No. 11 Kansas and Arizona State will meet for the first time as Big 12 foes on Wednesday night in Lawrence, Kan.
The Jayhawks (10-3, 1-1 Big 12) bounced back from last week’s 62-61 home loss to West Virginia with a dominant 51-point win at UCF on Sunday.
Hunter Dickinson led the Jayhawks with 27 points on 12-of-17 shooting in the 99–48 win, while Flory Bidunga added 12 points and six blocks. Bidunga and Dickinson were a force in their minutes together, allowing Bidunga to get more playing time in the sixth man role.
“We haven’t had rim protection like this all year,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “We’ve made up for some poor defensive play from guys competing and blocking, so I would say the biggest thing I like about them right now is that defensively they can play together. (Bidunga ) Pretty good and pretty fast, he can play some out on the perimeter.
“But the biggest thing, even with (Dickinson), we had rim protection.”
The Jayhawks finished with 12 blocked shots and defeated the Knights by a heavy margin of 63–32. UCF shot just 20.6 percent (14 of 68) from the field.
Dickinson led Kansas in both scoring and rebounding this season, averaging 16.0 points and 10.3 rebounds per game.
Kansas also gets key contributions from guards Zeke Mayo and Dajuan Harris Jr. Mayo averaged 14.0 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.5 assists and scored more than 25 points in three consecutive games to end December before scoring six points in a win over UCF. Harris leads the Jayhawks with 5.5 assists and 1.5 steals per game in addition to averaging 10.4 points.
Arizona State (10-3, 1-1) rebounded from a 20-point loss at BYU in its inaugural Big 12 game last week with an 81-61 win over Colorado on Saturday, led by B.J. Freeman’s 8 points. Also got 19 marks. -12 shooting. Bashir Jihad added 17 points in the win, making 4 of 6 attempts from long range and 6 of 9 attempts overall.
Jihad and Jason Sanon average 13.5 points per game to pace the Sun Devils. Jaden Quaintance leads Arizona State with 8.2 rebounds per game and is second in the nation with 3.15 blocks per game, while also averaging 9.2 points. Freeman is averaging 11.8 points per game, while Alston Mason is averaging 11.0 points and a team-high 3.5 assists.
Heading to Lawrence for a date with the blueblood Jayhawks will be one of the biggest tests on Arizona State’s schedule in its first outing in the Big 12. The Sun Devils believe they are ready to prove their potential.
“We’re very confident,” Freeman said. “As long as we come here and play our basketball, I think we’ve got a chance with anybody in the country. I feel like how we play, how fast we play, and how physical we are on defense. , We had a very good chance to win.”
–Field Level Media
