I committed blasphemy yesterday. At least, it felt like it at times.

You see, I’m a Southern boy at heart. OK, I’ve shed my accent over the years, don’t like grits and despise NASCAR. But I’ve never lost my love for college football – especially Southeastern Conference Football.

I look forward to Labor Day Weekend every year – especially Saturday. It’s the first time I can get cozy on my couch for an entire day and watch football.

Yesterday, I couldn’t do that. And it hurt. Watching basketball in a foreign country just didn’t feel right. Don’t get me wrong – it’s great to be here. Ottawa is a beautiful city with perfect weather. But I missed college football.

Until about 7:00. That’s when Kansas tipped off against Carleton at the Scotiabank Place. For the next two hours, I watched a fantastic basketball game transpire right in front of my eyes.

Kansas prevailed 84-83 in the end. But the score really doesn’t mean much.

Back in Kansas, I’m fairly certain people look at it and panic at the thought that the defending national champions only beat a Canadian university by one point.

Carleton was a great basketball team, though. The Ravens were very efficient and deadly from three-point range. That’s what made the game so perfect.

Every Jayhawk possession seemed critical. Kansas hadn’t worked on defense at all in its practices leading up to this trip so Carleton was going to get its points. The question was, could the Jayhawks keep up?

Bill Self didn’t think so. It looked doubtful when the Ravens went 14-4 to start the game. But Kansas found a way. Travis Releford scored 25 points. He didn’t look like a freshman. He looked like Brandon Rush.

Tyrel Reed hit a big three-pointer. Sherron Collins made a big steal. Cole Aldrich made two critical free throws.

Every time Carleton took the momentum, Kansas stole it back. It was truly a great basketball game. That’s the bottom line.

If the Jayhawks blew out an under-manned opponent, they wouldn’t have learned anything. And I would have still been depressed about missing the Alabama vs. Clemson football game.

Instead, Kansas grew as a basketball team 1,300 miles away from home and surprised its coach. I was there to watch it and wouldn’t have had it any other way.

****

Tonight, Kansas returns to Montpetit Hall – where it beat McGill 72-67 Saturday morning - to take on the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees on their home court.

Ottawa isn’t as good as Carleton, but it isn’t too far off. Carleton won five of the last six Canadian national championships. Ottawa, however, is still a perennial top ten team in its country.

Self seemed to be setting everyone up for a letdown last night when talking about this game. He didn’t flat out predict a Jayhawk defeat, but didn’t sound too confident. He noted that his team was beat up. Sherron Collins, still getting back in shape, and Brady Morningstar, ankle injury, won’t play.

Here are three keys to this game for Kansas:

1) Tyrone Appleton and Mario Little. The junior college transfers haven’t done much on this trip. Appleton has played 35 minutes in the first two games only scored two points and recorded one assist. He just doesn’t get involved when he’s on the court. Little, meanwhile, has started both games and scored 17 points. That doesn’t sound bad on the surface. But even Self has said Little was terrible defensively yesterday, which is interesting considering he has a reputation as a lockdown defender.

2) Better Perimeter Defense. The Ravens could shoot – no question. But 15-for-24 is still a little outrageous. The Jayhawks gave them a few too many open looks. The Gee-Gees also looked like they could shoot last night in their game against South Alabama. Kansas needs to limit Ottawa’s penetrate-and-kick chances.

3) More Offensive Consistency from Cole Aldrich. Aldrich has 26 points, 14 rebounds and nine blocks over the first two games so this might be getting a little picky. Still, he hasn’t played solid offense for the course of a game yet. He struggled in the game against McGill to get shots off. Against Carleton, he scored 14 points in the first half and looked like the best player on the court. Then, the second half came and he only scored two more points. Without Collins playing tonight, he needs to be more active.