Kansas held a nine-point lead early in the first half, and it looked like the Jayhawks were well on their way to dropping the Cornhuskers in easy fashion.

Then the Cornhuskers cut the lead down to four at the half. Then the second half started and they took a four-point lead. The Jayhawks eventually won 75-64, but it took too many minutes and too much held breath from the Kansas faithful against a team that calls the cellar of the Big 12 home.

It’s become a recurring theme with this Kansas team. As deep and as talented as the Jayhawks are, they have rarely shown the ability to jump on the opposition when the opportunity arises.

“Nobody’s perfect, but we still want to play good and win big, or just win,” senior guard Sherron Collins, who had 17 points on the night, said. “We built leads and let them get back in the game and it was an ugly game, but it was a win and we will take it. If we play like this Monday, we won’t come out with one.”

Collins was referring to the Jayhawks’ Big Monday matchup against No. 10 Texas, who lost at Oklahoma early Saturday. The Longhorns are one of the few teams in the country that has the depth and talent to match Kansas, and if the Jayhawks don’t take every opportunity to build a lead Monday, they likely won’t have the same luck they did against the Cornhuskers.

Coach Bill Self has a plan, though.

“We got some magic powder, some dust that we can sprinkle on everybody’s heads,” he said. “I don’t think that’ll be an issue from this point forward, I’ll go out and purchase that.”

Kidding aside, it’s a problem that the Jayhawks need to solve, but no one seems to have an answer as to how they can do it. Collins said it isn’t something the coaches have too much power over.

“It’s sort of a killer instinct, when you’ve got somebody down, you’ve got to step on their throats,” Collins said. “It’s us, it ain’t nothing to do with coach. It’s something that we’ve got to do as players. Coach does a good job of coaching us and getting us prepared for the game, we’ve just got to go out there and play like we want it.”

Sophomore forward Marcus Morris was again the best player on the floor for the Jayhawks on Saturday with 20 points and 11 rebounds for his sixth double-double. Count him among the troops that knew they needed to develop a killer instinct, but didn’t offer a plan as to how.

“We’ve just got to keep going as hard as we did when we first came out,” Morris said. “I felt like we came out really strong at first, and then we started to let up on them.”

Collins said there is one thing that always keeps the team motivated.

“No, we just have to look at coach on the sidelines to wake us up. We just do not want to get chewed out,” Collins said.

— Edited by Drew Anderson