We don’t get a lot of great on-campus matchups in the opening week of any college basketball season — but we certainly have one on Friday night’s schedule.
It’s North Carolina vs. Kansas inside Allen Fieldhouse.
Legit title contender vs. Legit title contender.
“Our history is so intertwined that you can’t help but respect the other, because we’re not what we are, either one of us, without the other,” said Kansas coach Bill Self. “So it just makes it a special, special series, We’re happy to host them — and then we’ll see how tomorrow goes and we’ll decide if we want a return game.”
If the Jayhawks prevail, Self will win his 590th game at KU and tie Dr. Forrest “Phog” Allen as the program’s all-time winningest coach. That’s a significant milestone even if Self predictably downplayed it when it was brought to him this week.
“It’s a significant number because it means I’m damn old,” he said. “And it also means that we play a lot more games now per year than what they did back then. If [Allen] had played 30 games a year back when he was coaching for 39 years, that record, that’s 1,200 games. That record wouldn’t ever be touched. So I’m sure it is significant to some, and I’m sure past players played a role in that, without question. But I’ve been the beneficiary of a lot of good players and good staff, and [of] being at a place [where] you can recruit good guys. But I don’t think I will read into it any more than that. I hold [Allen] in such high regard that I don’t think that he deserves to be thought of as [anything but] the most innovative, and the best coach, to ever coach here. So nothing that will happen from this point forward will convince me otherwise.”
Kansas, led by CBS Sports First Team preseason All-American Hunter Dickinson, is No. 1 in Friday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings. North Carolina, led by CBS Sports First Team preseason All-American RJ Davis, is No. 4. Friday’s tip is scheduled for 7 pm ET.