Southern Utah at Kansas Basketball Preview: A Potential Dajaun Harris Feast
Kansas is back in Allen Fieldhouse after a hard-fought, scrappy win over Duke in the Champions Classic. Now, three days later, the Jayhawks will face a Southern Utah team that does not have the name recognition but rates as the toughest mid-major that Kansas has faced thus far.
Opponent Overview
Team: Southern Utah
Record: 3-1
KenPom: 167
Line: KU -21.5
Team Form
Southern Utah opened its season on the road against New Mexico and was competitive, falling 89-81. Since then, the Thunderbirds are 3-0, and won each of those games by 40+ points, but none of those games were against D-I competition and they were all at home.
Now they’ll have to see if that confidence holds up at all—or for how long—against a top-five team in the best home-court atmosphere in the country.
Players to Watch
The Thunderbirds are experienced (averaging 2.5 years of D-I experience) and balanced (five players average double figures in points per game) but there’s one clear go-to and that’s 6-7 senior and former Illinois guard Tevian Jones.
Jones actually leads the country in percentage of shots taken while he’s on the floor at 48%. As a result, he’s averaging 18 ppg and has an effective field goal percentage of 68.4% (137th nationally). And he’s shooting 40% from three on nine attempts per game so far in three games.
SUU is pretty balanced behind Jones, with eight players averaging at least eight points per game. But a lot of that was likely due to the level of competition and that the Thunderbirds were averaging 103 points per game.
Matchups to Watch
Southern Utah isn’t particularly tall—there’s only one player playing any sort of meaningful minutes taller than 6-7–but the Thunderbirds have been efficient from inside the arc. SUU went 20-34 from two-point range against New Mexico and was closer to 75% against the weaker competition.
On the other hand, the Thunderbirds’ big weaknesses should have Dajuan Harris, Kevin McCullar, and company salivating. Southern Utah has been careless with the ball, turning it over 20 times against New Mexico, and nine of those were from steals. SUU also sent New Mexico to the line 36 times.
Prediction
Southern Utah is going to likely jack up a bunch of threes, which means its competitiveness will likely hinge on how many it can hit early. Meanwhile, Kansas could feel a bit of a hangover coming off the Duke win, and a 3-point barrage could be an awakening for the Jayhawks.
But the two things you cannot do in AFH, and especially against this version of the Jayhawks, is commit live-ball turnovers and lose the free-throw battle. And while it’s a small sample size, those feel like two killers for Southern Utah, especially since it’s been two weeks since facing high-D-I competition.
Kansas 89, Southern Utah 66
Prediction record
3-0 ATS
Last game – Prediction: 74-70 KU | Actual: 69-64 KU
