Allen Fieldhouse was rocking during Jayhawks’ victory over UConn: ‘It was fantastic’
Kansas Jayhawks fans have made it clear they will support their team team through any and all men’s basketball matchups at Allen Fieldhouse.
The Jayhawks have sold out 356 consecutive games there dating to 2001-02.
Some games are more meaningful to the Jayhawk faithful than others, of course. Take Friday night’s Big East/Big 12 Battle between the country’s last two national champions: UConn, which won the NCAA title early this year, and KU, which won it in 2022.
Some 16,300 fans arrived early for Friday’s 8 p.m. tipoff — and then stayed late as KU won a 69-65 thriller.
“There are probably some places out there that can rival that,” KU coach Bill Self said of the crowd excitement that lasted throughout the game. “I don’t know if there’s anybody out there that can rival it over 40 minutes like that.”
“It’s as good a place as there is. This team hasn’t yet, but hopefully, this will be a good starting point to learn how to have confidence by being in the building. And there are 16,000 people that got here early that made sure they played their role to make sure we had a successful night. So, yes, it was fantastic.”
A marquee matchup between the No. 5 (KU) and 4 (UConn) teams in the country on a Friday night had to be a plus for ESPN, which showed the game during prime-time.
“I think it prepares you for the (NCAA) Tournament. But more importantly, it prepares you for your league,” Self said of a big-time early-season game. “Because that’s what I’ve always thought, your non conference was your preparation for your league and your league was preparation for your NCAA Tournament. I think it’s a great game. It’s a hard game. We’ve been playing for three weeks now, we’ve already played Kentucky (win), Connecticut (win), Tennessee (win) and Marquette (loss). I mean, that’s a lot out of eight games.
“And then we’ll get Missouri this week (Dec. 9 at Allen), and then Indiana the following week (Dec. 16 in Bloomington). So I think that you will not find out much about your team unless you play games like this. Now, granted, you don’t have to play top-five matchups to learn about your team. My personal opinion is this is what our sport needs. Because in a time where we’re getting dominated by what’s going on with football, and rightfully so, this is the only way that you can bring attention to our sport.”
Kansas center Hunter Dickinson, who played at Michigan for three seasons before joining the Jayhawks via the transfer portal this season, was asked if such matchups are especially fun to experience. The crowd included former Jayhawks/NBA forward Nick Collison, as well as actor Jason Sudeikis — who actually played drums with the KU band during a second-half timeout and implored fans to make even more noise with the game on the line late.
“It’s a lot more fun when it’s at Allen Fieldhouse,” said Dickinson who went 3-for-4 from 3-point range and 6-of-12 overall. He finished with 15 points, nine rebounds and four blocks as KU improved to 7-1 — the same record as UConn.
“I wouldn’t mind a couple more big games at Allen,” Dickinson said. “For us to play against the defending national champion on our own floor … it’s a big game.”
UConn coach Dan Hurley was pleased to take part, although he admitted: “The environment knocked us on our heels. It was a heck of an environment. It rattled us for a while.”
He and his players were up for the challenge, though. The Huskies turned a 12-point deficit with 4:31 left in the first half into a five-point lead with 9:09 to go.
“We are not accustomed to losing,” Hurley said. “We are a program that our expectation was tonight’s game would be really really hard. Not many teams in the country, in this type of showdown, a Friday night game, would you have a chance to come in here and win it.
“When you are a top-tier program, big brand, blueblood and national champion you owe it to college basketball, owe it to your fans, owe it to your sport, to play these type of (nonconference games): Indiana (win), Texas (win), Carolina Gonzaga, Kansas. We want to play these types of home-and-homes. We think they that are great for college basketball.”
Self elected to not play his bench much in such a big game so early in the season.
Freshman guard Johnny Furphy hit two 3s and scored six points in 14 minutes off the bench Friday. Parker Braun and Nick Timberlake each played two minutes, while Jamari McDowell only entered the game for the final possession.
“I thought Johnny did well,” Self said. “We didn’t play our bench. Jamari didn’t play and Nick didn’t play much. But when the building is juiced like that — and I know guys got tired and it’d be better off if guys played 34 or 33 as opposed to 37 — but that was a game that I don’t think the crowd was going to let us get tired.
“And guys can play longer minutes. I don’t know if you guys have noticed, do timeouts seem twice as long this year? I’ve got to do a better job with timeouts and keeping guys sitting over there. Because guys aren’t going to get near as tired if you get a two-minute timeout every four minutes.”
Next up for KU are the Kansas City Roos from nearby UMKC. Tipoff is 7 p.m. Tuesday at Allen Fieldhouse.
