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AUSTIN, Texas — It had to come out sometime. As the Kansas Jayhawks run away with the Big 12 halfway through the conference season, Saturday seemed as good a time as any for Sherron Collins to discuss his team's greater purpose.
Collins has won three Big 12 regular-season titles, including last year's outright championship, created mostly through his own near-obsession with winning. Hoisting trophies never gets old to Collins, but in his senior season, he wants more. So Texas' current slide doesn't take anything away from tonight's game in his mind.
Whether the Longhorns were No. 1, No. 10 or No. 100, they were always going to be just another hurdle standing in the way of the ultimate goal: perfection.
"We're on a mission," Collins said, "and the mission is to try to win every one."
A perfect 16-0, last accomplished by Kirk Hinrich, Nick Collison and company in 2002, is still on the table for the Jayhawks, who at 8-0 lead the Big 12 by three games in the loss column. While KU has enough room in the standings to think bigger than this ESPN Big Monday showdown, Texas will see the Jayhawks' arrival at the Frank Erwin Center as a chance to keep its dimming league title hopes alive.
Certainly, because the Jayhawks still have to play at Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma State and Missouri, there will be chances for the Longhorns to gain ground.
"Our hard games are left," KU coach Bill Self said. "This thing is a long ways from being over. I'm sure they think with our road schedule they can get some help, just like we've gotten some help from teams that played Texas. But they'll be hungry to play, not because of the league race, but because it's Kansas-Texas."
Kansas-Texas has evolved over the last seven years — ever since the schools shared the Final Four stage in 2003 — into one of the healthiest rivalries in college basketball. There is no hatred in this one, only a mutual appreciation for what they have brought out in each other and the anticipation of more classic games in the future. Each program knows that if it can outplay the other for one night and for the two-month stretch of Big 12 play, it will be ready for a deep NCAA run.
This year's installment was supposed to be the best yet, a true show of Big 12 power for the nation to see. The Jayhawks would return their entire cast from last season, as would the Longhorns, and each squad would be adding high-impact freshmen such as KU's Xavier Henry and Texas' Avery Bradley. Sure enough, when the calendar turned to 2010, the Jayhawks and Longhorns were both unbeaten and No. 1 and No. 2, respectively.
The hype for tonight's game built quickly, but Texas' losses during the last three weeks to Kansas State, Connecticut, Baylor and Oklahoma have changed the game's complexion nationally. Still, Self said Saturday that the Jayhawks will have to play their best game of the season to win in Austin, where Self's KU teams are 0-3.
"Texas is a great team," KU forward Marcus Morris said. "Even though they lost (to Oklahoma), they're still a top-10 team to me. We're gonna go down there and it's gonna be a dogfight."
The game certainly poses some premier matchups: Inside, KU big men Cole Aldrich and Marcus Morris will tango with Texas' Dexter Pittman and Damion James. Outside, the freshmen Henry and Bradley should see plenty of each other, and Texas will send an assortment of guards at Collins.
With so much talent on the floor at all times, Kansas-Texas can't help but have its own feel.
"I would say in our guys' minds and probably their guys' minds, it's different," Self said. "But the thing about it is, in the conference, I don't think you should get too hung up on one game. Because if something doesn't go well, it can deflate you for the next one. If something goes good, you can be too high."
It's a coach's job to temper expectations. Self's players didn't dance around the fact they've had this one circled on their calendars for months.
"This is a big game," Morris said. "This is the one we wanted. We're gonna go down to Texas and give them our best shot."
