Ames, Iowa — Russell Robinson is watching the calendar with extra interest the past week. March is approaching.

Lately, his Kansas team hadn’t been looking like they were ready for the ensuing month of madness. The Jayhawks were defeated in recent road losses to Oklahoma State and Texas. A better performance was necessary at Iowa State.

Photo Gallery

Kansas Basketball vs. Iowa State

Photo gallery of Wednesday's men's basketball game at Iowa State.

“March is right around the corner, a couple days away,” Robinson said. “This is crunch time for us now. We have to turn around and start playing our best basketball.”

Kansas made progress, defeating the Cyclones 75-64 Wednesday night at Hilton Coliseum. Instead of falling apart like they did in recent away games against the Cowboys and Longhorns, the Jayhawks (25-3, 10-3) showed some toughness and a sense of urgency when Iowa State made runs in the second half.

“When you’re 24 and three,” Kansas coach Bill Self said, “you shouldn’t need to say the ship needs righting, but our players all knew that it did, and we felt it did, too.”

After dominating in the first half, the Jayhawks let the Cyclones back into the game early in the second. Iowa State cut a 13-point Kansas lead to six just after intermission.

If the Jayhawks continued to let the Cyclones play like they did those first two minutes, the game could’ve easily turned in favor of Iowa State. Kansas could’ve been losers of three straight on the road and two games out of first place in the league. It wouldn’t have been pretty; so, Self got nasty.

He called a time-out, pointed, screamed and never moved more than few inches away from the players’ faces. Robinson gave a Sparknote account of Self’s words, minus the screaming.

“The main thing was,” Robinson said, “he wanted us to just focus in and get a good possession.”

Kansas delivered after the talk with a 16-4 run during the next five minutes. Iowa State came back again to pull within nine at the 4:04 mark, but Mario Chalmers and Darrell Arthur answered with quick baskets. KU’s lead never fell to single digits after that.

Chalmers and Arthur combined for 33 points, including 22 in the first half. Arthur especially shined in the first 20 minutes. After playing miserably against Oklahoma State, he put on an exhibition. The Cyclones tried guarding him one-on-one with little double-teaming. Not a good idea. He scored 12 points and grabbed seven rebounds in that first half. Brandon Rush couldn’t believe Iowa State didn’t double-up on Arthur.

“They should’ve trapped the post,” Rush said. “Still, the outcome would’ve been the same.”

When Iowa State went to a zone for part of the second half, partially to slow down Arthur, Rush became the man. He made two of three shots from beyond the arc after the break and three for the game, the same amount Chalmers had.

KU’s seven of 11 three-point shooting might have been one of the biggest reasons the Jayhawks didn’t lose their third straight road game. Bad shooting has plagued Kansas for weeks. The Jayhawks made just six of 28 in losses to Texas and Oklahoma State.

Self had the players do extra shooting because of the poor marksmanship. Rush, Chalmers and other guards have all stayed 15 to 20 minutes after practice during the past two weeks to work on their outside game. It finally paid off.

“Part of the reason when you don’t play well is you don’t make shots,” Self said. “Tonight we made shots better than we have in three weeks.”

After the game, Rush called the victory “quality.” It certainly was a better performance than the one Kansas gave in Saturday’s loss, but Self said his team’s victory didn’t necessarily solve all their ills. After all, Iowa State is just 4-9 in conference, and the Cyclones’ victories have come against league bottom-feeders Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma State.

“I don’t know if we did or not,” Self said about returning to a high level. “Only time will tell, but we were a better team than we were in the last three weeks.”

Self could find out on Saturday how much better his team is playing. Kansas has a rematch at home with Kansas State. Revenge and bragging rights will be on the line, but there’s another reason the game will be important. It’s in March.

Is Kansas ready for Saturday’s big game and even bigger games that will follow later in the month now that the Jayhawks have toughed out a solid road victory? Robinson thinks so.

“You have to think as positive as you can,” he said.

­— Edited by Jared Duncan