HONOLULU _ It's easy to see why Kansas coach Bill Self and Indiana coach Tom Crean said this week that they'd love to explore the possibility of scheduling a home-and-home series between their two, tradition-rich programs.
The college basketball blue bloods, who had last met in 1995, on Friday put on an entertaining show for military personnel stationed in Hawaii _ as well as non-enlisted fans of both teams _ the No. 11 Hoosiers defeating the No. 3 Jayhawks 103-99 in overtime in the Armed Forces Classic in Stan Sheriff Center.
Indiana knocked down a barrage of 3-pointers, finishing with 15 makes in 31 tries. Kansas guard Frank Mason had a career-high 30 points, nine assists and seven rebounds.
Devonte Graham chipped in 16 points, Carlton Bragg had 12, Svi Mykhailiuk had 12 and Landen Lucas added 11 points with seven boards.
James Blackmon had 26 points for Indiana, while Thomas Bryant added 19 points, Curtis Jones 15 and OG Anunoby 13 for the Hoosiers.
The Jayhawks led the season opener for both teams, 46-42, at halftime (and then by nine points early in the second half), thanks to a combined 21 points from Mason (11) and Graham (10) as well as eight from Bragg, who had just eight total points in KU's two exhibition games. Lucas had seven and Mykhailiuk a pair of 3s in the first half as KU hit four of nine to Indiana's 6 of 16 the first 20 minutes.
Sophomore big man Bryant led the way with 16 points for Indiana in the first half.
Kansas trailed 33-29 with 5:11 left in the first half, but used an 11-0 run to grab a 40-33 lead with 3:13 left in the first half. Lucas started the run by converting a layup off a feed from Mason. Mason hit a driving layup and two free throws, Mykhailiuk a 3 and Bragg an inside shot. Bragg grabbed a Udoka Azubuike miss and put it back in for the key hoop.
Indiana, though, closed the half strong and KU led by just four at halftime.
Kansas jumped to an early 9-3 lead thanks to five points from Graham and four from Bragg. But Indiana iced four early 3s, including two from big man Bryant and led, 12-9, at 14:26. Bragg hit a bucket and Lucas two free throws to put the Jayhawks up, 13-12.
KU used an 8-2 run to build a 21-16 lead at the 10:33 mark of the first half. Mason hit a three, and Lucas had a free throw and bucket in that run.
Kansas wore special uniforms with the word, "Honor," on the back of the jersey instead of the players' last names. Indiana wore uniforms with the word, "Courage."
"It's nice," Self said of the jerseys. "If you watch our football team, they have a different uniform for every game they play. Oregon started that I think. Adidas doesn't take any shortcuts or a backseat to anybody in outfitting us. They are providing 12 different uniforms we have throughout our season. This is a one-game deal. There are several others that will be a one-game deal or throwbacks."
The Jayhawks were to hurry out of Stan Sheriff Center for Honolulu International Airport right after Friday's game. Destination, New York where KU will meet Duke at approximately 8:30 p.m., Tuesday in the Champions Classic.
"We've got to hustle to the airport to catch our flights," Self said "When we land in New York (on Saturday) we'll do a walk-through or shooting practice for 20 minutes. They say physically that's the best thing you can do when you are jet-lagged, not just to go to bed immediately. After that we'll sleep the rest of the day and night and hopefully have a somewhat normal Sunday, (with) a light practice. We're going to go to Ground Zero on Sunday. We'll take our team there. Monday I think we'll have a competitive practice. I don't think we'll be able to do that Sunday."
Arizona won the first game of the doubleheader, 65-63, over Michigan State, on a driving layup by Kadeem Allen with 2 seconds left.
