Kansas University’s basketball team beat Pittsburg State by 35 points and Fort Hays State by 37.
So which was the better outing for the Jayhawks?
Tuesday’s drubbing of the Tigers, the participants say.
“I think our first one was a ‘6’ and this was an ‘8,”‘ sophomore guard Sherron Collins said, comparing Tuesday’s 93-56 clubbing of the Tigers to last Thursday’s 94-59 victory over the Gorillas.
“It’s because we had more intensity,” Collins added.
The Jayhawks were sloppier against FHSU, suffering 19 turnovers while forcing 25. KU had nine bobbles against the Gorillas to PSU’s 25.
Yet sloppy is acceptable because the effort was better.
“I thought tonight we were better than Pittsburg State,” KU coach Bill Self said. “I thought our effort was great. We rebounded better (outboarding Hays 47-31 after getting outrebounded by PSU by three). I thought our big guys went after the ball hard, especially in the first half.
“Our big guys missed a lot of bunnies inside that they would normally make. I can’t believe guys that checked in gave up open looks. We have to get better at that if we are going to be a complete team.
“It’s a short week, and we have this one down. Now we have to get ready for Louisiana-Monroe.”
KU will open the regular season against ULM at 7 p.m. Friday in Allen Fieldhouse.
“Our guards : Russell had a good game from a decision standpoint and an assist standpoint,” Self said of Russell Robinson, who had seven points, 10 assists and six rebounds in 24 minutes. “Sherron had three bad possessions in the first half, and Mario (Chalmers) had bad possessions to start the second half. Those are concentration things. We’ve got to do a better job of concentrating.”
Collins felt awful about a turnover to conclude the first half. The Jayhawks had the ball with seven seconds to go, but Collins knocked it out of bounds.
“We’ve got to get a shot up there. I should have read the play better. It was my fault,” said Collins, who talked about the mistake to Self in the tunnel on the way to the locker room, KU up, 43-17, at the break.
“I personally think our defense is getting better,” said Self, whose team held the Tigers to 30.6 percent shooting. KU hit 55.9 percent of its attempts. “But we need our reserve defense to get better. I feel like when we go to the bench, we shouldn’t lose anything defensively, and that’s not the case yet. We’ve also got to be aggressive, but exercise more patience offensively.”
