KU to meet UCF on Wednesday night: ‘There are no days off in this conference’
Dajuan Harris wasn’t surprised nine-point underdog TCU came close to defeating No. 2-ranked Kansas on Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse in the conference men’s basketball opener for both teams.
“This Is Big 12 basketball. It’s the best competition in the world. There are no days off in this conference, so there are going to be some scary games,” KU senior point guard Harris said after the Jayhawks’ (13-1, 1-0) two-point victory over the unranked Horned Frogs (11-3, 0-1).
KU’s biggest lead was six points, TCU’s five as the Jayhawks won their 33rd consecutive league opener.
“We just wanted to keep the streak alive,” Harris said on the postgame radio show. “We knew it was going to be a tough game against TCU, just how they play — good in transition and pretty good on defense, too. We just wanted to win, really. We had to grind it out to get this ‘W.’ It was tough like they all are in this league.”
KU, which has won 17 league titles in Bill Self’s first 20 seasons at KU (officially 16 with one title stripped by the NCAA), now is preparing for game two of a marathon 18-game league schedule. The Jayhawks, who dropped a slot to No. 3 in the AP poll this week, will take on unranked UCF (9-4, 0-1) at 6 p.m. Central on Wednesday at Addition Financial Arena in Orlando.
KU’s players and coaches arrived in Orlando via charter flight on Monday night, electing to beat the snowstorm and expected travel problems Tuesday.
“They’ve got a good record. Johnny’s got a good record,” Self said of UCF coach Johnny Dawkins, head coach at Stanford for eight seasons before taking over the Knights program. He’s in his eighth season at UCF. “All road games are tough. It’s only our second true road game of the year (KU won at Indiana on Dec. 16). Our league is a monster. It’s a game you’ve got to go down and play well in.”
UCF, which is in its first year in the Big 12, fell to Kansas State, 77-52, Saturday in Manhattan. The Knights are 7-2 at home this season.
The Jayhawks nearly opened 0-1 in the league Saturday for the first time since 1991-92 season because of sloppy play that accounted for 18 turnovers. TCU had 16 steals to KU’s five.
“Our ball-handling was atrocious,” Self said. “How in the world can we win a game when they get 16 steals, score 22 points (off turnovers) where we don’t get a chance to get back and get our defense set and they score? Our offense was their best offense. We’ve got to correct that and that is correctable.”
Harris, who had four assists, four turnovers and zero points the first half (KU led 41-40 at the break), had four assists to one turnover and 10 points the final 20 minutes.
“Juan, who basically had one of the poorest passing games I can remember, makes an unbelievable shot and free throws late,” Self said.
Harris hit two free throws with 4:52 left to bust a 70-70 tie. Next he hit two free throws at 2:38 to tie the game at 75. Harris’ twisting floater with 0:43 left gave the Jayhawks an 81-79 lead. With the game tied, Harris passed over the head of 6-foot-11 Ernest Udeh to Hunter Dickinson, who converted a game-winning layup with three seconds to play.
“I turned the ball over a lot the first half. I think that really frustrated me. My coaches and teammates made sure my head was straight. I was going to keep it straight anyway because I knew how big this game was. I just had to keep playing,” Harris said.
He described his remarkable last-minute floater this way: “I was going to go up with my left hand but (the defender) jumped to my left side, so I had to switch to my right hand for my floater. I wanted to shoot with my right hand anyway. It’s a better shot.
“I threw it up. I was hoping it went in. It went in. That’s what we needed. We came back down, Hunter hit that quickie play we always run. We get the ball to our best player and he made the shot.”
Harris guarded TCU’s Trevian Tennyson down the stretch. Tennyson, who hit six 3s and had 24 points, did not score the final 4:22.
“Coach asked if I wanted to guard him. I said, ‘Yeah.’ I think that’s what slowed him down at the end of the game. Before that he was coming off screens, down screens, knocking down shots from deep,” Harris said. “They ran some good stuff for him. All the credit to him, but when I got on him I think the game went somewhere else. He’s a good player, though.
“It was coming to crunch time, so I had to dig in deep. I was a little tired, but I had to dig in like I do every game.”
Harris on Wednesday may spend some time guarding 6-4 junior Jaylin Sellers, who leads the Knights in scoring at 17.8 points per game. He ranks third in the Big 12 behind Kansas’ Kevin McCullar (20.1 ppg) and Dickinson (19.4 ppg).
Sellers has made 19 3s, has 21 steals and averages 4.5 rebounds per contest. Junior guard Darius Johnson averages 13.9 points per game. Fifth-year guard Shemarri Allen averages 7.5 ppg with 32 assists and 18 steals.
After the UCF game, KU will return home to meet Oklahoma at 1 p.m. Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse.
