Arizona State heads to Kansas, again hoping to pull off an upset at Allen Fieldhouse

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When looking at Arizona State’s basketball schedule online, there’s a button available to the right for each game. On that button reads “History.” There, the statistics behind each team’s matchups from their series history are available.

For Kansas, the history page is sparkling, and to some, surprising. The Jayhawks are a blueblood in college basketball while the Sun Devils aspire to be. Yet, ASU and coach Bobby Hurley seem to have something going against Kansas. Arizona State, under Hurley, is 2-0 against Kansas with the Jayhawks ranked No. 2 (2017) and No. 1 (2018).

“You never know what you’re getting into when you go to a place like against a team like that,” Hurley said, recalling the 2017 game at Allen Fieldhouse. “It was a little bit of uncertainty. Got behind early, I was thinking ‘Uh-oh.’ Clawed our way back in.

“That group was fun to coach, they were fearless. Their shot-making that day was off the chart. Individual performances, that’s what it takes to beat a team like Kansas on their home floor.”

ASU (10-3, 1-1 in the Big 12) travels again to Lawrence for a 7 p.m. game Wednesday, again hoping to play spoiler against Kansas (10-3, 1-1) in the third game of conference play for each team.

ASU lost 76-56 to BYU on Dec. 31. Kansas just beat UCF on Jan. 5, almost hitting the century mark, 99-48.

But Kansas is trying to get back on the winning track at Allen Fieldhouse after losing its last game there, a 62-61 thriller against West Virginia on New Year’s Eve. Kansas doesn’t lose often at home (the Jayhawks are 321-19 under coach Bill Self at Allen Fieldhouse) and it rarely loses back-to-back home games, which prompted Hurley to say the matchup is a dangerous one for his team.

“It’s scary because they lost a tough one, West Virginia at home,” Hurley said. “I don’t know if they’ve ever lost two in a row at Allen Fieldhouse. Someone’s going to have to look that up for me.”

Ironically enough, the last time that Kansas technically lost…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/arizona-state-heads-kansas-again-233229832.html

Author : AZCentral | The Arizona Republic

Publish date : 2025-01-07 23:32:00

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