Monmouth Hawks (1-2, 0-0 MAAC) at Kansas Jayhawks (1-1, 0-0 Big 12)
Friday, November 15, 2019 - 7:00 p.m. EST (8:00 p.m. CST)
Phog Allen Fieldhouse - Lawrence, Kansas

TV
Big 12 Now on ESPN+
Play-by-Play: Dave Armstrong
Analyst: Chris Piper 

RADIO
Shore Sports Network 1160/1310AM
Play-by-Play: Eddy Occhipinti
Analyst: Bob Lampinen

SCOUTING THE JAYHAWKS
Kansas comes in 1-1, dropping the opener at Madison Square Garden to #4 Duke before topping UNC Greensboro in the home opener. The Jayhawks are led by Devon Dotson's 19.5 points per game, topping three in doubles while Udoka Azubuike is grabbing nine rebounds per night to go with his nine points.

KANSAS HEAD COACH BILL SELF
Entering his 17th season with the Jayhawks, Bill Self has 681 career wins, 474 of them coming at Kansas. The winner of the 2008 national championship, he has been to three Final Fours and is a 2017 inductee of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. 

HAWKS ON THE ROAD
Monmouth was just 5-11 in true road games last season, but got out on the right foot with a win at Lehigh on Tuesday. King Rice is 55-78 all-time in opponents gyms.

KANSAS AT ALLEN FIELDHOUSE
The Jayhawks have won 22 in a row at Allen Fieldhouse, the third longest streak in the country behind Tennessee and Gonzaga. Bill Self has lost just 13 times in 264 career games in Lawrence.

MONMOUTH-KANSAS CONNECTIONS
-Monmouth head coach King Rice played four seasons at point guard for the legendary Dean Smith at North Carolina. Smith is a 1953 graduate of the University of Kansas and won a national title in 1952 before spending the 1953-54 season as an assistant with the Jayhawks. Assistant Coach JR Reid also played under Smith at UNC.
-Current North Carolina Head Coach Roy Williams spent the years of 1988-2003 as the Jayhawks head coach. Rice and Reid both played at UNC with Williams serving as an assistant on Smith's staff before departing for Kansas.

MONMOUTH VS. RANKED TEAMS
Monmouth's lone win in program history over a ranked opponent came over #17 Notre Dame on Thanksgiving 2015 at the AdvoCare Invitational in Orlando, FL. Overall, Monmouth is 1-16 all time against ranked opponents, and 0-7 against top-10 schools all time. This is the first ranked team Monmouth will play this season. King Rice has played a  nationally ranked opponent in seven of his nine seasons, including playing three in his first season of 2011-12 (#6 North Carolina, #22 Vanderbilt, #25 Harvard). The Hawks are 0-4 against top-5 opponents all-time, while King Rice is 0-1.

MU vs. Top-10 opponents all-time

3/15/01 #1 Duke 95, Monmouth 52 (NCAA Tournament)

3/19/04 #4 Mississippi State 85, Monmouth 52 (NCAA Tournament)

3/17/06 #4 Villanova 58, Monmouth 45 (NCAA Tournament)

1/1/12 #6 North Carolina 102, Monmouth 65

12/8/12 #4 Syracuse 108, Monmouth 56

12/28/16 #9 North Carolina 102, Monmouth 74

12/8/17 #8 Kentucky 93, Monmouth 76

11/28/18  #10 Kentucky 90, Monmouth 44

SALNAVE LEADING THE WAY
Ray Salnave is the lone Hawk to score in double figures in all three games this season, including his sixth career 20+ point performance at Kansas State. He led the MU stat sheet a season ago and has done so again through three contests.

HALFTIME LEADS
The Hawks have led at the break in two of three games this season, and are 1-1 in those games. MU held on to a nine-point lead at the half at Lehigh and dropped a decision at Kansas State after taking a 29-20 advantage to the locker room.

KING RICE VS. THE BIG 12
King Rice is 0-3 against Big 12 opponents, but has held a halftime lead in two of those games and was within a basket in the third. In the 2014 season opener at West Virginia, MU led 26-21 at halftime and ultimately led by as many as 14 in the second half. Last season in the Myrtle Beach Invitational against #13 West Virginia, MU was down just two with 14 minutes to go after a Mustapha Traore breakaway dunk. The Hawks third Big 12 game in the Rice era came on Wednesday against Kansas State where the Hawks took a nine-point lead into the final 20 minutes.

STIFLING DEFENSE
Monmouth held Kansas State to just 20 first half points on Wednesday, the best effort in a half by the Hawks since January 5, 2019 against Saint Peter's. The Blue and White did not allow a point for the first 3:57 of the game, and defended the Wildcats into an 0-for-10 start from three-point range in the opening half.