Kansas' star center battled the bad-matchup blues for the duration of Wednesday's game and its preseason All-American point guard fell ill at halftime.

In spite of these problems, KU defeated a probable NCAA tournament team with plenty of points to spare. This group of Jayhawks backed up its national No. 1 ranking for the third time in four regular season games.

Perhaps because of stellar individual performances by two Oakland players or the low-possession pace, Wednesday night's game at times seemed more closely contested than it really was. The teams spent the first eight minutes wrestling for the lead before the Jayhawks launched a 9-1 run to gain a bit of separation. Beginning with that mini-run, KU did what it's done to each opponent this season: Dunked, shot and defended its way to a big margin of victory.

Oakland's deliberate offensive pace forced KU into its slowest game of the young season (65 possessions), but the Jayhawks didn't struggle on offense. KU posted its second best points-per-possession mark of the season, scoring 1.37 points per trip. KU scored on two-thirds of its possessions, in part because of a remarkably low nine percent turnover rate.

Oakland scored .91 points per possession, well below the national average but the best by any 2009 KU opponent. The Golden Grizzlies didn't do any one thing especially well on offense, but managed to limit their turnover rate to 20 percent and get to the free throw line enough to score on 46 percent of their possessions.

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What went right for Kansas

• The Morris twins (again)

Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photo — KU's sophomore forward Marcus Morris elevates for two of his 19 points

For the second straight game, sophomore forwards Marcus and Markieff Morris were two of the most efficient players on the floor. Marcus did his damage on the offensive end, grabbing six offensive rebounds and using 23 percent of the team's possessions to post a career-high 19 points. His 19-point, 11-rebound, one-turnover performance was the most efficient of his career, according to Basketball State. After his three-for-three performance Wednesday, Markieff hasn't missed a field goal since Nov. 13 against Hofstra and is 10-for-11 on the season.

• Johnathan Jones was kept under wraps

Oakland's star point guard distributed seven assists to just two turnovers, but he didn't do much else. Considering Jones' 37.8 percent career mark from behind the 3-point arc and 16.4 points per 40 minutes scoring average, limiting his effectiveness was key for KU. Jayhawk guards Sherron Collins, Tyshawn Taylor and Elijah Robinson each took turns hounding Jones, and all enjoyed success. The long arms of Taylor and Robinson in particular seemed to bother Jones. The Oakland point guard ended up one-for-seven from the field.

What went wrong for Kansas

• The Cole Aldrich/Keith Benson matchup

Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photo — Oakland center Keith Benson fights for the ball

Oakland's 6-foot-11 junior center made it evident from the outset he wouldn't be dominated like so many Allen Fieldhouse visitors before him. He blocked two of KU junior center Cole Aldrich's first three shots to set the tone of the big mens' back-and-forth. Benson used good offensive post moves and a decent midrange game to score 20 points on 13 field goal attempts. Aldrich and his KU teammates did have the upper hand on the boards, however, as Benson finished with a 16 percent rebounding rate to Aldrich's 39 percent. KU might not see many pure centers like Benson — listed by DraftExpress as the 18th best player in his class — the rest of the non-conference (and perhaps Big 12 Conference) season, but Aldrich might benefit from Wednesday's matchup in the long run.

• Tyshawn Taylor

Could be Taylor is having difficulty adjusting after a preseason hand injury. Could be Taylor is just having a rough go of things early. Whatever the reason, the KU guard stretched his streak of shoddy offensive performances to three games with Wednesday's 3-for-9, one-rebound, two-assist showing. After a decent but low volume eight point effort season opener against Hofstra, Taylor hasn't finished with an offensive rating above 100 (one point per possession used) in any game. On the bright side, Taylor's defense has never suffered. He helped silence Jones on Wednesday, and helped stymie Memphis and embarrass Central Arkansas earlier this month despite struggling on offense.

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Once again, KU finished with an awe-inspiring point-per-possession margin in its favor. This time around, KU beat Oakland by a solid .46 points per trip down the floor. The raw margin was the Jayhawks' second-worst of the season, which speaks to the stellar basketball KU has played in November.

Outside of Aldrich's and Taylor's subpar offensive nights, everything went right for the Jayhawks. Freshman forward Xavier Henry (19 points on 11 shots) looked nothing like a freshman, Johnson was solid on defense and offense (eight points in 13 minutes), junior guard Tyrel Reed kept his hot shot alive (two-for-three on three-point attempts) and senior guard Sherron Collins was a supreme floor general (seven assists, seven shots).

The Bottom Line: Considering the strength of its opponent — as KU coach Bill Self said postgame, Oakland is a good team — KU probably played its best game of the season so far on Wednesday.