“I was in a funk against Washburn. I don’t know what the deal was. I wanted to come out tonight and prove to myself that was just a fluke,” said Collison, who bounced back from Saturday’s two-point outing by scoring 14 points and blocking three shots in KU’s 92-66 rout of Middle Tennessee State on Monday night at Allen Fieldhouse.

Collison fouled out early in the second half after playing just 10 minutes in Saturday’s 99-56 victory over Washburn.

The 6-foot-9 sophomore came out firing on Monday. He scored eight points on 4-of-5 shooting as KU blazed to a 45-28 halftime lead. Overall, Collison hit six of eight shots while grabbing four rebounds in 25 minutes.

“I was getting the ball against Washburn and not knowing what to do with it. I knew it was stupid to play that bad,” Collison said. “I was not discouraged. I know I’m a good player. That’s over now.”

Earl Richardson/Journal-World Photo

KU coach Roy Williams said he knew the Washburn game was a fluke, but still tried to give Collison extra minutes Monday to make sure that bad taste was out of the Iowan’s mouth.

“We talked a couple of minutes. I told him I wanted to make sure there was nothing wrong, that he just had a bad day,” Williams said. “He’s very good. I do not worry too much about Nick Collison. Everybody’s going to have a bad night. You’ve got to live with that and not get too concerned.”

Collison has come off the bench the past two games after starting three straight.

“I don’t care about coming off the bench. Actually, I get less tired,” Collison said. “We’re not into selfish things this year. We just all want the team to win. I’ll start or come off the bench. It doesn’t matter to me. Right now as a team we have real good chemistry.”

All five starters scored in double figures against MTSU, as did Collison and Luke Axtell, who hit three of five threes and scored 11 points.

Earl Richardson/Journal-World Photo

Jeff Boschee led the way with 19 points, while Eric Chenowith had 15 points and 12 rebounds and Kenny Gregory 11 points and nine boards. Kirk Hinrich scored 10 points with 10 assists, while Drew Gooden had 10 points and eight boards for the second-ranked Jayhawks (6-0).

“I was pleased with our free throw shooting,” Williams said of the Jayhawks, who hit 14 of 20 free throws after making 18 of 35 Saturday. At one point KU was 14-of-17.

“In the second half, we did a better job of taking care of the ball and at times really moved the ball nicely.”

Williams was furious at the squad’s ball movement the first half.

He called time with 4:51 left in the half, firing a towel to the floor after Collison zipped a pass to Gregory out of bounds. It seems Chenowith made an ill advised pass to start the play and forced the ultimate breakdown.

Earl Richardson/Journal-World Photo

“We had a set play called and Eric broke it off with a pass I didn’t think was what he should have done. It does irritate me. It’s what we talk about and practice,” Williams said. “The first play of the second half we ran a set play and got Drew inside four feet from the basket and he scored. It’s what we were supposed to run earlier and didn’t get it done.

“When we start getting in some games we’ll be playing down the line, we’ve got to be disciplined enough to do what we are supposed to do.”

The Jayhawks have yet to be tested on their current five-game homestand. KU has won four games by an average of 35 points heading into Thursday’s 7:05 p.m. contest against Illinois State (1-0).

“It’s been fun. We’ve shown some killer instinct,” Chenowith said.

Kansas made up for 12 first-half turnovers Monday by hitting 18 of 34 shots and forcing 13 turnovers in building a 45-28 lead.

Middle Tennessee State, which hit one of its first 10 shots in falling behind 19-6, did rally behind three Fernando Ortiz threes in a 13-2 burst that cut the gap to 21-19 at 9:12.

Up 28-24, KU went on an 11-0 run to take a 39-24 lead at 5:31. Axtell scored three points, while Collison, Chenowith, Gregory and Boschee had two apiece in that run.

The Jayhawks put the game away by opening the second half with a 12-2 run, which included a pair of Boschee threes.

In all, Boschee hit three of nine threes as KU banged in eight of 17.

“Every time Jeff gets set and shoots I think it’s going in,” Williams said of Boschee, who also had six assists and three steals in 34 minutes.

KU hit 50.7 percent of its shots, finishing over 50 percent for the sixth straight game. MTSU (1-2) hit 38.6 percent.

“We actually didn’t shoot the ball very well,” Williams said. “We missed some shots we normally make, but credit their defense. Sometimes we were looking at the guy coming at us or the guy inside. I like Randy’s team,” he said of MTSU coach Randy Wiel. “I thought they made some things difficult for us.”