When Is the Next Ku Jayhawks Play Again

Kansas guard Ochai Agbaji (thirty) shoots next to St. John's guard Rafael Pinzon (24) during the commencement half of an NCAA college basketball Fri, Dec. 3, 2021, in Elmont, North.Y. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)

For the second consecutive flavor, the Kansas men's basketball game team's regular season figures to come up up short of its original schedule.

A year ago, the Jayhawks — and the rest of college basketball — powered through changes brought most by the COVID-nineteen pandemic, which created pauses, cancellations and rescheduled games from commencement to terminate.

This season, with vaccines making planning easier, the Jayhawks played their get-go 10 games without incident but saw the 11th canceled when Colorado's men's basketball program fell victim to multiple positive COVID-nineteen tests within its plan.

The seventh-ranked Jayhawks (9-one) learned of the cancellation roughly two hours before last Tuesday's tipoff in Boulder, Colorado. With winter interruption and the kickoff of the Big 12 Conference schedule upwards next, KU coach Bill Self said was unsure whether the Jayhawks automatically would add a game to make upwardly for missing out on the competition with the Buffs.

"I don't know how we'll do that right at present," Cocky told reporters at the team hotel in Boulder on Tuesday dark.

A KU spokesperson said Tuesday night, in the immediate aftermath of the cancellation, that the KU-CU game would not exist rescheduled this season.

However, the proficient news associated with KU potentially making up the missed game is that there are no requirements tied to who the opponent could exist.

"This doesn't have annihilation to do with home or away," Cocky said Tuesday. "We could play Washburn. Nosotros could play anybody. Last year we got UTEP. We could play whoever."

The biggest obstruction that comes with replacing the game is timing. Terminal season, with the pandemic raging at the outset of the schedule, conferences around the country — including the Big 12 — cut the nonconference flavour a little short and built an extra calendar week into the schedule at the back end for makeup games.

No such calendar week before the briefing tournament exists this season, meaning KU would have to add together an opponent into its existing slate of games if the school elects to make up the game.

"There will be other games canceled moving forward," Self said. "And maybe if we play a Sat, Monday, Sat, maybe (we could) fly somebody in on Wednesday or Th. At that place volition exist opportunities like that if that's what nosotros desire to do. It might not be smart during conference play either."

With Self headed to Texas to spend the holiday with his family unit, KU banana coach Kurtis Townsend filled in for him on Hawk Talk earlier this week.

The veteran KU assistant said he did not recollect Kansas would add a game to its schedule to make up for the missed opportunity at Colorado.

"I don't retrieve that one will exist replaced," Townsend said. "Now, if something happens with the (home) game against Harvard the 29th, that gives us some time to detect somebody else who is supposed to play on the 29th who had a game. We could squeeze ane in at that place."

Every bit of today, KU'due south next scheduled game confronting Harvard at seven p.one thousand. Midweek at Allen Fieldhouse is however on. Harvard played its most contempo game on Tuesday night and moved to 8-4 on the season with a 77-69 victory over Howard.

The Reddish made it through that game unscathed and, like Kansas, took a few days off for wintertime break following the victory.

The fact that Harvard got through that game certainly qualifies as a good sign for Kansas to return to its regular schedule next calendar week. But it's worth noting that the Ivy League was the get-go in college basketball game to cancel its mail-season tournament when the pandemic first striking in March of 2020.

Regardless of what the immediate future holds, Townsend said he idea the demanding nature of KU's Big 12 schedule would brand information technology awfully tough for the Jayhawks to add another game to the schedule in the weeks to come.

"I recollect in one case nosotros become to TCU on New year'south Day, we'll have 2 games a week the rest of the fashion and we've got Kentucky smashed in in that location toward the end of Jan," Townsend said. "We would accept to play three games a week in one case to practice it. I'm not certain if we will unless other games get canceled similar what happened last year."

Later on a few days off for the holidays, the Jayhawks are slated to return to campus on Dec. 26 to brainstorm preparations for Harvard. Townsend said KU currently is slated to practice at seven p.m.

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Source: https://www2.ljworld.com/sports/ku-mens-basketball/2021/dec/24/jayhawks-unsure-whether-theyll-schedule-another-game-to-replace-colorado-on-2021-22-schedule/

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