Kansas University basketball coach Roy Williams never will tire of hearing about Nick Collison’s one-for-the-ages performance against Texas.
“That young man should get a lot of attention for what he did Monday night because that’s as impressive a performance as I’ve ever had,” Williams said Thursday.
Williams was asked about all the national publicity the 6-foot-9, 255-pound senior has received this week after Collison’s 24-point, 23-rebound effort in KU’s 90-87 victory over the Longhorns at Allen Fieldhouse.
“I know I can’t remember any performance that’s been better,” Williams said. “I’m not so sure I can remember any performance that’s stood up to that. That’s not Alvamar Tech he’s playing against getting 23 rebounds.
“I said in the locker room before the guys, ‘That big fella right here played his you-know-what off,'” Williams said.
Collison and senior guard Kirk Hinrich, who scored 25 points, had KU’s top two defensive grades in the game, the coach said.
“When both those guys are playing on the same night,” Williams said, “it makes it a lot of fun to sit back and watch.”
Williams said he shuddered to think what would have happened Monday had T.J. Ford’s last-second three-pointer fallen through the hoop for Texas and forced overtime.
Both Collison and Jeff Graves had fouled out for KU, and “we’d have had to play an overtime period with Bryant Nash at 6-6 and Michael Lee at 6-2 1/2 as our post players,” Williams said.
“It would have been extremely difficult for us to win in overtime,” he said. “We didn’t have Wayne (Simien) and all of a sudden we don’t have Jeff and Nick. It’s hard to play that kind of situation.”
Williams said it has been interesting coaching the Jayhawks the past seven games with the 6-9 Simien out of action while recovering from a dislocated shoulder.
“It has not been the smoothest ride,” Williams said.
Some of the challenges the Jayhawks have faced include: Simien’s injury; the one-week absence of Moulaye Niang after his father’s death in Senegal; and Graves’ on-and-off problems with fouls.
“It’s not been as much fun,” Williams said. “You are trying to piecemeal, put a finger in the dike.”
KU (14-5 overall, 4-1 Big 12 Conference) will travel to Nebraska (9-10, 1-5) for Saturday’s game. Tipoff is 1 p.m. at the Devaney Center.
The Huskers have dropped three consecutive games and four of their last six.
Williams wasn’t worried about the Jayhawks looking past Nebraska to Monday’s 8 p.m. home battle against Missouri.
“I don’t have any fear whatsoever,” Williams said. “The guys on our team last year realize we beat them easily the first time and had to fight for our lives up there.”
Last season, KU beat the Huskers, 96-57, in early January at Allen Fieldhouse, then barely edged the Huskers, 88-87, in early February at Devaney. This season, Kansas pounded Nebraska, 92-59, Jan. 11 at Allen Fieldhouse. Husker sophomore guard Jake Muhleisen suffered a season-ending hip injury in that game.
“They’re going to be hungry because we beat them pretty handily at home,” KU sophomore guard Michael Lee said. “You can never look past a team. Coach Williams always says, ‘This is the most important game because it’s today.’ He’s going to make sure we approach it that way.
“(Wednesday) at practice he got a little upset at us. He said, ‘If we practice like this, we won’t win.'”
