the road.
This will be the 13th matchup all-time between the programs. Kansas leads the series 8-4, including an 87-79 victory in the most recent meeting on Nov. 27, 2010.
–Field Level Media
