Posted on Wed, Jan. 13, 2010

e-mail	print	RSS	reprint
AIM	Digg it	del.icio.us	Facebook

Jayhawks put away Nebraska in second half

BY J. BRADY McCOLLOUGH

The Wichita Eagle

LINCOLN, Neb. — For most of Kansas' 84-72 victory over Nebraska on Wednesday night, it was more of the same. Another subpar defensive outing. Another quiet night from preseason first-team All-American Cole Aldrich. Another big night from senior Sherron Collins.

Until finally, trailing by 1 with 13 minutes left, the Jayhawks woke up from their three-game funk and started playing like the team that just a week ago was largely viewed as a lock to make a deep March run. The difference during the Jayhawks' 22-8 run that gave them a 75-62 lead and hushed the rowdy Bob Devaney Center crowd? They started making those tough plays.

Brady Morningstar tipped two missed shots out to his teammates on the same possession, resulting in a Marcus Morris layup. Morris went strong to the basket several times, scoring 7 of his 19 points during that crucial stretch. Morris, who was benched in favor of freshman Thomas Robinson to start the game, showed yet again that he is the best answer for No. 3 KU to get through Aldrich's struggles.

KU coach Bill Self made the point that, from the 12-minute mark to the 8-minute mark as the Jayhawks made their push, Collins and Aldrich were on the bench together.

"We played a good Nebraska team tonight on a night when they could have beat us," Self said. "We were able to withstand the challenge."

Morris had totaled 6 points in the last two games, a narrow victory over Cornell and the loss on Sunday at Tennessee. He came off the bench and gave the Jayhawks a spark they desperately needed against an upset-hungry Nebraska team. He swished two three-point attempts in the first half to help Kansas back from an early 12-1 deficit.

With Aldrich having another off night offensively — he had 6 points on 1-of-4 shooting — Morris became KU's best option. Unlike against Cornell and Tennessee, the Jayhawks' guards went out of their way to feed Morris, who made 7 of 8 shots and also grabbed 7 rebounds.

"I don't think I had the mindset of being aggressive enough," Morris said, "and my team sensed I wasn't that aggressive, so they didn't feed me the ball as much. This game I had to get rebounds and extra possessions."

Morris wasn't the only Jayhawk coming into this game needing to find himself again. Guard Tyshawn Taylor admitted Tuesday that he sometimes doesn't know what his role is on this team with so many talented players. During KU's second-half spurt, Taylor must have figured out that his role was to run the open floor and take the ball to the basket in transition. Taylor finished with 11 points and made 6 of 8 free throws.

"Guys really knew their roles tonight," Self said with sarcasm. "They did a really good job of that."

The Jayhawks' surge at the end still didn't mask what had to be another frustrating night for the first 30 minutes. Either the Jayhawks are playing poor defense, or their opponents are having great shooting nights against them. In the first half, Nebraska made 15 of 27 shots (56 percent), including 8 of 11 (73 percent) from three-point range.

"At halftime, some of the guys were like, 'They're not gonna shoot like that in the second half,' " Taylor said. "Me and Sherron were like, 'We can't keep saying that. We gotta make sure they don't. We gotta close out and make them drive it.’æ”

Nebraska shot 31 percent from the field in the second half.

"Law of averages," Self said. "They missed a lot of the same shots in the second half they made in the first half. We stayed hot."

The Jayhawks made 58 percent of their field goals for the game.

Check J. Brady McCollough’s KU blog at blogs.kansas.com/jayhawk. Reach him at jmccollough@wichitaeagle.com.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.CommentBody@

@Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@