Less than an hour after Saturday’s dominant victory over the 14th-ranked Hoosiers, Kansas coach Bill Self drew a comparison between Harris and former KU great Jacque Vaughn.

Vaughn, you likely remember, hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer against Indiana during his freshman season in 1993 to win a game that is regarded by many as one of the best ever played at KU’s home venue.

Harris’ game on Saturday — his second straight masterful performance in a growing number of them throughout his KU career — made him worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as Vaughn.

But it wasn’t a shot that landed him there.

Instead, Harris was praised by his head coach — yet again — for the feel he displayed on the court in leading the Jayhawks to victory with 10 points, 10 assists and 3 steals in 28 minute.

“They used to say this about Jacque Vaughn,” Self began. “He can count to 10, or nine, so he can always see what (the other) nine guys are doing on the floor at once. And Juan has that same gift. He can think two passes ahead and he sees that and feels that.”

Self continued: “The more guys dribble, it’s usually bad. The more he dribbles it’s good for us… He’s got great feel. I’ve said it a thousand times; I can’t imagine there’s a more underrated player in the country than what Juan is.”

Now in his fourth year with the program, Harris has shown this to be true over and over. But it’s still something at which his coaches, teammates and KU fans marvel. Perhaps because every moment looks just a little different and so many of them have proven to completely swing games.

That happened in bunches on Saturday, and all Harris said when asked about it afterwards was that he was “just trying to make a play for my team.”

Mission accomplished.

With Kansas (10-1) watching its large lead dwindle ever so slightly early in the second half, the KU point guard took over.

Harris did the same thing in KU’s win over Missouri last weekend. But in that one, he took just two shots and controlled things in other ways. In this one, he scored and set up his teammates, with most of it coming after he missed nine minutes of the first half because of foul trouble.

With Indiana (8-3) charging toward a comeback, Harris scored eight of KU’s 10 points during the stretch that pushed the Jayhawks’ lead from 48-38 to 60-42.

All of his points came on scoop shots off of silky smooth and slippery drives to the rim. KU planned to attack the Hoosiers that way because of how they drop their big men on ball screens. And Harris and backup Bobby Pettiford, who played together a lot on Saturday as well, combined for 20 points and 14 assists on 9-of-13 shooting.

The beauty of Harris’ game is that even when he’s scoring, it never occupies his mind so much that he forgets to look to pass. He prefers the latter — always has — and he dropped plenty of highlight-reel dimes in Saturday’s win, as well.

One such assist came on the heels of Harris’ scoring surge, when he tossed a perfect bounce pass through the lane from the opposite wing to KU freshman Zuby Ejiofor, who caught the pass on his way to the bucket and threw down a two-handed hammer dunk that delighted the crowd.

Earlier in the game, after Kansas recorded one of its 17 steals — the program’s most in a single game since recording 18 in a win over UMKC in 2011 — Harris received a pass on a run-out and had a breakaway layup. Rather than going to the rim, though, he dropped off a soft bounce pass from his right hip to a charging Gradey Dick, who hammered it with one hand to put the Jayhawks up 16-5.

That dunk, like so many others on Saturday, ignited the Allen Fieldhouse crowd, which never gave Indiana a chance after watching the home team race out to leads of 12-2, 34-17 and 42-20.

“You always have to be ready when Juan has the ball,” Dick said after the win. “That’s one thing I learned the first day I got here in the summer. When I saw him with a little side-eye, I knew.”

Saturday was KU’s first home game in 16 days and the team’s first time back in Allen Fieldhouse since routing their border rivals in Columbia, Missouri, last weekend.

Self said his team played better against Indiana than it did against the Tigers, and the numbers certainly backed up that claim.

Six Jayhawks reached double digits in scoring, including Pettiford (10), who Self said was “fantastic.” Kansas won by 22 despite Indiana big man setting a record for the most blocked shots by a KU opponent in a single game, with nine. And the Jayhawks shot 61% in the first half and 51% for the game, including 44% from 3-point range. That included Dick making four of five attempts from behind the arc during what Self called the freshman’s “best all-around game.”

It also helped that KU’s defense was as good as it had been all season. In addition to their thievery, the Jayhawks limited Indiana to 37.7% shooting and even out-rebounded the bigger IU roster 35-32.

“I feel like this was one of our best defensive games,” Harris said after the win. “And I think we can do better than we did today.”

Added Self: “I thought our defense was the best it’s been. Our effort defensively was terrific.”

The biggest tell, according to Self, was that the Hoosiers attempted 14 3-point shots in the first half, an unusually high number for a team that had been averaging just 20 3-point attempts per game all season long.

“(That was) probably a good sign for us that they weren’t getting what they wanted inside as much,” Self said.

Ejiofor and KJ Adams, along with KU’s game plan to trap most passes to the post, played a huge role in frustrating the Hoosiers, who also turned it over 23 times during Saturday’s loss.