“Given what’s at stake and the stage and all, I don’t know that I’ve been in one better”, said OU’s Lon Kruger, who has coached 927 college games over 30 years. Ratings are down, fan attendance is down, but games like this keep you strapped to your seat, with beer and chips all over the floor.
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So there is a Big Three in the Big 12, but No. 17 West Virginia, which prods and presses its way to 86.6 points per game, will make life hard for each of them, particularly in Morgantown. This isn’t the only big game we’ll have this year because the league is too good.
It was the 40th meeting all-time between the top two ranked teams in the country, and the eighth by two conference foes in the regular season.
The Oklahoma Sooners might be undefeated and are also coming off a major win against the Iowa State Cyclones, but they will take on the Kansas Jayhawks next … on the road. With the game tied and under a minute to go, Jamari Traylor fouled Khadeem Lattin on a rebound with 2.9 seconds left.
Senior forward Ryan Spangler countered with 14 points and a game-high 18 rebounds for Oklahoma.
On the other side, Perry Ellis was piling up 27 points and 13 rebounds in a virtuoso performance of his own against the second-ranked Sooners.
Hield is averaging 26.3 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.2 assists.
Here’s a little more: Last night’s game delivered a 16.79 rating in the Kansas City demographic, the highest for a KU game since the Jayhawks and Kansas State Wildcats squared off on February 11, 2013.
Get ready for tonight’s big Kansas Oklahoma game by find the TV details, live streaming info and start time below.
Buddy Hield’s 46 points ties the most by a player in Division I college basketball this season. That’s especially true when said game is being played on a Monday night in early January, a time where teams haven’t yet adjusted to the grind of conference play and the rest of the American public still has its collective sights set on football. KU would not score on their possession and the Sooners then took a one-point lead on a Lattin jumper. Inbounds passers are supposed to have a window to work with, and Hield clearly didn’t. The four prospects in the Top 100 (Diallo, Mykhailuk, Hield, Selden) combined for only 19.6 percent of the total minutes played and 32.8 percent of the points. Kansas coach Bill Self, who was already in the ear of the official when the foul was called, BLEW UP, and got a quick technical foul.
Start with Hield, who played on some of the same summer teams as Ellis and at a prep school not far from Lawrence.
I’m pretty sure KU stuck with the same lineup in all three overtimes and at the end of regulation.
“I just hate losing”, Hield said, visibly spent from playing a program record 54 minutes.
Oklahoma (12-0) is No. 2, SMU (13-0) is No. 15 and SC (13-0) is No. 22.
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“I want it bad”, Hield said. He had six blocked shots, 14 rebounds and 10 points. But in one of the toughest environments for visiting teams in all of college basketball, with an amped up crowd and the specter of 12 consecutive Big XII championships for the Jayhawks, Buddy Hield and crew didn’t just hold on for dear life, they went punch-for-punch with their rivals, until two late turnovers and exhausted legs got the best of them.
