Some thoughts…from Allen Fieldhouse
Gary Bedore, Journal-World KU men’s basketball beat writer
“Wow. What a blowout.
A nice show in front of the 1952 title team members, I’d say.
There’s not much to say except KU totally stifled NU defensively and the Jayhawks rocked and rolled the final half. KU fans love blowouts and they sure got won on Saturday.
I’d say Rush looked good early and Chalmers had a nice game. KU held Maric in check and dominated.
Now it’s off to Manhattan.”
Tom Keegan, Journal-World sports editor
“Kansas won this when they chose up sides. KU had the tall, quick, straight-shooting guys, and Nebraska was stuck with the leftovers.
Yet, it takes more than talent to put that sort of a beating on a Division-I team. It takes playing together, playing smart, and playing hard at both ends of the floor.”
Ryan Greene, KUSports.com editor
“It’s not often a conference game ends with a 53-point margin on the scoreboard. It’s even more rare, however, that a team does so, scores 90-plus points and has no one score more than 13 points.
If you’re looking for the definition of unselfished, balanced offense, Saturday was your dictionary. KU assisted 25 of its 35 field goals, had five players in double figures and saw all 13 players in uniform score points.
Those points included the first career points for Brennan Bechard and Brad Witherspoon. Good to see those guys get in the scoring column, and just as good to see Jeremy Case find the rhythm he did. He played significant minutes late in the first half. Maybe Keegan’s going to end up being right about him.”
Inside the numbers
53: The 53-point spread between Kansas and Nebraska went in the record books as the second-largest margin of victory in a Big 12 conference game…ever. The record is 55 points, when K-State thumped Missouri, 111-56, in the 1997-98 season.
10: Mario Chalmers’ 10 points marked the fourth time this conference season he’s reached double digits in that stat column. KU is 4-0 in those games, and it makes perfect sense, because it seems that when Chalmers is hitting shots, his whole game is working. He had a great stretch midway through the second half, stealing a ball at halfcourt and slamming it home with two hands, following that with a fastbreak dish to Darnell Jackson for a slam of his own.
25: That many assists on 35 field goals is never a bad percentage, considering the Jayhawks also had 16 fast break points mixed in. Polishing off that number even further is KU’s season-low seven turnovers.
8: That’s how many treys the Jayhawks hit while pulling away in the second half, and those makes came on just 12 shot attempts from beyond the arc. Brandon Rush and Jeremy Case were each 2-for-2 in that department in the second half.
Just in case you missed it…
79-26. That’s the exact total of KU’s run after the game was tied 13-13 deep into the first half. Despite the tough time the Jayhawks had pulling away – which didn’t happen until late in the first half – Bill Self still expressed afterwards how pleased he was with KU’s play in the first half outside of shots not falling. While talking numbers, it’s worth mentioning that Kansas has topped the 90-point mark in three of four games since losing to Texas A&M. In that span, KU is averaging 89 points per game.
Hopefully you didn’t miss it…
Balance, balance, balance. Looking back on Saturday’s game, it’s hard to pick one player who stood out individually more than anyone else on KU’s side. While some have growing concerns that that could hurt the Jayhawks down the road in late-game situations when someone needs to step up, it makes for much more sound basketball. And that’s what KU is playing with four regular season games now remaining.
They said it…
Brandon Rush on KU never letting off the gas in the second half: “We know how we get sometimes. We lack up and let the teams come back a little bit, let them get a little momentum going and close into our big lead. Since the loss to Texas A&M, I guess we’ve just had that mindset of ‘Don’t let up at the end like we did.’ And since then we’ve been playing pretty good.”
Mario Chalmers on the unfortunate situation he thought Nebraska walked into: “I think Nebraska just caught us on a good day. We shot 58 percent from the field for the day. It was tied up 13-13 when we weren’t knocking down shots, but once we started hitting, it was over from there.”
Mario Chalmers on what to expect Monday in Manhattan: “I think it’s going to be crazy, especially with coach Huggins promising them a win there on Late Night and all that. So it’s going to be a crazy atmosphere. We’ve just got to stay focused on the game…We’re trying to keep the season sweep…(The fans) can do whatever they want to do, we ain’t really focused on them. We’ve just got to take care of what’s going on on the court, we ain’t worried about the fans or nothing like that, for real.”
Bill Self on the 1952 National Championship team being in town for the game: “I thought was really cool. They came to practice yesterday and not everybody was there, but it was really cool. I thoguht it was really neat that coach Smith was here and I hope that Kansas fans and students – I don’t know if students get it because they haven’t been alive long enough – but I hope Kansas fans understand that KU produced arguably as good of a coach as our profession has ever known. Period. We should be so proud of that, and also a great player who helped Kansas win at a high level, and so I thought it was great. There’s been so much on how fans will receive him because I guess he’s at Carolina and Roy’s at Carolina now, and that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard of. This is your very own from Topeka, Kansas, that’s done unbelievable things. Why wouldn’t you be just so thrilled that he was back on campus? Because I know I was and I know our players were, too, when they had a chance to meet him yesterday.”
Bill Self on talking with Dean Smith after Friday’s practice, which the KU coach reluctantly called ‘loose’: “I did say ‘Not a very good practice,’ and asked did he ever have a bad practice the day before the game? And he said ‘Yes, and he said ‘But a lot of people think you practice bad you play better, and I don’t believe in that either.’ So he had me pretty worried going into today.”
