Cougars approaching n ° 23 Visit of the Kansas in fashion “Businesslike”

The emotional edge, if there is such a thing, seems to be on the side of the Kansas that the Jayhawks take place in the Marriott Center on Tuesday evening for a battle with Byu which was years in the creation of cougars and their faithful fans .

The Kansas, which went from n ° 17 to n ° 23 in the ranking of the first 25 Associated Press published Monday after the defeat of 74-67 on Saturday at UTAH, is angry and must have the impression of having been supported in a corner. The team chosen to win the Big 12 has been slightly disappointing and is out of disappearance for the regular season title.

The Jayhawks will also have come to take revenge, having been upset 76-68 by Byu in Lawrence last year.

Do not try to say all this to the first -year coach of Byu, Kevin Young, who said on Monday that he did not think that the results spent – whether there are three nights or there is a An – had anything with future performance.

“You could make this story:” Oh, they are going to be hungry and that, “said Young on Monday in his weekly press point.” Well, we have played some good games in a row, but we We are also hungry.

The ball rises shortly after 7 p.m. on Tuesday, ESPN televising the very first match between Byu and Kansas at the Marriott Center.

The Jayhawks have already played Provo, but their defeat of 80-70 against the cougars in 1960 came to the Smith Fieldhouse. The Marriott Center of 17,978 places, which was exhausted, opened in 1971.

Overview of Byu-Kansas

The teams have identical records – 17-8 in total and 8-6 in play Big 12 – but very different offensive styles.

Byu likes the pointer to 3, while Ku manages his attack around the Hunter Dickinson of 7 feet 2 inches, which has an average of 16.4 points and 9.5 rebounds per match. He had 17 and 11 last year, but was the goat of Phog Allen after having obtained 6 out of 15 from the Launche francs line.

Unsurprisingly, the game should be a razor, although Byu has a net ranking of 36 and Ku a net ranking of 15.

Oddsmakers had favored byu by 1.5 points at noon on Monday, while Kenpom.com predicts a victory of 74-73 Kansas, with a probability of 51% that the Jayhawks prevail.

“It’s a big team, a prestigious school, and it’s just an excellent opportunity for us to go out and put our best foot forward,” said the goalkeeper by Byu Dallin Hall, who had 16 points in victory by Byu 80-65 on the Kansas State on Saturday.

With the NBA stars break again and not much else in the world of sport, a large part of the television projectors on Tuesday evening will be on this match, and Young said that his group was ready for that but even stay At the touch, which is his way of doing things.

“Dude, we just need to win ball games. For example, our group was not really a group where it has not become too high or too low, “he said. “We were really professional with our approach, each training, each game, whatever the opponent. It’s a bit of how we will also approach this one. »»

Regarding the hopes of the BYU NCAA tournament, this week is as large as possible, with the opportunity of two resumptions of Curriculum Vitae, Quad 1. The cougars are confronted with Arizona n ° 19 Saturday in Tucson. The two giant victories last week – at Virginie -Western, at home against Strikey Kansas State – pushed Byu in the “Last four Byes” section of the ESPN fork with Joe Lunardi.

Kansas was n ° 15 in the NCAA support on Saturday, before the Jayhawks lost to Utah.

Ku coach Bill Self was not impressed after his team suffered his third consecutive road loss.

“No. 15 is obviously very generous. I mean, it’s obviously very good,” said self. “We are not playing that for the moment. We have to do a lot of things better in the section. We just have Need to take it one day both and try to group us with and spend a few good days of preparation before going to provo.

“As you know, it will be a set of monsters there with it, I am sure, a good atmosphere too,” he continued. “So I don’t think we have to worry about the tournament. I think we have to worry about trying to improve and become a good solid basketball team. »»

Kansas has a 5-11 sheet in the Big 12 roads this season and the last.

But the Jayhawks still surround the pre-season player of the year Big 12 Dickinson with a lot of firepower, including the seniors Dajuan Harris, Zeke Mayo and Kj Adams. Mayo is their highest threat in 3 points and has collected 15 points against UTAH, just around its average.

Unlike UTAH, Byu has no one close to Dickinson’s size. The cougars will throw 6 feet 8 inch Keba Keita, 6-6 Fousseyni Traore and 6-10 Mihailo Boskovic during the transfer of Michigan in the hope of preventing it from dominating the painting.

“They do a great job to find angles where he can mark the ball. It is not as long as he is this clever return to the base, “said Young. “They just make a very, very good job to make him the ball where everything he has to do is catch up, come together and finish.”

The cougars were able to keep the Hawkins Javon Small of Virginie-Western and Coleman Hawkins of K-State, but that could be their most difficult challenge to date.

“We will have to do it as a team, just as we had to do with Javon Small, just as we had to do with the combination of weapons from the state of Kansas,” said Young. “In a perfect world, you ride in a 7-2 guy who can blow with him. But obviously, we don’t have that, so we will have to do it in another way. »»

Anyway, Young has a good taste for what this league is.

“I knew it was a difficult league, but every match is an absolute dog fight. I probably underestimated this component, knowing that it was a very good league. It seems that each game is, you know, just a total war, “he said.

“It’s fun to prepare for that, but it is also mentally exhausting, in particular this stage of the season,” he said. “I try to balance it and make sure I don’t get. I try to keep fresh so that I can bring it every day for my guys.