Print edition: 
LAWRENCE — The Kansas Jayhawks have already breezed through their first four home games, winning each by more than 30 points. In one game, Xavier Henry broke a school freshman record for points in a debut. In another, Marcus Morris looked NBA-ready with a double-double. One night, KU won by 50 points and held the opponent to 26 percent shooting.
For the 16,300 fans who packed Allen Fieldhouse for the drubbings of Hofstra, Central Arkansas, Oakland and Tennessee Tech, all of those developments basically amounted to some really exquisite eye candy. And there will likely be more of it served up tonight when the top-ranked Jayhawks take on Alcorn State.
The Braves are 0-9, and the closest they have come to victory is a 15-point loss to Utah Valley. They have lost to Ohio State by 40 and fell to Arkansas 130-68. Alcorn State is in such a sad state of affairs that the school's official Web site for athletics, alcornsports.com, stopped updating the Braves' scores after the first regular-season game.
This is not to say that the Jayhawks shouldn't have scheduled Alcorn State; there are only a handful of smaller programs that could accommodate playing four games in the Basketball Hall of Fame Showcase (designed so that KU could play Memphis in St. Louis on Nov. 17 as part of a tournament that would provide the Jayhawks and Tigers three extra home games).
But when tonight's game is over and the Jayhawks have undoubtedly done some more things that seemed to be outstanding, it will be the job of KU coach Bill Self and his players to find a way of making sense of what just happened. Which great plays actually were great? Which players who had good stats actually played well? Did the team as a whole take a step forward or backward?
"We probably know we're going to win," KU guard Tyshawn Taylor said. "But we want to get better so we focus on things we haven't been doing well at practice, things that coach wants to see us do better against better teams."
At this time of year, the Jayhawks will usually face more competitive situations in practice than during games. Taylor said games like this are merely an extension of practice.
"I think practice would be a little bit more beneficial because we get more out of it," Taylor said. "But, I mean, we got the game, it's on our schedule so we gotta take advantage of it and come out and get better."
Taylor explained how Tuesday's practice could transfer into tonight's game.
"Like, today we're gonna have practice, and there's gonna be something Coach probably leaves here unhappy with," Taylor said. "He'll probably address it in the locker room before the game, say 'We gotta get better at this' and we just gotta do that."
Instead of falling in love with his line on the stat sheet after the game, KU center Cole Aldrich will evaluate his performance based on the mundane.
"The small things," Aldrich said, "hedging ball screens, just talking and trying to be a leader to the guys on the team and trying to make sure the offense runs smoothly."
Entering the past few games, Self has been telling his players to focus on defense and rebounding. He is yet to be impressed. And there's no telling what, if anything, the Alcorn State game will reveal.
"I think a lot of times you get more out of practice than games," Self said. "What I hope is that we take some of the things we have not been very good in and take pride in doing those things better (tonight)."
