A top-tier college basketball matchup is on tap 2,500 miles off the mainland as No. 11 IU takes on No. 3 Kansas in Honolulu in the State Farm Armed Forces Classic to start the regular season.
While both teams enter with high expectations for the upcoming season, neither coach feels like his team has found its identity. IU Coach Tom Crean has talked tirelessly about how his team hasn’t been able to implement as much of the offense as he’d like at this point in the season, but battling the Jayhawks will help the Hoosiers as they move forward.
“I’m not big on measuring-stick games,” Crean said. “But I think when you play against Kansas you’re going to learn a lot about where you’re at going into the rest of the month and into December when you play a team like that this early.”
The Jayhawks may have the edge in the backcourt with senior guard Frank Mason III and junior guard Devonte Graham, but the Hoosiers appear to have the upper hand in the frontcourt.
The tandem of sophomore forwards Thomas Bryant and OG Anunoby has the potential to get the Jayhawks into foul trouble down low and force Kansas Coach Bill Self to motion to his bench early.
Kansas fifth-year senior center Landen Lucas will be marked with the task of stopping Bryant down low. Lucas has the experience and size to stop Bryant, but beyond Lucas the Jayhawks don’t have much experience in the frontcourt.
The best bet off the bench for Kansas to limit Bryant would be 7-foot freshman Udoka Azubuike. The 17-year-old from Delta, Nigeria, has shown flashes of greatness early for Kansas but is still a raw player on both ends of the floor. He fouled out in just eight minutes in the first exhibition game and picked up three fouls in the first nine minutes in the second exhibition.
Stopping Bryant will be one thing for the Jayhawks on Friday night, but limiting Anunoby might be the bigger challenge.
“It’s very hard because a guy like OG can do a lot of things out there,” Bryant said about defending Anunoby. “He can take you down low, stretch you out to the 3-point line, he can shoot it really well and just takes advantage of what the defense gives him or what the offense gives him.”
Kansas will expect Anunoby to do all of those things. Jayhawk freshman Josh Jackson will most likely be the one that has to stop the versatile sophomore from Jefferson City, Missouri.
Jackson enters the season as the No. 1 player in the 2016 recruiting class according to 247sports. The 6-foot-8 freshman has shown his potential early on the offensive side but has lacked defensively, which is where Kansas could be in trouble going up against Anunoby.
The matchup to watch will be on the flipside as Jackson will be the first of many elite offensive players that Anunoby will be called upon to guard this season. He’s averaged 12.5 points per game in the two exhibition games, but Self said the freshman needs to be more aggressive and create extra possessions by offensive rebounding, which will be tough to do against Anunoby.
Because a national championship won’t be decided in November, Crean said he knows whatever happens in this game he can use as a teaching point for his group.
“You win a game in here, you can’t all of a sudden feel like you’ve arrived. You lose a game here, you can’t feel like you’re not going to win another game,” Crean said. “No matter who wins, there’s going to be improvements to be made, strengths to improve upon and weaknesses to be corrected, and if you keep that mindset, it can carry you hopefully a long way.”
