When practice 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. Movie time. Except, the players hadn’t been anticipating this blockbuster. The feature presentation included all the negative images from the first half of Kansas’ January game against 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. Russell Robinson saw how much harder K-State’s guards played. If the lingering memories of K-State’s Jacob Pullen, Clent Stewart and Bill Walker doing whatever they wanted against them weren’t enough, this tape pushed the guards over the edge.

“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 (26-3, 11-3) 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, put them into a tie with Texas for first place in the league and showed just how good they could play when they bring enough energy.

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

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 scuffle 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. By halftime, Kansas had 10 steals and forced 14 turnovers. Stewart, Walker and Pullen – three players who toasted the Jayhawks in January – made a total of three field goals and turned the ball over seven times. It also helped that Walker and Michael Beasley got into early foul trouble.

When Beasley got back in, the Jayhawks were too far ahead and too focused to let his 39 points make a difference.

“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. Darnell Jackson and Darrell Arthur got the ball inside. Sherron Collins barked orders for his team and scuffled with Darren Kent. Five players scored in double figures.

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 setbacks.

Collins barely played at the Oklahoma State game 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’s injury hasn’t lingered like Collins’, but he hadn’t put together a great performance since his May ACL tear. Rush shot brilliantly and 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 in front of a small army of NBA scouts there to watch Beasley.

“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 15 steals and 23 offensive rebounds. Self said they did everything else the same 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? Is it 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?

There’s still a long way to go, but if Kansas can maintain the passion that it played with on Saturday night, a promising future seems likely.

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