**4:22 p.m.**: Well, Bill Self got on his players a little bit, as he put it, at halftime and whatever he said appeared to work. The Jayhawks went nuts late in the second half, finishing the game on a tear, including a series of high-flying dunks to finally steal the momentum for good.The final of the K-State game was announced on the PA system early on, but Self slipped it into his halftime musings, too.The biggest thing for KU in the second half was guard play. Brandon Rush (after another scolding call from his mom after the K-State game) stayed assertive for a full 40, finishing with 15 points and six rebounds – much more impressive than his 15 and 7 against K-State which largely came before halftime.Mario Chalmers had the huge dunk late, finishing with a nice line (eight points, four rebounds, six assists, two blocks, three steals) and getting the crowd juiced up when he needed to. Sherron Collins, after going scoreless with four turnovers before banging knees (nothing serious, he said) with a CU player in the first half, finished with nine points on four-of-four shooting and gave it away just once after the break.That could be the wake-up KU needed to roll into Monday’s game with Mizzou on the right foot. Here’s some more final numbers of note…-Darnell Jackson was 10-of-10 from the free throw line, and KU as a team was an impressive 21-of-25. The Jayhawks are now 38-of-45 in their last two games.-KU outrebounded Colorado 34-21, which Bill Self should have happened given the Jayhawks’ size advantage. Self was, however, unhappy with the way his team attacked (or didn’t attack enough) the CU bigs in the first half.-Colorado died by the three, in the end, going 9-of-23 from long range. KU didn’t take that many shots from out in the wild blue yonder, going just 3-of-9. Brandon Rush was 2-of-6.-Sasha Kaun scored 12 big points. That went pretty unnoticed. He was very efficient: 4-of-5 from both the floor and the line.-KU had six assists to 10 turnovers in the first half. The Jayhawks then went eight and six in the second half, respectively.-It was probably a 50-50 crowd in the Coors Events Center. That helped KU more than you might think, in my opinion.I’ll talk to you again pretty soon…Monday night. Lookin’ forward to it. Peace out.**3:36 p.m.**: Thanks to Mario Chalmers and Darnell Jackson, largely, the Jayhawks woke up offensively in the second half. That was much-needed, considering a feisty Missouri team (with Leo Lyons and Marshall Brown back from suspension) comes to Allen Fieldhouse in a little over 48 hours.I’ll be back with postgame notes, numbers and nuggets in a bit.**3:14 p.m.**: You’ve got to hand it to Brandon Rush so far in the second half, as he’s stayed part of the game on the offensive end since the half. He attempted just three second half shots Wednesday, but today already has five points since the break, including two free throws after slashing to the rack and then a corner three-pointer.**3:03 p.m.**: Looks like Colorado’s lack of inside scoring punch (and defensive punch, for that matter), is finally biting the home team in the behind. It’s one thing to grind the shot clock down deep into single digits, but it’s another thing if you can’t score by doing so. That’s the case right now for the Buffs. Unless they get hot again from three-point range, an eight-point deficit in this game for CU might be too much to overcome.Even though KU has scored eight unanswered to start the half, I can’t say I’m overly impressed with the body language. Whatever funk had KU in the first half doesn’t appear to be fully worn off, but maybe it will be by game’s end.**2:40 p.m.**: Some first half numbers of note from Coors…-KU registered no steals in the first half, and just as was the case at K-State, has more turnovers than assists (six dimes, 10 giveaways).-Colorado has protected the ball better than KU, turning it over just five times. The Buffs also had four steals.-Freshman Cory Higgins is playing for CU how freshman Jacob Pullen played for KSU the other night. The 6-foot-5 guard has 11 points on five-of-five shooting.-KU is 9-of-10 from the free throw line, and is now 26-of-30 in its last three halves of hoops. Darnell Jackson was the stalwart there in the first 20 minutes with a 6-of-6 showing.-Sherron Collins was hurt and came back, but his line was nothing to cheer about. The only stat column that has a number other than zero in it? Turnovers. Collins had four of them.-Brandon Rush had a pretty good first half with seven points and four rebounds. Then again, he had 12 points and seven rebounds Wednesday before registering three and zero, respectively, in the second half. KU will need him to not do that again.I’m sticking with my thought that Darrell Arthur should be taking much better advantage of his matchup with Richard Roby than he is. That also goes on his teammates, too, who need to find him. Arthur has had a tough day defensively and has been overall muted, with just two points and two boards on 1-of-3 shooting. But, man, he can back down Roby with ease, as he did a couple of times with the ball in his hands in the first half.The Jayhawks sorely need a wake-up call. Colorado’s playing great defense, but KU still should be ahead. This one’s gonna be close to the wire, and win or lose, you’ve got to hand it to Jeff Bzdelik. This is the most disciplined ball I’ve seen CU play in a long time. He was certainly the right hire.**2:12 p.m.**: Sherron Collins just came back out from the locker room, this time walking without a limp. He took a seat in the middle of the bench. Maybe he _might_ play again today. That goes to show why I’m not a doctor.**2:06 p.m.**: Sherron Collins just went down in a heap in front of us. As Bill Cowgill sprinted out to the floor, Collins was writhing, gripping his right knee. Assistant coach Joe Dooley and head coach Bill Self then headed out to the floor. Collins limped off the floor _very_ slowly and right to the locker room. Doesn’t look like he’ll be back today.**2:02 p.m.**: I wouldn’t call it a hangover, but maybe KU is a bit surprised by how hard the 9-11 Buffs are playing them. KU has already turned it over six times, about half of them un-forced errors.Somebody’s gonna have to go nuts here for the Jayhawks. I’m gonna stick with my pregame pick of Darrell Arthur, now for even better reason. I was really looking forward to seeing Brandon Rush and Richard Roby go head to head, but instead Roby is on Arthur. On the last possession, with three quick dribbles and steps, Arthur backed Roby down 12 feet. KU needs to recognize that.**1:52 p.m.**: The fans here just erupted as the Mizzou win over K-State was announced. It even drew an applause from Mario Chalmers, headed to the line to shoot a free throw.Same case for K-State as it was for KU Wednesday – it’s just one game.Colorado is obviously trying to lull the Jayhawks to sleep, chowing down as much of the shot clock as possible. That’s about the only way you can keep KU down if you’re out-matched. The Jayhawks are doing themselves no favors, though, in the early minutes with three turnovers.**1:26 p.m.**: For those fans concerned with any K-State hangover, warm-ups today are certainly giving no indication of that. The Jayhawks look loose – much looser than they did Wednesday. Maybe the loss _did_ relieve some pressure.**1:22 p.m.**: What makes Colorado football better than Colorado hoopage? [Ralphie’s run][1]. Indoors, all you get are two flags reading ‘C’ and ‘U’. Darn.Even the team managers are in on wearing the sneakers for cancer awareness.The arena is filling right now with 13 minutes until tip-off except for the top of the student section, which occupies the South end zone. That’s only half-full. The North end zone is filled with KU fans, and the Jayhawk Nation has occupied the top 10-12 rows of both the East and West side.**12:28 p.m.**: Well, all situated in the Coors Events Center. Bill Self just popped his head into the media room a few minutes ago before heading into the locker room.Like most coaches around the country today, he’s wearing sneakers as part of the Coaches vs. Cancer Suits and Sneakers awareness weekend. The rest of the staff is donning white adidas kicks, while Self bucked that trend, opting for a pair of black adidas to go with his black pinstriped ensemble.The gates just opened here, and 80 percent of the fans who have filed in so far are donning blue. That’s no joke. The Colorado fans seem to be waiting until closer to tip-off.Nothing notable yet as far as KU’s personnel is concerned. Everyone who should be is warming up and no one looks to be limping or anything like that.**Elsewhere around the Big 12 today…**-Kansas State is playing a first half which closely resembles the one it played Wednesday night in Manhattan, leading undermanned Missouri by eight late in the stanza. Marshall Brown and Leo Lyons had their suspensions evidently lifted for this one. Mike Beasley has just six points, but then again, he only had eight in the first half against KU. Don’t think Mizzou can keep the pace for a full 40.-Texas has closed the gap to five points late in the first half at home against Baylor. A loss would hurt Texas in the polls, given that the ‘Horns were already blasted once this week (by Texas A&M). Can’t believe it’s only nine days away when KU plays there. This season is flying by.Talk to you again in a bit.**9:27 a.m.**: You’ve got to love Southwest Airlines. It’s the only airline I’ve ever flown where the flight attendants can go so off the cuff during the typical pre-flight announcements that half of the passengers snicker from the dry humor and the other half is made completely uncomfortable.If you’re afraid to fly and would be battling a huge phobia just by stepping into the cabin, yesterday’s flight out to Denver wouldn’t have been your quick serving of Diet Coke. The announcements contained three glorious nuggets:-First, the intro to showing how to use the seat bottoms as cushions was ‘Should this airliner become a cruiseliner…’-Then came how to apply oxygen masks, beginning with ‘This is how you use them once you stop screaming.’-Later in that same announcement: ‘If you are traveling with a child, secure your mask and then theirs. If you’re with two children, choose the one with the most potential and apply theirs first.’What a way to kick off a gameday blog, huh? Apologies if I just placed you further from attempting to conquer your fear of flying. That wasn’t my goal. Just too funny not to mention.**Now, to the game…**KU has been solid all year in games coming on the heels of poor performances. That was documented a couple of gameday blogs ago. Now we see how the Jayhawks respond to a loss.The atmosphere in Lawrence in the days after The Streak came to a close was like it is after any KU setback – the sky was falling and James Naismith was spinning in his grave.And again, folks just had to settle down. Hear that? _Settle Dooooooown_.You know, I for one didn’t think KU played _that_ bad (K-State was just _that_ good…how many times this year will they make 12 threes and 17-of-22 free throws in a game?). Darrell Arthur had a rough night, and Brandon Rush disappeared in the second half, but outside of that, there were more positives than many people might have thought. It was the first time this year when a down night for one or two guys couldn’t be masked by depth, but that was bound to happen at some point.Here’s what was to like…-Sasha Kaun really was pretty decent defensively on Mike Beasley.-Mario Chalmers still had the killer instinct late in the game and again proved that, while many might not want to crown him as such, he is the Jayhawks’ go-to-guy. You know, the guy who would be dribbling the ball atop the key one-on-one with 15 seconds to go and down by one, deciding what to do with the rest of the floor cleared out and the crowd going insane in anticipation of a potential game-winner.-KU hit 17 of its 20 charity tries.Was K-State playing better a fluke? No. Would the ‘Cats play like that 10 times out of 10? No. On that night, though, you saw two star players – you know who – who _never_ went off their rockers emotionally. Mike Beasley and Bill Walker were of the same temperament before the game as they were after as well as everywhere in between. Even though Walker complained a bit after his third foul, he calmed quickly.This is where seniority comes into favor for this roster. Letting one loss turn into two is highly unlikely. Afterall, on a sidenote, 20 years ago almost to the day, KU took on Colorado (and won) with a 12-8 record coming off of four straight losses, with an NCAA Tournament bid no longer a certainty. We all know what happened down the road in that season.Similar situation today as it was in 1988 – KU takes on Colorado with a steep talent advantage and could use the Buffs as a perfect elixir.I will say, this Colorado program, despite being at 9-11 this season, looks to be in good hands under first-year head coach Jeff Bzdelik. I would certainly guess that his NBA experience has grabbed the attention of his players and given him immediate credibility. A 9-11 record is pretty legit, considering most of these players were part of a lifeless and punchless team which lost seven of eight to finish off the 2006-07 season under lameduck coach Ricardo Patton (5-14 in his first year at Northern Illinois, FYI).What he’s done is set a hard line with his players. That’s something in college athletics which could really pay off or really blow up in your face. He’s set his rules and he’s [cut the fat][2], no matter how cold it may have looked at the time.That certainly seems to have done the trick for senior [Richard Roby][3]. The 6-foot-6 swingman, who has NBA aspirations, is having the most solid year of his CU career across the stat sheet. His 16.5 points per game are just a shade under his averages as both a sophomore and junior, but his 49.6 field goal percentage is more than 11 percent higher than it was a year ago, plus he’s averaging a career-best 6.5 rebounds per game. His three-point field goal percentage (39.1) and free throw percentage (77.5) are also higher than they’ve ever been in four years in Boulder.He and Brandon Rush have waged a nice friendly rivalry over the past couple of seasons, and expect them to duke it out again today. But the glaring difference between the two teams is that while Rush is merely a station in KU’s complex assembly line, Roby is for the most part a one-man band.Senior point guard Marcus Hall has been looked at as a scrappy, tough and moderately productive point guard for four years (12.6 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 3.8 apg). After that, no one should really scare the Jayhawks.I’m largely expecting to see a home crowd for the Jayhawks. The Buffs tried to limit the amount of KU fans in the stands this year at what has become known as Allen Fieldhouse Far-West by selling the tickets for this game as a three-game package instead of a single-game deal. I know two friends who live out here bought those packages and then just gave away the other two game tickets to CU alums…meaning they’ll probably go unused. I’m betting that’s been a pretty common practice in Jayhawk Nation.**Prediction time…**I’ll say Shady has a big game. Last year he struggled with foul trouble, but outside of Wednesday night’s loss at KSU, he hasn’t done it much. I bet Bill Self tries to re-establish his team’s ability to score in the post after K-State took that away by going for Arthur and Darnell Jackson early and often.KU will win, I’m saying 78-56. Arthur is my pick to click, as I’ll give him 22 and 12 today. I bet the matchup with Walker and Beasley will set a fire under him to redeem himself. If you really look at it, he didn’t play that bad outside of the foul trouble. He just doesn’t score in the same fashion as Beasley. While the K-State big man can muscle inside at will, Arthur likes the short jumpers. And that’s fine. They’ll get him on an NBA roster next year, I’m sure.Talk to you again once we make it to Boulder. Gonna leave the hotel here in about an hour. [1]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss_8c1unj1s [2]: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/ncaa/article/0,2777,DRMN_23932_5571310,00.html [3]: http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/players/37851
