When a team is negative-18 in the turnover battle, it usually doesn’t win the game, let alone dominate.

But that’s exactly what No. 2 Kansas (19-1) did in its 84-65 victory against Missouri (15-5) Monday.

In a game where the Jayhawks were in control throughout, the only noticeable blemish was giving the ball away 23 times. It looks even worse considering the Tigers only had five.

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Kansas Basketball vs. Missouri

Kansas trampled Missouri 84-65 Monday night in Allen Fieldhouse to move to 19-1 on the season. Aldrich dominated the paint with 16 rebounds and seven blocks in addition to his seven points.

Adding two of those turnovers to his 16 point, 12 rebound and seven block performance, junior center Cole Aldrich wasn’t surprised the team had 23 turnovers. He said Mizzou’s fast-paced, aggressive play had a lot to do with it.

“That’s a real lot,” Aldrich said. “With those guys just scrambling all around, balls to the wall, I can see how we turned it over at times.”

Mizzou does play fast, but Kansas coach Bill Self could only pin the giveaways on his own team, and the stat sheet indicates why. Considering Mizzou forced 23 turnovers, the defensive stats don’t show it.

“Think of it like this,” Self said. “If a team turns it over more than 23 times, don’t they usually get more than nine steals?”

The Tigers did steal the ball nine times, but they did little to earn all of the turnovers they forced. Many of the Jayhawks’ passes were thrown over someone’s head, bounced off a knee or lost on offensive fouls.

“A lot of our turnovers were just bonehead, throw it out of bounds or whatever against average pressure,” Self said. “I didn’t think that they were totally turned up in a press mode.”

Freshman guard Xavier Henry had five turnovers, the most of anyone on the team. Senior guard Sherron Collins and sophomore guard Tyshawn Taylor each chipped in four.

But it’s not surprising Mizzou looked so good in the turnover battle. The team has done it all season.

The Tigers have forced double digit turnovers in every game this season, including 20 or more in 15-out-of-20 games.

Mizzou coach Mike Anderson was pleased with the 23 turnovers, but the Tigers failed to do anything more than that.

“Our defense has a lot to do with why we’ve won the games that we have won so far this season,” he said. “Yet, the finishing aspect of defense is rebounding, and we didn’t do a good job of that.”

If the Jayhawks can claim one solid reason for dominating despite being careless with the ball, Self said it was all about the rebounding.

“They had 18 more possessions than us and we probably stole that same number of possessions back in rebounding stats,” he said.

The Jayhawks out-rebounded the Tigers 56-28, led by the front court of Aldrich, Marcus Morris and Markieff Morris, who combined for 36 rebounds.

Still, Self isn’t counting on the careless possessions to magically correct themselves.

“I think it’s something that’s correctable,” he said. “But something we certainly need to address.”

— — Edited by Megan Heacock