Getty Lagerald Vick and the Kansas Jayhawks will host the Eastern Michigan Eagles.
The Kansas Jayhawks will look to get back on track on Saturday when they host the Eastern Michigan Eagles at Allen Fieldhouse.
The game is scheduled to start at 2 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 has exclusive coverage to dozens of college basketball games–and several other sports–every week.
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 Eastern Michigan–that are streamed on ESPN+ are also available to be watched afterwards on-demand via ESPN.com or the ESPN app.
Kansas vs Eastern Michigan Preview
The No. 1 Jayhawks (10-1) suffered their first loss of the season on December 22, falling 80-76 to No. 18 Arizona State on the road. KU led by seven with five minutes remaining, but the Sun Devils closed the game on a 15-4 run.
“It’s very tough one because we had the game and we let it slip right through our hands,” Kansas big man Dedric Lawson said, according to the Associated Press.
The junior big man hit 12 of 15 shots for 30 points and grabbed 14 rebounds. Lagerald Vick shot just 5-of-16 from the field and 3-of-11 from deep for 14 points. The Jayhawks shot 7-of-28 from three-point range overall.
Junior guard Rob Edwards came off the bench to score a season-high 15 points for the Sun Devils.
“We didn’t finish down the stretch,” Jayhawks head coach Bill Self said, according to ESPN. “We did a really poor job of [stopping] Edwards. I thought he was terrific. I mean, he was really the difference in the game because when we had control of the game, he basically single-handedly brought them back.”
Self added that his team could learn from the defeat.
“I think that losing sucks, and it’s never good, but it actually can be a positive if you learn from it so that it doesn’t happen again the same way,” Self said. “We didn’t close the game right at all, so hopefully, we can learn from that. But the reality of it is, we weren’t going to run the table. Let’s not get carried away.
“I hate saying this, you never ever want to lose, but certainly you’d rather learn from a nonconference loss than a conference loss. So hopefully, we’ll learn something from it and get better from it. I think it’ll be a good teaching tape for us.”
The Eagles are 6-6, but that includes wins over Siena Heights of the NAIA and Division II’s Central State. They’ve lost five straight against Division I foes, most recently falling to UC Irvine 52-48.
The Anteaters went on a 16-0 run in the second half; the Eagles’ scoring drought lasted nearly 10 minutes.
A season ago, the Eagles went 22-13 and finished with the third-best record in the MAC. Forward Elijah Minnie led the team in scoring (16.8 points per game) and was tied for the team lead in blocks per game (1.9). He also was second in steals (1.8) and rebounds (6.1).
The senior has struggled offensively this season, averaging 11.5 points per game on just 36.3 percent shooting.