Kansas @ Texas preview
Frank C. Erwin Jr. Center
Last Meeting ( Feb 23, 2021 ) Kansas 72, Texas 75
Expect the feathers to fly and each possession to be treated like a precious jewel when No. 23 Texas hosts No. 10 Kansas on Monday in Austin, Texas, in the latest battle in the Big 12 Conference gauntlet.
Monday's game is the first of the season between the two teams, with the follow-up on March 5 in Lawrence, Kan., to close out the regular season.
Both teams are coming off huge home wins on Saturday, Texas over No. 20 Iowa State and Kansas topping No. 8 Baylor.
The Longhorns came from behind to wallop Iowa State 63-42 as Andrew Jones and Marcus Carr scored 14 points apiece. It was Texas' fourth win in its past five games.
The Longhorns (17-6, 6-4 Big 12) jumped to the lead on Carr's buzzer-beating 3-pointer at the end of the first half and never looked back, running away via a 15-0 spurt through the middle of the second half.
Texas held the Cyclones to 28.6 percent shooting from the floor in the game and 25 percent in the second half.
"Just the next game, the next game on the schedule - continue to play hard," Jones said after the win. "As long as we go out there and be aggressive and we're applying pressure, we're hard to beat. We can beat almost anybody in the country."
The Longhorns are now 17-0 this season when holding opponents to 60 points or less.
Christian Bishop added 10 points for Texas. The Longhorns made 9 of 23 from beyond the arc and outscored Iowa State 24-2 off turnovers.
Now comes Kansas, which took apart shorthanded and struggling Baylor 83-59 to win its second straight game after getting routed by Kentucky on Jan. 29.
"Kansas is pretty good. They're having another good season," Texas coach Chris Beard said in an understatement. "We'll have to play really well."
The Jayhawks (19-3, 8-1) got 18 points each from Ochai Agbaji and Christian Braun in the win. Braun also took 10 rebounds, and Jalen Wilson added 15 points for Kansas, which led by 18 points at the break and eventually outshot Baylor 51.6 percent to 29.6 percent from the floor.
"It was a lot of fun," Braun said afterward. "We did a really good job today coming out with more energy than we did (against Kentucky)."
The Jayhawks did everything right, also owning the boards (46-37) and forging a 48-26 edge in points in the paint while leading for all but the first 1:27 of the game.
"We were in tune, in sync defensively throughout the whole entire game," said Agbaji, the Big 12's top scorer.
He missed Tuesday's win at Iowa State because of COVID-19 protocol and played 32 minutes.
--Field Level Media