LAWRENCE — Kansas basketball continues Big 12 Conference play on Sunday on the road against UCF.

The No. 7 Jayhawks (9-3, 0-1 in Big 12) are coming off of a loss at home against West Virginia. UCF (10-2, 1-0 in Big 12) just beat Texas Tech on the road. It’s an opportunity for a rebound for KU, but coach Bill Self’s squad did lose this matchup last season.

Here’s how fans can follow, watch and stream the game against UCF, which is scheduled to tip off at 3 p.m. (CT):

For 1st time in more than 30 years, Kansas basketball suffers loss in conference opener

What channel is Kansas basketball vs UCF on today?

Kansas basketball vs UCF time today

• Date: Sunday, Jan. 5
• Start time: 3 p.m. (CT)

Kansas basketball will play UCF at 3 p.m. (CT) at Addition Financial Arena in Orlando.

Kansas basketball vs UCF prediction

The Jayhawks are in a tough position this week after losing their Big 12 opener at home against West Virginia. It’s not as if making the trip to face UCF this weekend will be some break for Kansas. But this could be the wake-up call that KU needs on the way to a 74-67 win in front of a hostile crowd.

Kansas basketball 2024-25 schedule

Here’s a look at the last three games Kansas has played during the regular season. The full schedule is available online.

• Dec. 14 (home): NC State — Kansas won 75-60

• Dec. 22 (home): Brown — Kansas won 87-53

• Dec. 31 (home): West Virginia — Kansas lost 62-61

UCF basketball 2024-25 schedule

Here’s a look at the last three games UCF has played during the regular season. The full schedule is available online.

• Dec. 14 (neutral): Tulsa — UCF won 88-75

• Dec. 21 (home): Jacksonville — UCF won 86-66

• Dec. 31 (away): Texas Tech — UCF won 87-83

Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — First responders helping a stranded truck driver narrowly missed being caught up on a secondary wreck on an icy Interstate 435 Saturday in Kansas City, Missouri.

Around mid-afternoon, a band of freezing rain fell across Kansas City, coating many surfaces with a glaze of ice. Hardest hit were many of the area’s interstates and highways.

Kansas City Scout video recorded by KSHB 41 captured first responders providing assistance around 3:12 p.m. to a stranded truck on I-435 near Missouri Highway 350.

While the responders are helping, another semi loses traction and careens straight toward the stranded truck and another stranded vehicle.

The semi smashed into the stranded vehicles but the force of the collision wasn’t strong and first responders were able to move out of the way.

—

In one sense, the playoffs have already begun for the Denver Broncos.

Win and they’re in. Lose and it is sudden death.

That’s the essence of playoff football. The end of the season is on the line.

Then again, when the Broncos (9-7) host the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday with the chance to clinch the final wild-card berth in the AFC playoffs, there’s a key reason why the matchup falls so short of a virtual postseason matchup: Both teams don’t have to win.

I mean, the Chiefs (15-1) won’t be playing with Patrick Mahomes.

What a break for the Broncos. Chiefs coach Andy Reid, with the No. 1 seed locked up, will rest Mahomes and other key players. Maybe in a weird way, Denver is owed such a favor from the Department of Karma. In Week 10, when Mahomes was on the field, the Broncos nearly upset the Chiefs on their own turf, except that Leo Chenel blocked a Will Lutz field goal attempt as time expired.

Now Denver just needs to take the rematch, with Carson Wentz starting for Mahomes.

Talk about a trap game.

It’s too bad it’s come down to this for Sean Payton & Co. For the third consecutive week, the Broncos have a shot at clinching a playoff berth. And for the third straight week they can try finishing strong and saving face. Lately, that has not been Denver’s forte. And now it might prove to perfectly symbolize a season that has come with bright spots including rookie quarterback Bo Nix and a defense that leads the NFL with a franchise-record 56 sacks but has been undermined by faulty finishes.

They blew an 11-point second half lead in falling at the L.A. Chargers in Week 16, then last weekend lost in overtime at Cincinnati, when they didn’t make a single first down on two OT possessions.

Blow it on Sunday (with the Bengals and Dolphins looking for their own breaks) and the Broncos will walk off as one of the NFL’s biggest collapses in recent seasons.

Of course, it starts at the top. Payton, in his second season as Broncos coach, has changed the culture as promised. After kicking Russell Wilson to the curb, his first-round selection of Nix and the development of the rookie has been more impressive when considering the Broncos have the NFL’s longest active streak, 33 games, without a 100-yard rusher. He has Denver in position to claim the franchise’s first playoff berth in nine seasons, since it capped the 2015 campaign by winning Super Bowl 50.

Yet Payton might have already clinched that playoff berth if he had elected to go for two at the end of regulation, rather than playing for overtime and kicking a PAT.

Sure, in hindsight, it’s easy to second-guess his decision. He has, too.

“Based on the outcome, you always second-guess,” Payton said during a press conference this week. “I know I kind of felt I trusted my gut in that moment.”

Think of what happened to set up the decision. Nix escaped a sack and heaved a prayer on fourth down that Mims snagged between two Bengals defenders. The too-close-to-call instant replay decision came back in Denver’s favor.

If there was anytime for Payton to press his luck (or assert his genius), that was it.

But his gut wouldn’t let him do it? Go figure. The conservative PAT decision came from a man who pulled off one of the gutsiest calls in Super Bowl history in calling for an onside kick to open the second half of the New Orleans Saints win against Peyton Manning the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl 44.

Sure, he played last week with a rookie quarterback who has thrown six interceptions in the past four games. But a week after being so aggressive in losing against the Chargers, the flip in Payton’s crunch time strategy was baffling.

By going for the two points, Payton would have given his team a chance for what could have essentially been a walk-off win, without putting the ball back in the hands of the red-hot Joe Burrow. As it turned out, they still lost.

Now what? At least Payton and his team have another week to claim a playoff berth – or else. He talked this week about the big sign players see each time they enter the locker room at the Broncos headquarters. It reads: Keep Fighting.

“I like the grit on this team,” Payton said.

Well, here’s another message that I’m guessing, with next week not promised, Payton will embrace as their leader.

No guts, no glory.

NBC’s Team?

Since the end of the 2022 season, when they drew a spicy (and pivotal) Week 18 matchup at Lambeau Field in the NFL’s regular season finale, the Detroit Lions are poised for their seventh appearance on NBC for a key primetime matchup on “Sunday Night Football” or a playoff game.

That’s a nugget that Lions fans can appreciate, but it can easily be overlooked amid the historic ramifications of the matchup against the Minnesota Vikings, when the two 14-2 teams meet with the most victories ever (28) for a regular-season game.

From 2006 (when NBC returned to broadcasting the NFL) to 2022, Detroit had just nine such showcase games. Now the Lions are about to get a seventh showing in 38 games.

And it might be a good omen: In six games under Dan Campbell broadcast by NBC, the Lions are 6-0.

Quick slants

Odd, but true: Browns defensive end Myles Garrett is the first player in NFL history to post at least 14 sacks in four consecutive seasons. Ironically, he’s never led the league in sacks. Garrett heads into the finale at Baltimore tied with Cincinnati’s Trey Hendrickson for the NFL lead.

Lamar Jackson and Sam Darnold: Both head into Week 18 one game shy of matching the NFL record that Aaron Rodgers set in 2020 with 14 games with a 100 passer rating or better. Jackson, the Ravens star, had an NFL-best 121.6 rating through 17 weeks, while Darnold’s revival with the Minnesota Vikings is also marked by a 106.4 clip that is fifth in the league. Rodgers, by the way, ranks 20th with an 89.1 rating that is his lowest for a season since he became a starter in 2008.