Scouting Colorado State

News, notes and quotes on No. 4 KU’s matchup with Colorado State today in Kansas City, Mo., at Sprint Center in the M&I Bank Kansas City Shootout. Tipoff is 5:30 p.m. (CT) on ESPN2 with Carter Blackburn and Stephen Bardo calling the action.

This is the first meeting between KU and CSU in men’s basketball.

SCOUTING COLORADO STATE

Colorado State returns eight letterwinners and four starters off last season’s team, which went 16-16 and 7-9 in the Mountain West Conference. The Rams (4-2) opened this season with wins over Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Denver before losing at home to Sam Houston State. CSU then beat Drake and Fresno State at home before losing at Colorado in overtime on Wednesday, 90-83.

CSU head coach Tim Miles was extremely dejected after the CU loss.

“It’s maddening,” Miles said. “It makes me livid. It makes me furious.”

Senior forward Andy Ogide leads the Rams’ attack with 17.5 points and 8.6 rebounds per game, while also shooting a team-high 68.2 percent from the field. Senior forward Travis Franklin is next in scoring (16.2 ppg, 4.7 rpg, team-high eight steals), followed by sophomore guard Jesse Carr (8.0 ppg, team-best 20 assists), sophomore guard Wes Eikmeier (8.2 ppg), senior forward Andre McFarland (7.7 ppg, team-high 12 three-pointers) and sophomore guard Dorian Green (7.0 ppg)

The 6-2 Green is a former standout at Lawrence High School. He has started all six games and leads the team in three-point shooting percentage (50.0, 8-16) while averaging 25.5 minutes per game. He is also tied for second with 15 assists.

CSU averages 81.3 points per game and allows 73.3. The Rams are shooting 53.3 percent from the field, 38.9 percent from three-point range (7.3 made threes per game), and 66.2 percent at the free-throw line. They’re holding foes to 46.3 percent shooting and 43.2 percent from beyond the arc, while outrebounding opponents 32.5 to 29.7 boards per game.

Miles is 36-65 in his fourth season at Colorado State and 246-197 in his 16th season overall.

SELF ON THE RAMS

KU coach Bill Self has great respect for the Rams.

"I think they are pretty good,” Self said. “I think they got a nice team and like a lot of teams out there, including us, they look really good some moments and not as good other moments. Colorado got them in overtime. Colorado (is) pretty good, and this was in Boulder. That right there tells me that they’re (Rams)  very capable.

“I think it will be a good test for us. Dorian Green is a good player coming home so he’ll have everybody jacked up. Of course they’ll be jacked up anyway. I am sure the crowd will be good and hopefully sold out. We need to play better, we have not played very well the last two weeks to be honest.”

KANSAS CITY, HERE WE COME

The Jayhawks have had great success playing in Kansas City over the years. KU posted an 80-24 record at Kemper Arena and is 9-2 at Sprint Center after winning the 2010 Big 12 Championship there. Overall, KU is 194-76 in games played in Kansas City.

Junior guard Tyshawn Taylor is looking forward to playing in K.C.

"The Sprint Center has been good to me so far, so I like it,” Taylor said. “I'm happy about playing (there). It's cool.

“I like being away anyway,” he added. “We have to get used to playing away. We have a road game coming up at Cal (on Dec. 22) that will be our first road game. We have to get ready for playing away from Allen Fieldhouse.”

KU will hit the road in earnest during January. After three straight home games in late December and early January against Texas-Arlington, Miami (Ohio) and UMKC, the Jayhawks play six of their next nine contests on the road (beginning with their game at Michigan on Jan. 9 and then starting Big 12 play), including three of their last four games during that stretch against Colorado, Texas Tech and Nebraska.