Texas, which pulled off a rare home-and-home sweep of Kansas during the regular season a year ago, on Monday night will try to become the first Big 12 men's basketball team to defeat the Jayhawks three straight times during the 19-year Bill Self era.
Oklahoma State, in fact, is the only other league squad to take two straight from KU in the same regular-season campaign under Self. The Cowboys won in both Lawrence and Stillwater in 2017-18.
Tipoff for the Big Monday game between the No. 10-ranked Jayhawks (19-3, 8-1) and No. 23 Longhorns (17-6, 6-4) is 8 p.m. (ESPN). Iowa State, by the way, is the last league team to beat KU three consecutive times. The Cyclones won five in a row over the Jayhawks spanning the 1998-99, 1999-2000 and 2000-01 seasons. Roy Williams was head coach at that time.
"Last year they cleaned our clock here like Kentucky did, maybe worse," Self said Saturday, referring to former Texas coach Shaka Smart's Longhorns. The Jayhawks suffered the worst home loss in the Self-era, 84-59, to Texas on Jan. 2, 2021 in Allen Fieldhouse. According to KU records, it tied for the worst defeat in fieldhouse history (91-66 to Missouri on Feb. 1, 1989). Kentucky beat KU by 18 points on Jan. 29, which is the second worst home loss in the Self era.
"Then we actually outplayed them in Austin and didn't win the game in overtime," Self added of a 75-72 setback to the Longhorns on Feb. 23, 2021 at Frank Erwin Center. "I think it's a good rivalry," Self added of KU and Texas.
The two teams have split the last six meetings. Prior to that stretch, however, KU won 10 in a row versus Texas and is 25-9 versus the Longhorns in the Self era.
"I think the kids from Texas (Jalen Wilson, KJ Adams, Zach Clemence, Michael Jankovich) are probably excited about playing them," Self said, "and I think everybody else will be, too. Jerrance being here will make it a little more exciting for our guys as far as energy," Self added.
Jerrance Howard worked on Bill Self's coaching staff at KU for eight seasons before accepting a job on new Longhorn coach Chris Beard's staff as an assistant last spring. Beard moved over from Texas Tech to coach at his alma mater, UT.
"I know they've got a guy on their staff that obviously knows a vast majority of the stuff we try to run over the past several years," Self said of Howard. "I'm sure they'll have an insider so to speak. We have to come up with some ways to hopefully attack with the way they defend."
KU senior forward Mitch Lightfoot was asked after KU's 83-59 victory over Baylor on Saturday, about facing Howard's new team.
"Obviously we know him. We've got to go down there and prepare for Texas," Lightfoot said. "They have a bunch of guys returning but also a bunch of new guys. Coach Beard played us in the past. We've got to lock in on film and see what they do, how they play."
Beard has brought in a batch of transfers to go with returnees such as Courtney Ramey, Andrew Jones, Brock Cunningham and Jase Febres. Transfers who started for Texas in its 63-41 win over Iowa State on Saturday in Austin include former Minnesota guard Marcus Carr (14 points, eight assists versus Cyclones), former Creighton forward Christian Bishop (10 points, seven boards, two blocks) and former Utah forward Timmy Allen (six points, eight boards). Forward Tre Mitchell comes to UT from UMass and guard Devin Askew from Kentucky.
"We recruited Christian Bishop of Creighton, who is starting at the 4 for them," Self said. "He and Mitchell (play a lot of 4), We didn't really get the opportunity to recruit Marcus (Carr). We already had Remy (Martin, transfer from Arizona State). We really haven't tried to recruit their guys except we definitely did try to recruit Christian Bishop," Self added.
Lightfoot realizes the Jayhawks face a tough, defensive minded team in Texas. The Longhorns allow just 54.9 points a game, 59.6 in Big 12 play.
"They play super hard. Coach Beard is big on that," Lightfoot said. "We have to make sure we match the intensity. It's one of those games we have to play our best ball if we hope to win."
The Longhorns were ranked No. 23 this past week. KU was ranked No. 10.
"We circled these three games on the calendar obviously," Self said of consecutive games against ranked teams Iowa State, Baylor and Texas. "Because it's a top 20 team on the road (KU won 70-61 on Tuesday), top 10 team at home and top 20 team on the road. We've got two, now we need to try to go get a third. We know that would go a long way toward the success of our season."
