Edited by Samantha Foster

For a brief moment in the No. 1 Kansas Jayhawks’ game against the Central Arkansas Bears it seemed as though a story similar to Kansas’ game against the Memphis Tigers might unfold before the eyes of the faithful in Allen Fieldhouse.

In the Jayhawks’ 57-55 victory over the Tigers on Tuesday the Jayhawks had an astounding 21 turnovers compared to meager 20 field goals. After a rocky and eerily similar start against Central Arkansas, Kansas turned things around en route to a 94-44 victory.

“We took better care of the basketball,” coach Bill Self said. “That’s a positive after pitching it all over the building Tuesday.”

In the first two minutes of play against the Bears, the Jayhawks had already committed two turnovers, both by junior center Cole Aldrich, and had not even attempted a field goal, much less made one.

Then with 18 minutes left in the half sophomore forward Marcus Morris, making his first start of the season, sank a jumper from outside the paint to give Kansas its first points of the game.

After that Kansas never looked back. Aldrich’s two turnovers served as the Jayhawks’ only giveaways until Marcus Morris lost the ball with four seconds remaining in the half. That turnover led to a Central Arkansas basket that simply cut what would have been a 24-point halftime lead to a still daunting 22-point lead that the Bears never even came close to recovering from.

When the final buzzer sounded, Kansas had only turned the ball over a total of seven times. To give that statistic a little perspective, sophomore guard Tyshawn Taylor committed seven turnovers by himself in the Jayhawks’ victory over Memphis.

In conjunction with the rest of Kansas’ recovery from a shaky offensive performance against Memphis, Taylor did not give the ball away once against Central Arkansas.

“He had no turnovers, so from my standpoint he probably had a pretty good night,” Self said.

The lack of turnovers against the Bears also significantly aided the Jayhawks in keeping their offense in sync. That fact is especially evident when comparing the field goal percentages in Kansas’ last two games.

In Tuesday’s game against Memphis, Kansas rattled off only 43 shot attempts. Out of those Kansas made just 20 for a 46.5 field goal percentage. In Thursday’s game against Central Arkansas, however, Kansas shot the ball 59 times and made 33 of those. That gave the team a greatly improved 55.9 field goal percentage.

“When we were turning it over before we could get Cole a touch or Markieff (Morris) a touch, our offense doesn’t run as smoothly,” junior guard Tyrel Reed said.

On the other side of the ball Kansas continued to showcase a much stronger defense than they had in their two exhibition games. A huge factor in the continuation of that trend against Central Arkansas revolved around Kansas’ ability to force turnovers. On Thursday the Bears gave the ball away 18 times, which led to 28 of the Jayhawks’ 94 points.

“I knew that they were going to come out even tougher after they struggled against Memphis,” Central Arkansas senior guard Mike Pouncy said. “I knew that their coach was going to get on them and they were going to pressure us even more.”

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