At around Monday night inside the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri, the young Jayhawks will face their toughest test. Kansas City has been kind to the Jayhawks in years past. The Hawks have won 27 straight regular season games in KC, including the 88-51 win against Ohio last December. Overall, the Hawks are 189-74 in the city, including 5-0 inside the Sprint Center, where the 2008-09′ season really kicks off for the Hawks.
The competition steps up a notch in the form of the Washington Huskies. The Huskies will enter Monday night with a 2-1 record on the season, including their latest win against Florida International, 74-51. Their lone loss, was in their season opener against Portland, 80-74.
Back in 1953 Washington got the honor of facing the Jayhawks in Kansas City, but that match-up had a little more on the line. It was the Final Four inside Municipal Auditorium.
In 1953, the Huskies were led by scoring machine, Bob Houbregs, and now 55 years later, the Huskies once again find themselves being led into Kansas City to face the Jayhawks, by a player who can ‘fill it up’ as well. Senior big man Jon Brockman and his lofty 20.3ppg will surely pose a stiff challenge for Kansas sophomore, Cole Aldrich, and the other young, and more inexperienced, Jayhawk big men.
Brockman’s scoring will certainly present a problem for the Jayhawks, but keeping him off the boards, will be even tougher. Brockman is pulling down 11.3 rebounds per game to go along with his 20.3 ppg. The Jayhawks will need to control the boards to create easy transition points. This means one thing, Cole Aldrich must stay on the court Monday night, and not on the bench sitting with foul trouble.
On offense, the Jayhawks will rely heavily on junior pg, Sherron Collins. Collins tallied 25 against Florida Gulf Coast, and Bill Self expect more of the same from Collins. Aldrich is averaging 12.5 ppg, but again, his ability to stay on the court can mean the difference between winning and losing for the Jayhawks.
This is the first real test on the season for Kansas. The first match-up of the season against another BCS conference school. This game is pretty simple for the Jayhawks. Despite their youth, they have two players that mean so much both offensively and defensively. Cole Aldrich’s allows the lane to open up and creates great spacing for his teammates on the offensive side. Guard Sherron Collins utilizes Aldrich just as he should, and gets to the rim at will. On defense, Aldrich is turning into a great shot blocker (4 ppg) and its that ability that allows his teammates to cheat a bit because they have Aldrich behind them. Without Cole on the court, Kansas is simply a different team. Washington brings potential national player of the year, Jon Brockman, to Kansas City, and he will test Cole from the opening tip on. Brockman is really between 6’6″-6’7″, which gives Aldrich a great height advantage. It wouldn’t be surprising to see Coach Self have Aldrich match-up with someone besides Brockman to start the game. It’s how Aldrich plays while on Brockman, that will make the difference.
