KU puts up; Bears shut up

Waco, Texas — The Baylor University basketball fans seated near Kansas University's bench heckled Jayhawk freshman Darrell Arthur on Wednesday night.

"They were yelling at me, 'You had a dream?''' Arthur, KU's forward from nearby Dallas, said with a smile.

"My mom was talking back to them. She said, 'Be quiet. Look at the score.'''

Sandra Arthur, whose son chose KU over Baylor in recruiting last May because of a dream he had the night before his news conference to announce his college choice, pointed to the Ferrell Center scoreboard early and often Wednesday from her front-row seat.

She had the upper hand all the way as her son's team claimed an 82-56 rout of the Bears. The Jayhawks had raced to leads of 20-3 and 27-7 early.

"I was glad we came out and played well after losing at Texas Tech (69-64 last Saturday)," said Arthur, who scored eight points and grabbed six rebounds with five turnovers.

His former South Oak Cliff High School teammate, Baylor's Kevin Rogers, answered with 11 points and a whopping 16 rebounds.

"They weren't too loud tonight," Arthur said of a tiny crowd of 8,102 that included at least 1,000 KU supporters up in the rafters. "They told Sherron he looked like Gary Coleman."

The 5-foot-11 Collins, who is actually quite a bit taller than the former "Different Strokes" actor, finished with 13 points off 5-of-8 shooting, including three of four threes.

"I was a little sped up," said Arthur, who hit three of seven shots and missed a dunk. "But it was fun. Coach told me it's all a learning process. We won, and I got to see a lot of family members I hadn't seen in a while."

The Jayhawks were in great spirits after improving to 17-3 overall and 4-1 in the Big 12. Everybody played, including Lawrence's Brady Morningstar, who scored four points late, including a bucket following a steal and spin move which shed a defender.

"We were a team, not individuals tonight," freshman guard Collins said. "We made the extra pass. There was no 1-on-1. We let everybody create for each other."

KU tops Baylor in bounce-back victory

This Texas road game went much better than the last. Brandon Rush and Julian Wright led the way to a KU trouncing of BU, 82-56.

KU had 18 assists on its 29 baskets.

Brandon Rush led the way with 18 points off 7-of-13 shooting, while Julian Wright snapped a slump with 16 points off 5-of-11 shooting, but six of seven free throws.

Collins had 13, while Mario Chalmers had nine points and Russell Robinson eight.

"We looked a lot more like a team," KU coach Bill Self said. "We looked like a group more than a collection of individuals. We were more patient. We did a good job running and giving multiple guys touches on a majority of possessions."

The Jayhawks hit 16 of 25 shots (43 percent) the first half to BU's six of 33 (18.2) and raced to a 40-18 halftime lead. Rush and Wright scored nine points apiece the first half off combined 8-of-11 shooting.

"Coach had been encouraging me, giving me feedback," said Wright, who rolled his left ankle the second half, but continued to play and said it felt fine after the game. "You've got to get to the free-throw line. I was able to do that and make the easy shots."

It wasn't all about offense Wednesday as the Jayhawks moved into a four-way tie for first place in the league with Texas Tech, Texas A&M and Texas.

Rush came out strong defensively on BU guard Aaron Bruce, who missed seven of eight shots the first half and finished with eight points off 3-of-12 shooting.

Photo Gallery

KU vs Baylor

"I did a pretty good job," Rush said. "I stayed in front of him and tried to contest it. He reminded me of Steve Nash. He licks his fingers when dribbling the ball."

Self said, "I thought our defense was good. I thought they also missed some shots."

Baylor, in fact, made its first shot then bricked the next 16 before scoring again.

"Being on the road and up I think, 25-7 : the game is not over by any means, but that can be a little frustrating to a crowd."

Think so? A fan behind press row could be spotted napping in the second half. It was that kind of night for the Bears, who fell to 11-8 overall and 1-5 in the league.

As far as first-place KU : "I don't know everybody's schedule," Self said of the contenders for the crown. "We have a couple of road wins; I'm sure the others (tied for top spot) do, too. I think 13-3 would be a heck of a record."

KU will meet Colorado at 12:30 p.m. Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse.

KU vs. Baylor

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mlbowers (anonymous) says...

Coach Self was a 100% correct in his assessment of the Tech loss, we were not patient with the ball. If this type of ball movement can carry on, and if we are able to iron out a few other areas, then there is no doubt that this is the best team in the country.

Great job hawks, catch you on Saturday.

January 25, 2007 at 6:26 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

mitch (anonymous) says...

Good game overall, but there were moments when they let Baylor off the hook by shooting the perimeter shot too early without any penatration. This will be an exceptionally good video to review as the coaches can point to all of the smart and intense play when the Jayhawks were building their lead, along with plenty of examples where they forgot their lessons and paid the price. Until they learn to play smart for a larger share of the 40 minutes, they will continue to periodically lose heartbreakers and the coaches will add to their growing list of videos showing what not to do. At least it was another Big 12 road win, and hopefully they'll learn from a review of their lapses in judgment and periodic sloppy and lazy play. Go 'Hawks!

January 25, 2007 at 6:27 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

LAJayhawk5 (anonymous) says...

On today's "Suck It" List:

*JimJones
*Baylor
*Baylor Student Section
*MU

January 25, 2007 at 8:06 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

jross1972 (Joe Ross) says...

Mitch...

I agree with your post. 110%.

January 25, 2007 at 8:37 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

bangaranggerg (anonymous) says...

They told Sherron he looked like Gary Coleman? That's awful, but come on that's also very funny.

January 25, 2007 at 8:54 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

justanotherfan (anonymous) says...

The team cruises to a road win that was never in doubt and still people are critical of them for momentary lapses. They led almost from the opening tip and there was never a question of whether they would win, only a question of whether it would be by 20 or 30. I agree that they didn't play great, but they deserve credit for summarily dispatching a lesser opponent with no trouble on the road. Lest you forget, Baylor is an improving program that is developing (much like Texas A&M was a couple years ago; wonder whatever happened with them). This Baylor team is far better than the last two or three years and KU still hammered them on their home floor without great games from Chalmers, Arthur or Kaun. The KU inside game wasn't hitting (even Wright shot under 50% from the field), but the outside guys (Rush, Robinson and Collins) made sure to bury the Bears before they could hang around.

The team played the way they needed to play not just to win, but to win easily, in conference, on the road. There are many tough road games to come - Mizzou (biggest rival), Nebraska (always tough at home), K-State (game of the year for them, gives Huggins a chance to legitimize his program), and Oklahoma (a game they will be up for to save a tough season for a new coach), but if KU plays with the balance they had last night, they can win those games. At the same time, its not the end of the world if one of those games ends in defeat because I predict that one of those 4 teams will play their game of the year for their first year coach. But none of those teams are going dancing. KU is.

January 25, 2007 at 9:32 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

jross1972 (Joe Ross) says...

bangar...

it might be funny if it was true. sherron looks nothing like gary coleman. nothing at all.

January 25, 2007 at 9:49 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

jross1972 (Joe Ross) says...

With the Baylor game in the bag, there's not too much passion or prejudice, vim or vigor, or what have you in this morning's posts. We went out and did what we were supposed to do against a cellar dwellar.

So let me post this question and get your responses. Are any of you concerned about the schedule leading up to the Texas A/M game? Baylor, Colorado, and Nebraska? Not exactly the kind of "tune-ups" that can ready us for the challenge we'll face against the Aggies following that stretch of three games. It's just the kind of lull in the schedule you worry about antecedent to a game with very important NCAA seeding implications (vs. TA/M). It'll surely put to the test the hypothesis that we can "get up" for big games easily. I'm just thankful we're playing that one on the home court.

Your thoughts?

January 25, 2007 at 9:57 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Lebowski (anonymous) says...

justanotherfan... it's okay to be critical. That doesn't mean people are cursing KU and what a bad job they're doing.

No one expects KU to be perfect. But the total mental collapse they periodically fall into needs to stop. When you have a team capable of going 9 or 10 deep, there's no reason for them not to play their hearts out for 40 minutes. There was a while when it was about 60-40 that it looked to me like some of KU's players were ready for the game to be over... but there was still a lot of time left. There's no excuse for that.

My biggest concern about this game is, we shot well from outside and they shot horribly. This doesn't seem to happen often these days, and if it didn't last night, then I wonder how that game turns out. We didn't put a body on those big guys, we still turned the ball over... Darrell was frighteningly bad with the ball (am I the only one that felt this way?), and we were fortunate none of their shooters got going.

We DID do a lot of things well. I think this is the most players we've had show up to play. We moved the ball well for at least 30-35 minutes. Robinson and Collins did a great job of pushing it, Chalmers only got in foul trouble because of a couple suspect foul calls, but proved his shot is fine. Collins is just amazing, and that WAS a charge he took late in the game, I don't care what anybody says!

Kaun really commanded attention down low, which opened things up for everybody. Wright really ignited the team early. Arthur did make some nice interior passes. It was probably Rush's most well rounded game... he looked natural out there. And Darnell may have become my new favorite player when he was laughing at "Mama Do" when he was throwing his fit. I loved it! Even Morningstar came in and did his best Nowitski impression.

Having said all that. If we miss a lot of open looks, like we have been lately, we may have real problems winning that game. Like Self always says, coached look smarter and players look better when shots are falling.

January 25, 2007 at 10:05 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

CMKUbLu304 (anonymous) says...

I like how Tech beat A&M last night, and Nebraska almost beat Texas....I think Tech may be a little underrated considering they just beat the two best teams in the conference in less than a week....

I will say..nice win last night, but it was Baylor...but I'm glad to see them executing. Next game is just about the same w/ Colorado...Mizzou beat them...haha.but Let's not look past them. Whatever did happen to them tho, we're they decent last year?

rock chalk!

January 25, 2007 at 10:18 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

lalawguy (anonymous) says...

I agree Collins looks nothing like Gary Coleman, but Rodrick Stewart sure looks a lot like Wayne Brady (no offense, Rod!).

I agree that there were moments where KU eased up on the pressure against Baylor. If you look at the stats, KU was up by 22 at the half. They won by 26, which means they only outscored BU by 4 in the second half. I realize that the last five minutes did not feature the starters, but I would feel a lot more comfortable if we won by 30.

I hope Coach Self takes a look at the tape of the Tech/A&M game from last night. Coach Knight did a good job of keeping the game close and containing A & M whenever they showed signs of surging ahead. That's what the Jayhawks will need to do in the match-up on Feb. 3. Also, I think the A & M loss somewhat validates the Jayhawks, who lost Saturday to this strong Texas Tech team.

January 25, 2007 at 10:25 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

JayCeph (anonymous) says...

I, like most of you, feel as though the Tech loss isn't as bad now that they went out and beat another top 10 team in the conference.

However, I'm not sure what this means... Are we okay with the fact that KU lost to an unranked conference foe just because they are knocking off other highly ranked teams? I hope not. Are they underrated? Maybe. Are we overrated? Hmmmm...

But if all that proves to be true, then aren't we saying that Tech is a better team than KU and that we deserved to lose that game in Lubbock? Frightening thought...

January 25, 2007 at 10:26 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

jross1972 (Joe Ross) says...

Lebo...

Your post made me smile. Good form! First of all, I agree with it completely. Secondly it was humorous!

Comparing Morningstar to Nowitski? *chuckles* But the Jackson/"Mama Do" reference..."classic".

And as I said, I agree with your synopsis of the players' performances and your position on criticism. I think there are a lot of people here that say, erroneously, that unless youre naive and never find anything wrong with the team you're not a true fan. How crazy is that?

January 25, 2007 at 10:34 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

JayCeph (anonymous) says...

Sometimes, you have to critique the critic. If the detractors are so mired in a black and white world, they will never understand the beauty of grey.

January 25, 2007 at 10:36 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

byron (anonymous) says...

Gary, you had to tell people that Gary Coleman is shorter than 5'11? Give us a little credit.

January 25, 2007 at 10:55 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

jhawk7782 (anonymous) says...

What happened to the REAL Darnell Jackson? He's obviously been replaced by an extremely close look-alike but without any basketball talent.

January 25, 2007 at 11:22 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

bmkjayhawk (anonymous) says...

My thoughts:

WSSU (after a 10-day break) wasn't much of a tuneup for a back-and-forth BC team, who at that time had two more players than they do now. Detroit, URI, and South Carolina don't compare to OSU. Both the BC and OSU games turned out well. I hope that it doesn't take a good tuneup for the Jayhawks to stay on top of things and perform, but I do understand your concern. Following Texas A&M though comes KSU in Lawrence and MU in Columbia. Two average teams but rivalries, so we know we'll get their best shot. The point to my rant and rave here is just me stating the obvious again, KU cannot afford to fall into cruise mode again. The season goes by so fast that there's simply no time to lay off and not get better. Time will tell. I'm confident that they'll be fine. Rock Chalk Jayhawk.

January 25, 2007 at 11:35 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

okjhok (anonymous) says...

jross, back to your earlier inquiry....

IMO, the games preceding the showdown with A&M will have little impact on the team's performance. This is clearly a team that rises to the occasion. That's an absolute, not a hypothesis Like you said, playing it at home obviously makes a huge difference. BTW, Lunardi has KU as a 3-seed in his latest Bracketology.

January 25, 2007 at 11:44 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

okjhok (anonymous) says...

I'm still sticking to my statement that anything less than a high 2-seed given our schedule is unacceptable.

January 25, 2007 at 11:47 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

jprich (anonymous) says...

Did you realize that shooting 16 of 25 in the first half is less than 50%? I had no idea (according to this article, it equals out to 43%). I guess I don't need to recheck it on my calculat...wait a minute, it says it's 64%. Interesting. Do any math majors work at the LJW? Let me submit my application...

January 25, 2007 at 11:47 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

okjhok (anonymous) says...

That is some interesting fuzzy math

January 25, 2007 at 11:50 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

jhawker137 (anonymous) says...

Wow, everyone is in high spirits on here, I am amazed, where did all the wagon-hoppers go, must have slept in since they had nothing to bitch about!!!

January 25, 2007 at 12:07 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Lebowski (anonymous) says...

Thx Jross. I know you don't have to rely on validation, so I perhaps don't say it enough. But you're right on. I'm glad you saw the humor in the Nowitski impression... I was half expecting some doofus to chime in "Brady is NO Nowitski!!".

LAJayhawk. I soo forgot to mention... I half agree with your "suckit" list! JimJones can do that until his lips fall off as far as I'm concerned. And so can MU for the rest of eternity! But I don't have any resentment for the Baylor program. Coach Drew is awesome, and they have some guys that I really admire their toughness in a tough game where shots weren't falling. Sure, "Mama do" lost his cool for a minute, but that subsided as well. They have a very competitive spirit about them and I think they're going to be very, very good in short time. As far as pre-game trash talk, I don't disrespect anybody for that. If someone wants to add more fuel to the fire before the game, more power to them!

January 25, 2007 at 12:33 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

jaybate (anonymous) says...

Coach Self says a 13-3 conference record would be terrific. I keep looking at KU's remaining conference games and I can't figure out how KU can wind up worse than 14-2 unless they lose to both a&m and ut. The rest of the teams KU has to play don't look even as tough as TTech. Is Coach trying to say we're going to lose to both A&M and UT? Or is he saying we're apt to split with those two and screw up one more time, like we did against TTech?

January 25, 2007 at 1:58 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Lebowski (anonymous) says...

I'd guess the latter.. or maybe he's even saying we could win BOTH the A&M and UT games and screw up twice. After the Nebraska/UT game, they have to be a factor now... and I'm sure he considers K-State an unknown just because of the "throw-out-the-records-in-a-rivalry" factor he's always talking about.

Perhaps deep down, he feels a couple more losses will keep our boys grounded enough to not lose focus and play with intensity in March. I know he sure doesn't plan on losing any specific game, but there's only one loss that costs us a season.

I don't care if we lose 4 or 5 more games, as long as we actually show up in the tourney this time around.

January 25, 2007 at 2:54 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

okjhok (anonymous) says...

jaybate....

I can't speak for Coach Self, but if you count all the league games KU has lost the last few years that on paper we should have won, you'll run out of fingers fast.

Not only do we have Texas and A&M remaining, but we also have road games at Misery, Manhattan (I know, it's AFH West, but the streak will end sometime.), and Norman.

I don't think Coach is infering that we'll lose to any given team, he's speculating on what it would take to win this league, which is a goal every year. Given how rough the South will have it this year, 13-3 will probably win league by a couple of games. I'd take that. What about you?

January 25, 2007 at 3 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Jacobpaul81 (anonymous) says...

Don't forget Nebraska okjhok. That's always a tough game up in Lincoln. It's not Ames tough, but they always show up to play at home. Don't forget also, we still have Iowa State at home too, and they showed that they are plenty capable of hanging with good basketball teams.

Right now, I think the Big 12 is gonna get a minimum of 5 bids in the NCAA tourney, and maybe 6. I think team-wise, the Big 12 is second nationally behind the Pac 10, with only a couple of bottom feeders. For the most part, it's a pretty solid league this year, with 5 obvious top tier teams, and 3-5 mid-tier teams, and only 2 real bottom feeders.

January 25, 2007 at 3:13 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

oldalum (anonymous) says...

To answer your question jhawk7782, according to Coach Self Darrel Jackson hurt his back in the Iowa State game to the point where he could barely stand. He is just now starting to get back his full movement.

January 25, 2007 at 3:22 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

rockchalkjayhawk4ku11 (anonymous) says...

I told every one here that Julian Wright would be back to his normal self! That was a great game. Sherron, Mario, Brandon, and Julian all had a good game.

January 25, 2007 at 4:24 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

okjhok (anonymous) says...

I disagree, jp81. I think, once again, the Big 12 is down. I haven't seen NU play yet, but no, I don't think ISU is a good team at all. They had one man get hot against us. That won't fly for a season.

Honestly, I think the league has two legit final four contenders in KU and A&M. I see the rest as pretenders, that won't win consistently in this league. That means on the road too. Yes, A&M has shown they can rise to the challenge of big games (many teams do this regularly) but over the course of the season, I think we'll see this league marred by inconsistent play. I do agree that we'll get 5 teams in the dance, but they're not all top-tier, as you describe them.

January 25, 2007 at 4:27 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

okjhok (anonymous) says...

I meant Tech gets up for games, not A&M.

January 25, 2007 at 4:28 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

rockchalkAZ (anonymous) says...

One of the things I love about this team is that there is pretty much no doubt in my mind that they will beat a top 10 team at home. I would be more worried if it was a team somewhere around the 30s, getting votes in the polls but not quite there. This team, and the students, are always very pumped when big time teams come to the fieldhouse. I was rooting for A & M to win all their games until the 3rd just for that extra bit of juice (but I will never turn down being T1 in the league). I am not saying that the game will be easy at all, A&M is a very good team. But if our guys play like they usually do against the best teams, I'm not sure there's any team i would take over KU. Hopefullly by the end of the year they will be able to pretend that every team they play is top 10 in the nation. That would be scary to watch in march/april.

January 25, 2007 at 4:45 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

kylecisnum1 (anonymous) says...

okjhok. i saw that lunardi has us as a 3 seed and he has the arrow pointing down as well. why? i dont know, maybe its because all everyone talks about is those east coast teams.

January 25, 2007 at 6:24 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Jayhawk86 (anonymous) says...

college gameday coming back to Allen. Gotta love it.

January 25, 2007 at 6:49 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )