They’re two college basketball bluebloods, separated by half the country and about 1,300 miles. UConn and Kansas can each claim to be members of the same college hoops ruling class, and though their bloodlines may have developed independently, with the Jayhawks having about a century’s worth head start (James Naismith arrived at KU in 1898, Jim Calhoun at UConn in 1986), they might be considered brothers in basketball royalty.
But when it comes to their history with one another, the Huskies and Jayhawks are relative strangers.
They’ve each spent plenty of time in the Top 25 polls, looked across at each other in NCAA Tournament brackets, and watched each other achieve the sport’s ultimate glory. But on the court, UConn and Kansas have faced each other just three times in their history.
Here’s a look at each of those meetings:
Jan. 1, 1995
No. 7 Kansas 88, No. 2 UConn 59
The first matchup between the two programs came at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, with the Huskies entering the game 15-0 and ranked No. 2 in the polls. A Chicago Tribune story from the time reported that Kansas head coach Roy Williams didn’t want to play UConn. Kansas had already scheduled games with John Calipari and No. 1 UMass and No. 6 Florida (both of which they’d end up winning), and would be in the middle of a tough then-Big Eight conference schedule when the game was set to be played on New Year’s Day in 1995. Williams relented, according to the Tribune, because the game was part of a nationally-televised men’s and women’s basketball doubleheader, with the No. 1 UConn women facing the Jayhawks in the opener.
The UConn women took care of business, winning 97-87 to improve to 17-0 on the season. They’d go on to finish undefeated and take home the school’s first-ever national championship. The men didn’t fare as well, shooting 26 percent in an 88-59 rout. The loss knocked the Huskies from their perch as the last undefeated team in men’s college basketball that year.
“They were magnificent. We certainly haven’t played anyone that good all year,” Jim Calhoun told reporters after the defeat. Ray Allen led the Huskies with 23 points.
Kansas point guard Jacque Vaughn, who’s now head coach of the Brooklyn Nets and whose jersey number hangs in the rafters at Allen Fieldhouse, said the Jayhawks were motivated to play a team of UConn’s caliber.
“Playing a great team like Connecticut adds something,” Vaughn said, according to the Tribune. “We had a different aura coming out of the locker room today. Our intensity was at another level.”
Jan. 19, 1997
No. 1 Kansas 73, UConn 65
Two years after their first-ever meeting, the Huskies and Jayhawks met again, this time at the Civic Center in Hartford. It was Kansas that entered the game undefeated this time, and the No. 1 Jayhawks stayed that way after a late 8-2 run. UConn, unranked at the time, played the game without starters Ricky Moore and Kirk King, who were declared ineligible during the week as the NCAA investigated allegations that the two received extra benefits. King, a senior, would go on to be suspended for the rest of the season, and never played in another college game. Moore was suspended three additional games but returned later that season.
Despite missing two starters, the Huskies gave the nation’s top ranked team a run for its money, led by a freshman Richard Hamilton, who had 21 points, 8 assists and 6 rebounds. Sophomore Rashamel Jones led UConn in scoring with 22 points.
Kansas pulled away thanks to reserve guard Billy Thomas, who keyed the late run, and Paul Pierce and Raef LaFrentz, who each had scored 14 points. UConn dropped to 11-4 on the season.
“We challenged these kids just to play with more energy than Kansas, just play harder than Kansas. Give yourselves a fighting chance,” Calhoun said after the game, according to the Washington Post. “They gave themselves a fighting chance, so I’m very proud of our kids. We didn’t lose. They had to beat us.”
March 19, 2016
(1) Kansas 73, (9) UConn 61
The most recent meeting between the two storied programs came in the second round of the 2016 NCAA Tournament. Kevin Ollie’s Huskies, back in the Big Dance for the first time since winning it all in 2014, pushed past 8th-seeded Colorado, 74-67 in Round 1, leaving the top-seeded Jayhawks in their way, a 32-win squad with plenty of future NBA talent on its roster.
UConn had reached the NCAA Tournament after a stirring run through the American Athletic Conference tournament, emerging after three wins in three days, including a four-overtime win over Cincinnati that featured an unforgettable, miraculous 80-footer to tie the game in triple overtime by Jalen Adams. Some thought UConn was poised for another incredible run in the NCAAs, but it wasn’t to be as Wayne Selden and Perry Ellis combined for 43 points in a 73-61 Kansas win.
Sterling Gibbs led the way for UConn with 20 points, while Rodney Purvis added 17.
“You know, they battled and they were resilient,” Ollie said after the game.” And they just kept fighting. A lot of people were giving up on us, and they could have easily given up on themselves.”
The Huskies wouldn’t win another NCAA Tournament game until last season– en route to the 2023 national title.
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