Kansas Jayhawks to face a(nother) highly ranked team Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse

The Kansas Jayhawks men’s basketball team — for the second straight Saturday — will be hosting a marquee matchup against a Top 15-ranked team in tradition-rich Allen Fieldhouse.

The No. 4-ranked Jayhawks (18-5, 6-4), who defeated No. 5 Houston, 78-65, last Saturday in Lawrence, this week will meet No. 13 Baylor (17-5, 6-3). Tipoff is 5 p.m. with a live broadcast on ESPN.

The Bears have won three consecutive games. KU, 3-3 in its last six games, dropped a 75-70 overtime decision to Kansas State on Monday in Manhattan.

“I would hope GameDay would certainly add something to it without question,” KU coach Bill Self said Thursday, referring to Saturday’s atmosphere.

ESPNGame Day’s crew will air its weekly TV show from 10 a.m. until 11 a.m. Saturday in Allen. Student doors (Gate 2) open at 8:30 a.m. General public doors (Gate 6) open at 8:45 a.m. Admission is free.

“I know we’ll be jacked. I know they’ll be jacked too. It’ll be turned up in similar fashion to what it was last week (for Houston game),” Self said. “But it’ll be two different teams, two different styles than we played last week. It’ll be certainly a different game plan going against them (as opposed to the Cougars).”

Coach Scott Drew’s Bears, who average 83.7 points a game while allowing 70.9 ppg, enter as the country’s third most accurate 3-point shooting team.

Baylor has hit 193 of 479 3s for 40.3%. BU’s opponents have converted 147 of 438 3s for 33.6%.

Freshman guard Ja’Kobe Walter, who averages 14.2 points and 4.5 rebounds a game, has hit a team-leading 43 3s in 125 attempts for 34.4%. Senior forward Jalen Bridges has made 40 of 101 3s for 39.6%. Sophomore guard Langston Love is 35-of-71 from 3 for 49.3%.

“We’ve kind of struggled with the 3-point line in some other recent games so it’ll definitely be one of the points of emphasis going into it, running them off the line (and) building a wall behind them trying to take care of some of their strengths,” KU senior forward Parker Braun said.

“Three-point (shooting) is one of the things they do well. Hopefully coach will give us a plan and we execute it pretty well,” Braun added.

Of trying to stop the 3, Self noted: “Our ball screen defense needs to be on point. Their point guard (RayJ Dennis, 140 assists, 73 turnovers) is terrific. He can get where he wants to go. He can post. He can back guys down, has great vision.”

Dennis has averaged 13.8 points a game with 27 3s in 69 tries (39.1%).

“They’ve got a terrific cast of players. They’ve done a great job in that regard, recruiting and developing. We’ll have our hands full to come up with some ways to try to take away the perimeter and not let their two bigs expose us inside. Obviously they both are very talented,” Self noted.

Yves Missi, a 7-0 freshman, averages 10.5 points, and 5.8 rebounds per game. Bridges, a 6-9 senior, averages 10.7 points and 4.6 boards.

In contrast with Baylor, KU has hit 144 of 401 3s for 35.9% percent. The Jayhawk opponents have made 182 of 566 3s for 32.2%.

KU senior big man Hunter Dickinson, who has hit 17 of 48 3s this season for 35.4%, has been slumping of late from beyond the arc. He’s converted 4 of 23 three-pointers in 10 Big 12 games for 17.4%. He has missed 16 of his last 17 three-pointers over eight games.

“Shooting two a game? I’m fine with that,” Self said, “He needs to be able to stretch it (the defense). He had two in the last game (Monday’s OT loss at Kansas State) go all the way in and come out. He’s a good shooter. He’s not shooting it from 3 like he did to start the season obviously and he hasn’t shot it well in league play, There are going to be times and in those two particular situations they were perfect shots at the perfect time. He just didn’t make them.”

Saturday’s opponent, BU, is tied for first place in the Big 12 in the loss column with Houston (7-3). Iowa State, like BU, is 6-3. KU, TCU and Texas Tech each have four losses.

The Jayhawks, who are 1-4 on the road, travel to Texas Tech for an 8 p.m. game Monday, obviously making it vital for KU to win Saturday at home.

“A lot is energy, bringing it from the jump,” Braun said. “And guys coming in off the bench bringing energy from the jump. That’s what we’ve got to do to set the tone. Sometimes we can come out there and give teams confidence. Some guys have games of their life (against KU) but that is kind of on us, letting them believe that (they can be successful).”