Bill Self’s Illinois Fighting Illini men’s basketball team went 1-2 at Indiana’s Assembly Hall from 2001 to 2003.
Two decades later, Kansas’ 21st-year head coach still remembers the raucous atmosphere in the 17,222-seat building, which in October 2016 was renamed Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
“I think the place we’re going Saturday is the best home court on the road I’ve ever played at,” said Self.
His No. 2-ranked Jayhawks (9-1) will travel to (7-2) Indiana for an 11:30 a.m. (Central Time) tip on Saturday in Bloomington. The game, KU’s first true road contest of the 2023-24 season, will be shown live on CBS.
“When we played at Indiana when I was at Illinois … I’ve never been at a place that’s been a better homecourt on the road. Saturday will be as good as any place we’ve been,” Self said, including Missouri and K-State as “some of my favorite places to go. They are as fun as anywhere.”
Self’s first Fighting Illini squad defeated Indiana 67-61 at Assembly Hall during the 2000-01 season. Indiana clobbered Self’s Illini 88-57 during the 2001-02 season in Bloomington. Then, in 2002-03, Illinois again fell to Indiana at Assembly Hall, 74-66.
“They were great on that day,” Self said in reference to the Hoosiers’ 31-point victory in 2001. “They went to the national championship game that year. Their starting guards were 16-for-21 from 3. We didn’t guard them. There’s no reason to yell (at your team), nobody can hear you. It was one of those games, ‘Let’s get this over with.’”
Self’s Illini teams went 4-3 versus Indiana in three seasons. KU hasn’t played at Indiana during the Self era, but the Jayhawks are 0-3 all-time at Assembly Hall: Roy Williams’ Jayhawks suffered a lopsided 80-61 defeat in December 1994 at Bloomington.
“They are definitely an NCAA team, projected third in the Big Ten,” Self said of the Hoosiers, who lost 104-76 at Auburn last Saturday in Atlanta.
Indiana has already won Big Ten Conference games against Maryland and Michigan. The Hoosiers lost a non conference contest to UConn 77-57 on Nov. 19 in New York. KU toppled UConn 69-65 on Dec. 1 at Allen Fieldhouse.
Indiana is 4-0 at home this season and 33-6 overall at home in the three-year Mike Woodson era.
“It’s loud,” Self said. “I assume it’ll be a packed house Saturday. I’m sure it will be almost all red. It’s a lot like Allen Fieldhouse when it’s turned up. I’m sure it will be turned up Saturday.”
KU center Hunter Dickinson, who played three years at Michigan before transferring to KU, scored 24 points and grabbed 14 rebounds in the Wolverines’ 75-73 overtime loss to Indiana last season in Bloomington. Overall he’s 2-1 in games played at Assembly Hall, 2-3 versus the Hoosiers overall.
“We watched the Michigan game against Indiana last year. Hunter had a good game,” Self said. “We watched some different things and how they guarded Hunter because they may do something similar.”
The Hoosiers, who are led by 7-foot, 242-pound center Kel’el Ware (16.7 ppg, 9.2 rpg) and 6-9, 233 forward Malik Reneau (14.8 ppg, 4.9 rpg), dropped an 84-62 decision to KU last season at Allen Fieldhouse.
Will KU and Indiana continue series?
This is the final game of a home-and-home series between KU and Indiana.
Self was asked Thursday if there were any plans to continue the series between the No. 2 (KU) and No. 10 (Indiana) winningest programs of all time.
“It’s a great home-and-home but there are also some other opportunities,” Self said. “We are trying to schedule some other people that are great home-and-homes too. We’ll wait and see what happens. An Indiana-Kansas type home-and-home would be good for us and I’m sure it would be good for the majority of the bluebloods to play games like that but no decision has been made.”
KU is slated to begin a home-and-home with North Carolina on Nov. 8, 2024 in Lawrence, with the return game scheduled for Nov. 14, 2025, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Injury, illness updates
KU junior forward KJ Adams was ill and did not practice Thursday, KU coach Self said. Self is hoping he can return to practice Friday.
Indiana senior guard Xavier Johnson (10.5 ppg, 2.3 apg) has missed the last three games with a lower-body injury. He was listed as questionable before last Saturday’s game versus Auburn. There was no official word yet, os of 5 p.m. Friday, regarding his status for the KU game.
Johnson broke his foot in last year’s loss to Kansas.
Gary Bedore covers KU basketball for The Kansas City Star. He has written about the Jayhawks since 1978 — during the Ted Owens, Larry Brown, Roy Williams and Bill Self eras. He has won the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year award and KPA writing awards.
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December 15, 2023 at 05:52AM
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KU coach Bill Self expects ‘loud, turned up’ crowd at Indiana’s Assembly Hall Saturday - Kansas City Star
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