Getty
Looking to make No. 2 Kansas takes on Louisiana in a matchup at Allen Fieldhouse on Friday night.
The game is scheduled to start at 8 p.m. ET. While it won’t be broadcast nationally on television anywhere in the US, you can still watch a live stream of the game on your computer, phone or streaming device via ESPN+, the new digital streaming service from ESPN that broadcasts dozens of college basketball games every week–and a handful of pre-Big-12-play Kansas games this season.
You can sign up for a free 7-day trial of ESPN+ right here, and you can then watch a live stream of the game on your computer via ESPN.com, or on your phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app.
If you can’t watch live, all games–including Kansas vs Louisiana–that are streamed on ESPN+ are also available to be watched afterwards on-demand via ESPN.com or the ESPN app.
Preview
Coming into the season, Kansas had three clear contributors with Udoka Azubuike, Lagerald Vick and Memphis transfer Dedric Lawson. And so far, they’ve performed as expected.
Azubuike leads the team with 20 points per game to go with 7.0 rebounds and 2.5 blocks. Vick, following a quiet game against Michigan State, buried all eight of his three-point attempts en route to a ridiculously efficient 32 points on 14 field-goal attempts against Vermont. Lawson hasn’t shot the ball well, but he’s filling up the box score with averages of 10.0 points, 10.5 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.0 blocks per contest.
The pleasant surprise for Kansas, though, has been the play of freshmen guards Quentin Grimes and Devon Dotson. Most anticipated the pair of Top-25 recruits to play important roles as the season wore on, but for them to be playing this well this early in the season makes the Jayhawks really dangerous.
Against Michigan State in their college debuts, they combined to go 9-of-15 from deep for 37 points, seven assists and four steals. And in the encore against Vermont, Grimes had 10 points and 10 assists.
Kansas’ depth is still lacking, but they easily have one of the best starting 5’s in the nation. And even though they were leap-frogged by Duke in the newest AP poll, they remain the No. 1 team in the nation in Ken Pomeroy’s adjusted efficiency rankings.
As for Louisiana, they’ll enter this one as massive underdogs on the road. The Ragin’ Cajuns began the season with a 41-point home win over the University of the Virgin Islands but fell back to earth last Friday when they were trounced at No. 6 Tennessee by 22. They’re No. 125 in Pomeroy’s rankings.
Still, Louisiana won 27 games a year ago, they were picked to finish second in the Sun Belt this season, and they have a handful of former top recruits who are now in their second season with Louisiana after transferring in a couple years ago.
Gant, a 2014 Top-60 recruit who originally went to Missouri, averaged 13.7 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.3 blocks with Louisiana last year. Marquetti, a Top-160 recruit who went to Southern Cal, is a dangerous shooter. Stroman, another Top-160 recruit who went to South Carolina, is elite distributor who is averaging 9.5 dimes per contest this year.
All that is not to say that Louisiana is going to pull off the upset. But they do have some talent and should at least give the Jayhawks a good challenge on their home court. This should be a sneaky fun one to watch.