“They kicked our tails every way you can be kicked offensively, defensively, physically, mentally, coaching-wise,” KU coach Roy Williams said after Wake Forest’s 84-53 annihilation of the Jayhawks at Lawrence Joel Coliseum.

“We’d liked to have Kenny Gregory. Kenny Gregory is a heck of a player, but he wasn’t going to make a difference in that game. They kicked us,” Williams added.

The No. 3-ranked Jayhawks (7-1) sure looked lost without Gregory, KU’s senior forward, who missed the first game of his career because of a stress fracture in a joint in his right foot.

It was determined in warmups that Gregory he’d practiced on a limited basis all week better rest his foot at least a few more days.

Earl Richardson/Journal-World Photo

What resulted was the second-worst loss in Williams’ 13 years at KU second only to last year’s 33-point loss at Oklahoma State. It also tied for the fourth-worst loss in KU’s storied basketball history.

“It was reminiscent of the Oklahoma State game,” Gregory said in a somber Jayhawk locker room.

“I felt helpless sitting there. I couldn’t do anything about it. I wanted to get out there, but it wouldn’t have been smart. I have to rest it as much as possible so it doesn’t keep lingering.”

The Jayhawks were ugly early in committing 10 first-half turnovers to Wake’s two and hitting just eight of 22 shots. However, KU remained within striking distance, 38-25 at halftime.

Wake Forest, which was led by the one-two punch of Josh Howard (21 points) and Craig Dawson (20) turned it into a blowout of massive proportions after outscoring KU 16-4 to open the second half. The Deacons hit an uncanny 68 percent of their second-half shots and 49.2 percent for the game.

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“I still don’t know what happened out there,” sophomore forward Nick Collison said after scoring 12 points and making five of KU’s 20 turnovers in 22 minutes. “I was totally shocked. I thought those kind of losses were behind us.”

KU went 5-6 on the road last year.

Gregory played in that game. Not Thursday.

“It hurt a lot,” senior Eric Chenowith said of Gregory’s absence after scoring one point on 0-of-3 shooting, including an errant three, in 18 minutes. “Kenny is our offense. He is leading our team in scoring. He gets us so many baskets. We couldn’t score without him. We tried to overcompensate by taking too many threes. We didn’t play our game plan.”

The Jayhawks, who discussed working it inside, instead missed 14 of 17 threes and 11 of 23 free throws.

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“We didn’t finish plays in there. We were content to shoot turnaround fallaway jumpers,” Williams said of the inside players. “We wanted to rebound. We thought it’d be a huge positive.”

Led by Josh Shoemaker, who had 12 rebounds, Wake outboarded KU, 43-26.

“Our big guys didn’t move,” Williams said.

Meanwhile, on the other end, “Three or four times there was a loose ball, they’d run and chase it down,” Williams said of the home team. “On at least two occasions they made a three with the shot clock down to two or one.”

The Demon Deacons also played good defense.

Earl Richardson/Journal-World Photo

“They took us out of what we wanted to do. We were on our heels most of the game,” said junior Jeff Boschee, who was 0-for-7 from three-point distance and finished with eight points in 34 minutes.

“We’ve got to give them credit.”

Dawson scored 13 and Howard 12 the first half. They combined for five threes in 12 tries. Robert O’Kelly hit two threes in eight attempts.

“I was just shocked. Every time we were going back on defense it seemed the ball was going through the hoop,” Boschee said.

“You get beat by 30 … obviously we didn’t play our best game, either,” Boschee added.

Earl Richardson/Journal-World Photo

The Jayhawks won’t have to wait long before taking the court again. KU travels to DePaul on Tuesday for an 8:05 p.m. tip.

“We’ll see if we have any toughness,” Williams said. “We didn’t show much tonight.”

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