Jayhawks rout Huskers to even Big 12 record

By By Ryan Colaianni (Contact)

Monday, January 23, 2006

When Brandon Rush took a bad shot in practice last week, he had to run 15 more seconds on the treadmill, which Kansas Coach Bill Self placed next to the court as extra motivation for his players.

The freshman guard and other starters ran on the treadmill at top speed when they were taken out during practice for poor decisions.

The extra motivation worked.

Kansas blew out Nebraska 96-54 on Saturday in Allen Fieldhouse.

“It is just one of those things that gets us to focus in on what Coach wants us to do, pay attention to detail and it showed today,” sophomore guard Russell Robinson said.

The Jayhawks shot 72.4 percent from the field in the first half, which gave Kansas a 51-30 lead at half. The outside shooting counteracted a zone defense Nebraska displayed early in the game. Kansas, which couldn’t break through Kansas State’s defensive zone last week, penetrated the Nebraska zone and passed the ball to the perimeter for open shots. The Jayhawks were stellar from beyond the arc, going 11-of-18.

“As long as everybody is ready and prepared to come in and do what they are supposed to do, know their role, I think we can have a lot of nights like this,” senior guard Jeff Hawkins said.

Rush said he had felt that anything he or his teammates shot would go in during the first half.

“We just kept throwing it back up, and everything was dropping,” Rush said.

The Kansas City, Mo., native had 17 points and went 3-of-4 from three-point range.

While the margin of victory was huge for the Jayhawks, Self said the team had not played as well as the score indicated.

“I got the feeling that it was one of those, ‘no, no, no, good shot,’ days because we shot a lot of long threes early,” Self said. “We didn’t play as well as we shot it but we shot the ball great.”

After back-to-back losses, the Jayhawks desperately needed a victory to get their season back on track for what the team hopes will be an eventual NCAA Tournament run.

“This is a big confidence builder and now we just have to continue to focus in,” Hawkins said.

Robinson provided defensive pressure, which sparked the Jayhawks in the first half. He had clutch steals that led to easy baskets in transition. Kansas scored 37 points off of turnovers and got 55 points from the bench.

“So far it has been the most complete game,” Robinson said.

The majority of the bench points came from three players: Hawkins, sophomore forward Darnell Jackson and freshman forward Julian Wright. Those three players combined for 42 points. Wright displayed highlight-reel ability with three dunks in the game.

Jackson and Wright made up for a struggling front court. Starting sophomore center Sasha Kaun couldn’t grab rebounds, which led Self to insert Wright and Jackson into the lineup. Kaun and senior Christian Moody had just one defensive rebound at halftime and that prompted Self to make the change.

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