Kansas coach Bill Self and his players love to talk about toughness.

They swear it’s more than a sports cliché, but sometimes struggle to define exactly what they mean by the term. Sophomore center Cole Aldrich won’t have that problem anymore.

Photo Gallery

Kansas Basketball vs. Texas A&M

A photo gallery of the men's basketball game against Texas A&M Monday night.

If someone asks, Aldrich will reference Kansas’ 73-53 victory against Texas A&M Monday night. To Aldrich, it embodied everything he means by “toughness.”

“We just kept going at it. When balls were on the ground, we were diving for them. We were trying to fight with them,” Aldrich said. “We did a good job today.”

And it started at the beginning. The Jayhawks welcomed their first Big Monday game of the year by, well, making big plays. Junior guard Sherron Collins hit two three-pointers to start the game as Kansas ran off to an 18-4 lead.

The pummeling continued as junior guard Mario Little scored seven points in three minutes to extend the lead to 30-10. The Jayhawks kept pounding the Aggies with the intensity of a boxer determined to make his opponent suffer for an entire 12 rounds. Texas A&M barely landed any counter-punches.

“We just tried to give them the first hit,” Aldrich said. “We knew they were going to try to come out and hit us. We just tried to come out really strong and I think we did a really good job of that.”

Little specifically. He recorded 15 points and was 6-for-6 from the field in only 14 minutes of playing time as he continues to recover from injuries in his lower left leg and left hand.

Little scored in a number of ways. He swished two open three-pointers, connected on two fadeaway jumpers and banged for two points down low.

“That’s basically what I’ve been doing all my life,” Little said. “I’ve just been a scorer. I’m big enough to post some guys and I can step out.”

The first half ended appropriately as Little slugged the pad on the south basket after missing a potential buzzer-beating layup. It wasn’t the kind of reaction typical by a player on a team leading 40-23 at halftime.

A 17-point lead after 20 minutes didn’t satisfy Little. It didn’t satisfy any of the Jayhawks.

“That was our main focus,” Little said. “We’re just trying to — once we get people down — keep them down and not let them back in and make it a game.”

As they came out for the second half, Collins — who had 16 points, seven assists and three steals — clapped his hands together and energized his teammates.

Allowing a possible comeback was not an option. Aldrich, who finished with 16 points and eight rebounds, scored 10 points down low in the second half. Freshman forward Marcus Morris, who scored 10 points, knocked down two three-pointers in less than a minute.

“I’ve been practicing my shot a lot, going to practice early trying to get extra shots,” Morris said. “I’ve been a little inconsistent out there. That’s one of the things I need to do a little bit more to stretch the defense.”

Self praised Morris’ and Little’s performances, but the statistic sheet could never indicate who he thought had the best game. That’s because there’s no way to measure toughness.

And therefore, no numerical value exists to describe the importance of sophomore guard Brady Morningstar. Morningstar held Texas A&M’s leading scorer, senior guard Josh Carter, to an insignificant seven points.

Morningstar knocked away numerous Aggie passes and often dove to the floor for loose balls. He also had three points, four assists and two steals.

“If you look at a guy on our team that gives himself up for the better of our team,” Self said, “no one does it more so than he does.”

Morningstar was the poster boy for the bout. He played tough for the 32 minutes he was in, just as the Jayhawks were for the 40 minutes of regulation.

“It was a complete game,” Self said. “Probably about as complete as we’ve been on both ends.”

— — Edited by Casey Miles