LAWRENCE, Kan. – No. 2 Kansas (9-1) men’s basketball plays its first true road game of the season when it travels to fellow blue blood Indiana (7-2) on Saturday, Dec. 16, at 11:30 a.m. CT. CBS will televise the contest from Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
Kansas brings a five-game winning streak into Saturday’s contest after its 73-64 win against Missouri on Dec. 9 in the HyVee Hoops Border Showdown. Indiana is looking to bounce back from a 104-76 loss to Auburn on Dec. 9 in Atlanta. The Hoosiers are 2-0 in Big Ten play and 5-0 at home this season.
This will be the 16th meeting between Kansas and Indiana with the Hoosiers holding an 8-7 series advantage. Kansas has won two of the last three meetings, including an 84-62 victory on Dec. 17, 2022 in Allen Fieldhouse.
Kansas enters Saturday’s matchup averaging 79.9 points per game with a plus-14.8 scoring margin. The Jayhawks pull down 39.0 rebounds per outing with a plus-6.7 rebound margin. Kansas leads the nation in assists per game at 22.1 and in field goal percentage (52.7%). KU also averages 7.1 steals and 4.8 blocked shots per contest.
On most every national player of the year watch list, senior C Hunter Dickinson leads Kansas in scoring at 19.4 ppg and leads the nation in rebounds per game at 12.6. He is the only player in the Big 12 averaging a double-double. A three-time Big 12 weekly award honoree, Dickinson has a league-leading six double-doubles and leads KU with 13 blocked shots this season.
Named the Big 12 Player of the Week and an Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week on Nov. 28, graduate-senior G Kevin McCullar Jr. leads the nation in triple-doubles with two. He is third in the Big 12 in scoring at 19.0 points per contest and pulls down 7.1 rebounds per outing. McCullar has made a team-high 14 three-pointers.
Junior F KJ Adams Jr. is second in the Big 12 and ninth nationally in field goal percentage at 67.9%. Adams is averaging 17.7 points in his last three games and 12.9 ppg for the season. He pulls down 3.8 rebounds per game and has 31 assists.
Redshirt-senior G Dajuan Harris Jr. leads the Big 12 with 7.0 assists per game, which is seventh nationally. Harris averages 6.1 points per contest. Freshman G Elmarko Jackson (6.2 ppg, 3.1 assists per game) is coming off a season-high 11 points against Missouri (12/9) and rounds out the KU starters.
Other KU regulars include freshman G Johnny Furphy (5.7 ppg, 12 3FGs), graduate-senior G Nicolas Timberlake (3.5 ppg, seven 3FGs), graduate-senior F Parker Braun (3.5 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 10 blocked shots), and freshman G Jamari McDowell (2.2 ppg).
UP NEXT
Kansas returns home to host Yale on Friday, Dec. 22. The game from Allen Fieldhouse will start at 7 p.m. CT and will be televised on Big 12 NOW via ESPN+.
The three-game Kansas-Yale series dates back 1975 and KU has won all three meetings. The most recent meeting was in Kansas’ 2008 NCAA National Championship season as the Jayhawks defeated the Bulldogs, 86-53, on Dec. 29, 2007, in Allen Fieldhouse.
