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Led by a strong second half defensive effort by the heralded freshman class, the Kansas Jayhawks defeated Western Illinois University 86-57 at Allen Field House Saturday night. Kansas held a 45-31 edge at halftime, but Western Illinois got a three-pointer from Weskan, Kan. native Troy Okeson followed by a steal of the inbound pass and lay-up from David Jackson. The five points in seven seconds cut the Jayhawk lead to nine, and prompted a KU timeout with 18:31 to play. Coach Bill Self replaced Jeff Hawkins and Russell Robinson with Mario Chalmers and Micah Downs. The Leathernecks went nearly 10 minutes without a field goal, finally getting another trey by Okeson at the 9:40 mark. During the stretch between field goals, KU went on a 17-2 run, giving KU what would be their biggest lead of the night at 62-37. The freshmen of Chalmers, Downs, Brandon Rush and Julian Wright joined sophomore C.J. Giles in giving the Allen faithful perhaps a glimpse of the future. The quintet used superior quickness and athleticism to pick several passes clean and force bad decisions by a frustrated Leatherneck team. Wright scored 14 points and Christian Moody had a career high 12, leading a balanced KU offensive attack in which five players scored in double figures and 12 different Jayhawk players scored. KU also had five players with at least four assists each, getting 29 baskets on 25 assists as a team. Jackson led Western Illinois with 17, but had only four after halftime. Okeson finished with six points and five rebounds. Rush had an off-night offensively, going 2-7 from the field. Downs played well defensively, but really struggled, going 2-6 from three point land and 3-12 overall. Downs had a play where he missed a three, but kept his head up and stole the ball from the rebounder, and made the lay-up. Making a third of one’s three pointers isn’t necessarily bad for a freshman, and at this stage it appears he is gaining confidence and won’t let the rest of his game suffer. Neither Hawkins nor Robinson returned to the game after being benched at the 18:31 mark. Each struggled some with ball-handling issues, and took a couple of forced shots. Statistically neither player looked horrid but visually neither player looked very sharp. Seems as if we’ll find out if Coach Self has a doghouse. Jeremy Case played in mop-up time during the last five minutes, and did some nice things out on the floor, hitting a three, getting an assist on a nice pass to Matt Kleinmann and throwing in a rebound for good measure. Are there more minutes in his future, especially when Darnell Jackson and Rodrick Stewart become eligible to play? It was good to get a look at the freshman class for extended minutes, and they did play fairly well as a unit. I thought Robinson should be the man at point guard, but Chalmers showed great poise and played particularly well in the early second half run. If this is the real Mario Chalmers, it’s his team to run. I expect Rush will gain consistency with experience, as will Downs. For an extended conference winning streak to take place, someone will need to step up and help Downs on the perimeter, and Rush seems to be the best candidate at this point. Rush has the soft touch from the outside and the quickness to make someone pay for over-aggressive defense. He may have the quickest first step of anyone I’ve seen in a Jayhawk uniform. Sasha Kaun had a solid game as well, hitting three of five shots from the floor and making all four of his free throws for 10 points. Giles had 10 points on five of seven shooting, and the duo combined for 12 rebounds. I think each does a little better with Moody on the floor right now, but each has demonstrated willingness to help the other improve and eventually will be arguably the best big man duo in the Big 12. Because there is such a disparity in talent level between the Leathernecks and Jayhawks, it’s hard to gauge how much progress is being made, especially since it was less than 48 hours since the Nevada game. KU looked better against Nevada than they did against Arizona, and their play against Western Illinois was better still. This team isn’t ready for conference play just yet; then again they don’t have to be ready for another month. Really, this team could have used the Labor Day weekend trip to Canada this year rather than last season as every day counts so much more for a young team. It’s a work in progress to be sure, but it seems to be coming along. By the way: Does the name Okeson sound familiar? Troy’s older brother Todd played for Nevada and scored 12 points in the Wolf Pack victory over KU two years ago in Reno. Mark Howe is a freelance writer currently residing in Milford, IN. He is a former ticket taker, usher and security worker at Allen Fieldhouse, and can be reached at mhowe (at) rockchalk (dot) com.