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KU vs. Yale

Legal stealing generally isn't as easy as Kansas University made it look Saturday night in an 86-53 domination of Yale in Allen Fieldhouse.

KU had 18 steals, including 11 from the starting backcourt of Russell Robinson and Mario Chalmers. On the season the guards average a combined 5.8 steals a game.

"Mario's a guy who's probably as good at taking a guy's ball as anybody I've been around, but Russell, I wouldn't want him guarding me," Kansas coach Bill Self said. "Now you can take advantage of our guards with speed and things like that because you can't gamble on those type of players, but tonight they were able to gamble a little bit and recover. Russell and Mario are just as dangerous after you beat them as when you know where they are because when you beat them they are always coming from behind and do a pretty good job of tipping the ball away from you when you get past them."

What makes KU's guards so adept at stealing the ball?

"We do teach them to play with their hands, but that's God-given," Self said. "They just have great instincts, and they're very smart at understanding when to gamble and when to reach. They get guys' timing. The thing that amazes me most about those two is when they gamble and miss and recover so fast. They feel like they can do that, but it's a lot easier to gamble when Russell eats the ball like he did tonight. It's a lot easier to run through passes when that happens."

Chalmers ranks fourth on KU's all-time steals list, and Robinson ranks sixth, three steals behind Kirk Hinrich.

"Russ is just so strong that he can body defenders, and once he does that they get kind of loose with the ball, and he just takes it," Chalmers said. "I mean, Russ is just strong like that. I think he's one of the best on-ball defenders I've ever seen."

The steals won't always come as easily as they did against overmatched Yale.

"When guys beat you off the bounce, you can't gamble as much," Self said. "And you certainly can't gamble off guys who can really make shots off the catch. We do have certain rules not etched in stone.

"The last 10 seconds of a possession you can never gamble. That's etched in stone. The better the competition, the less steals you're going to get."