The floodgates may not have exactly opened for the Colorado men’s basketball team in terms of the win column in the Big 12 standings.

Nevertheless, on the heels of the second-longest losing streak losing streak in program history, the Buffaloes suddenly have won two of their past three games. That means an argument can be made it is the last-place Buffs that will be the hotter team when they welcome the Kansas Jayhawks back to the CU Events Center on Monday night.

With Saturday’s win against Baylor, the Buffs have won consecutive home games following an 0-13 start in conference play. Kansas, meanwhile, is coming off a lopsided home win on Saturday against Oklahoma State that may have vented some frustrations from a run of losses in three of the four previous games and four losses in the previous six games.

“It hasn’t been pretty. We didn’t play our best against Central Florida. We didn’t play our best (against Baylor),” CU head coach Tad Boyle said. “But I thought we competed better (against Baylor). We defended better for sure against a really good team and some really good players.

“We’re going to play another really good team on Monday that’s maybe been struggling a little bit. But we all know KU’s history and I hope we have this place rocking and rolling with CU fans, not KU fans. But in terms of how we prepare and what we’re going to try to do to win a game, we’re going to go right back to the drawing board and try to win one on Monday night. And it’s not going to be easy, just like (Baylor) wasn’t easy.”

This will be KU’s first visit to the Events Center since Dec. 7, 2013, a Buffs victory made famous by Askia Booker’s long-range heave that won the game at the buzzer. The Buffs and KU signed up for a home-and-home nonconference series that began with a CU loss in Lawrence on Dec. 7, 2019. The planned return trip the following season in Boulder was pushed ahead a year due to the COVID pandemic, but the scheduled matchup in December of 2021 never happened after COVID issues forced the cancellation of the game.

Conference rivals once again with CU rejoining the Big 12 this year, the Buffs renewed acquaintances with the Jayhawks with a 71-59 defeat at KU on Feb. 11 that preceded CU’s first Big 12 win against UCF. CU fell behind by 14 points late in the first half, but the performance wasn’t without its positives. Colorado shook off a cold start to shoot .433 in the second half, and it finished with a season-low eight turnovers.

CU has collected a little momentum at home, but will be challenged to solve a KU defense that, through Saturday, led the Big 12 in conference games in overall defensive field goal percentage (.393) and defensive 3-point percentage (.296). The Buffs finished just 4-for-23 on 3-pointers in the Feb. 11 loss at KU.

“We just needed one win,” CU forward Andrej Jakimovski said. “It was a really tough stretch, but once we got the first win, we got our confidence back. We kind of trust in each other. And we’ve been practicing really hard. Every guy is putting in extra work. Our chemistry is great. We seem connected on the court. We just have to keep improving. We’ll be ready for Kansas on Monday as well.”