Practice just ended on Friday. The players walked off the floor thinking it was one of their best of the season.

Then, Bill Self brought out a video. The feature presentation included all the negative images from the first half of Kansas’ January game with Kansas State.

Photo Gallery

Kansas Basketball vs. Kansas State

Photo gallery of men's basketball game against Kansas State Saturday in Allen Fieldhouse.

Brandon Rush saw a lack of pressure. Robinson saw how much harder K-State’s guards played.

“Everybody got mad,” Robinson said. “We said to each other that we have to go out there with all the energy.”

And they did on Saturday night. Kansas defeated Kansas State 88-74 at Allen Fieldhouse, running away with the game in the first few minutes. The victory alleviated the woes the Jayhawks had been feeling from their first matchup with the Wildcats and showed just how good they could play when they bring enough energy.

“They handle us at Bramlage,” Self said. “Tonight, we were the aggressor and handled them.”

Rush said they had this game marked on their calendar for the last 30 days. It showed. No one could question Kansas’ intensity this time.

The Jayhawks forced four turnovers and two jump balls in the first five minutes. On the second one, Stewart and Sasha Kaun dove into a scrum near the free throw line for several seconds. Stewart got up scowling. Bill Walker got up limping. Kansas didn’t back away from anything all night.

The initial burst of energy gave the Jayhawks a 21-point lead by the nine-minute mark. A 39-point performance by Michael Beasley couldn’t even save the hapless Wildcats.

“They had us on our heels,” K-State coach Frank Martin said. “When you get a team on its heels, that team is always trying to recover rather than fight back, and that’s the phase they had us in all night.”

Aside from intensity, Kansas was just pretty dang good. Rush shot three-point daggers. Russell Robinson and Mario Chalmers stole again. Sherron Collins barked orders for his team and scuffled with Darren Kent. The Jayhawks finished with 15 steals, the most they’ve had in Big 12 play, and 23 rebounds, a season high. Five players scored in double figures. Jacob Pullen and Bill Walker, players who shined in Manhattan a month ago, combined for 12 points.

Amidst all the balance, Collins and Rush stood out. Both have dealt with injuries this season, and both had their best games since sustaining those injuries.

Collins barely played at Oklahoma State last Saturday after sitting out the entire week of practice. Against Iowa State, Self called Collins a shell of his former self. Saturday night, he collected four steals, beat everyone down the court for layups and scored in traffic.

The running, jumping,Collins could be returning for good, too, in place of the hobbling, limping one that Kansas fans have seen too often this season. Team doctors have said that Collins’ knee bruise should heal soon and when it does, he’ll be pain free.

Rush hasn’t had nearly as many injury problems as Collins, but he hadn’t put together a great performance since his May ACL tear. Rush shot brilliantly or defended well for stretches but never pieced together a complete game. He finally did on Saturday, scoring 21 and staying aggressive for all 40 minutes.

“Every game,” Rush said, “I go out and play where my heart is… Tonight, I think I proved a little point.”

The Jayhawks as a team might have done the same. They showed a relentless attitude to attack, which was evident from their steal and offensive rebound totals. Self said everything else they did the same things they’d done during the games they’d struggled. The plays hadn’t changed. The mindset had.

“Guys just had more energy,” Self said. “We played with a swagger tonight.”

After the Iowa State game, Self made it clear that his team played better than it had in weeks. Still, he called the improvement a start.

So, did Saturday’s game mark the true turning point, the sure sign that Kansas is back to playing the way it was in December, when fans salivated, bracketologists penciled the Jayhawks in as a guaranteed No. 1 seed and players lived in a dream world where a perfect season was the hottest topic?

“I told them,” Self said, “you’ll play even harder on Monday.”