Roy Williams didn't look or sound like a coach whose basketball team had defeated one of its biggest rivals for the fourth straight time.

In fact, Williams, the 15th-year Kansas University coach, had a beet-red face after the Jayhawks' pulsating 76-70 victory Monday over Missouri at Allen Fieldhouse.

"Kirk Hinrich, Nick Collison, Michael Lee ... I ain't saying anything positive about anybody else, and I'm not saying anything positive about the coach, either," Williams said after No. 12-ranked KU improved to 16-5 overall and 6-1 in the Big 12 Conference. No. 21 Mizzou fell to 13-5, 4-3.

"I'm not so sure they didn't outplay us. We had breakdowns offensively, defensively, guys not going where they were supposed to go. I feel like I'm the luckiest guy in the world right now. I've never bought a lottery ticket in my life. Maybe I ought to go buy one tonight."

Williams was elated with seniors Hinrich and Collison, who scored 24 and 22 points respectively, and Lee, who celebrated his 20th birthday by scoring seven points in 28 minutes, including hitting two free throws with :26.8 left, boosting a three-point lead to 74-69.

"Those two seniors decided they were not going to let us lose," Williams said. "And Michael Lee the birthday boy was big-time as well."

Williams was so miffed with the rest of the Jayhawks, he almost decided to hold a 6 a.m. practice today.

Instead, he elected to give the team the day off because of the grit showed in hanging on down the stretch.

"I'd made up my mind the next practice would be at 6 a.m. tomorrow morning," Williams fumed. "(But) I loved the guts in stepping up to the free-throw line in making plays at the end."

Junior forward Jeff Graves, who had four fouls and eight points in 22 minutes, and Aaron Miles (two points, six turnovers, five assists), who was relegated to the bench all but six minutes of the second half and didn't play in crunch time, were prime recipients of Williams' wrath.

"Jeff Graves has got to decide he's gonna be a player and stop sitting over there with me. I don't need another assistant coach," Williams said.

"Aaron Miles ... I don't give a blankety-blank about shooting the daggum basketball. You can't have six frickin' turnovers in a game like that. You can't have six turnovers and be a quarterback. I told him that. He had a bad day."

Graves committed three of KU's 12 turnovers. The Jayhawks forced 20 turnovers -- 12 the first half in gaining a 33-28 halftime lead.

"If you are supposed to set a daggum screen, then go set the screen," he said of Graves. "If I say, 'I don't want you to ever make a move at the top of the key driving to the basket,' that means you are not supposed to make a frickin' move trying to drive like Magic Johnson. It's stupid."

Yet for all the negatives, KU won what Williams called a "weird" game.

Missouri hit 10 threes to KU's two -- Ricky Clemons cashed five of 15 threes for 19 points -- and outrebounded the Jayhawks, 38-29. Yet KU, which led by as many as 13 (49-36) five minutes into the second half and saw the lead cut to one down the stretch, hung on in large part to Hinrich and Collison.

Hinrich's three at 5:21 and Collison's inside bucket off a feed from Lee upped a 62-61 lead to 67-61. Clemons and Ricky Paulding responded with buckets, cutting the gap to 67-65 at 3:11.

That's when Lee put in a stickback off a Hinrich miss at 2:59, and Hinrich scored off a feed from Collison at 2:11, KU going up, 71-65. Travon Bryant and Paulding answered and it was 71-69 at 1:07.

That's when Bryant Nash, who was huge with seven points in 22 minutes, also on the court the final 10 minutes, hit one of two free throws at :50.2, giving KU a three-point advantage.

Nash on the next possession blocked a Pauling shot inside and grabbed the board at :35, dishing to Lee, who was fouled and hit the two free throws at :26.8. After Jimmy McKinney hit one of two free throws, Lee answered with one of two at :19.5.

Collison concluded the scoring at :12.3, hitting one of two charities.

"Kirk and Nick were great. They carried the load. They had the energy. They made big plays," sophomore Keith Langford said after his six-point outing. "They set the standard."

Hinrich, who played the point most of the second half with Miles struggling, said the seniors definitely wanted to win No. 4 in a row versus MU.

"We had to be aggressive to win," he said. "Missouri has a good team with some great athletes and good shooters. I just tried to be aggressive and keep us in the attack mode."

Collison noted: "Kirk and I have been through a lot of games and a lot of battles. I think we feel we have a lot of responsibility and have to play well to win and score to win. For the most part we did that. (As a team) we struggled to keep Missouri off the boards and weren't consistent, but a win is a win."

KU will meet K-State at 12:45 p.m. Saturday in Manhattan.