Rouse: KU, KSU on Big Monday
SUNFLOWER SCHOOLS TO DOMINATE AIR TIME ON “BIG MONDAY,” by Charles Rouse
KANSAS CITY – If you’re a fan of college basketball and you live in or support teams from the state of Kansas, you’re going to get very attached to ESPN’s ‘Big Monday’ telecasts next season. The Kansas Jayhawks have been somewhat of a regular over the years in the second half of the network’s traditional Monday night twin bill that features games from the Big East Conference, typically followed by a battle of conference teams from the Big 12, and Bill Self’s Jayhawks will get its share of the Monday night national spotlight again this coming season.
Only this year, it won’t be just Kansas commanding the lion’s share of ESPN’s Monday Big 12 games. The Jayhawks will be sharing the spotlight with their Sunflower state archrival Kansas State. Largely in response to Kansas State’s outstanding season in 2009-10, in which the Wildcats went 29-8 for the season (11-5 and tied for second in conference play), finished seventh in the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll (right behind Kansas) and came within three games of playing for the National Championship, the team from the Little Apple, as some like to refer to Manhattan, Kan., is being awarded four games on the Big Monday broadcast schedule for the coming Big 12 basketball season.
This is the same number of times that Kansas will play in front of a Monday night national audience on ESPN next winter. Of the eight games that make up the Big Monday schedule next season, either the Jayhawks or Wildcats appear in seven of them. The only game in which one of those two teams will not appear is a Jan, 31 game between Texas and Texas A&M. “We’re very excited to have four games on ESPN’s Big Monday lineup,” said Kansas State head coach Frank Martin in a statement issued to the media. “This is obviously a great opportunity to not only showcase our program, but also the university and the Manhattan community.”
The Wildcats made only one appearance on Big Monday last season, and they have made only 10 appearances total in the 18 previous years the Big 12 and Big Eight conferences have participated as part of ESPN’s Monday night basketball programming. K-State won it only Monday night appearance last season, defeating then No. 1-ranked Texas in a game played at KSU’s Bramlage Coliseum. Prior to this, the most times Kansas State has appeared in a season on a ESPN Big Monday telecast is twice. That happened on three previous occasions: in 1992, 1993 and 2007.
Next season’s Big 12 Big Monday schedule tips off on Martin Luther King Day on Jan. 17, with a late afternoon game between Kansas State and Missouri in Columbia. That game will be followed by Baylor hosting Kansas the same evening. Two featured games on the schedule have Missouri visiting Kansas on Feb. 7 and a Sunflower Showdown game on Feb. 14 (Valentine’s Day), with Kansas at K-State. KU and K-State will both have two home games and two road contests as part of next season’s Monday lineup.
Here is the complete Big 12 Big Monday schedule for the 2010-11 season:
Jan. 17: Kansas State @ Missouri
Jan. 17: Kansas @ Baylor
Jan. 24: Baylor @ Kansas State
Jan. 31: Texas @ Texas A&M
Feb. 7: Missouri @ Kansas State
Feb. 14: Kansas @ Kansas State
Feb. 21: Oklahoma State @ Kansas
Feb. 28: Kansas State @ Texas
The Big 12 regular season defending-champion Kansas Jayhawks (15-1 in the conference last season) have made four Big Monday appearances in each of the last three seasons and nine times overall in the 13 seasons of Big 12 play Kansas’ overall record in Big Monday telecasts is 38-14 (21-1 in games played at Allen Fieldhouse). Under Bill Self. the Jayhawks are 19-7 in ESPN Monday night games, and an unbeaten 10-0 at home.
Charles (Chip) F. Rouse III, the Kansas City Sports Examiner, has spent over 40 years working in and with the news media. Rouse, a journalist by training and a graduate of the University of Kansas, has served in the role of newspaper reporter; in addition to radio and television. To view Chip’s sports articles, including this one, on Examiner.com, please click here. He welcomes your comments at crouse@massappealnews.com.