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Brandon Rush and Julian Wright scored 13 points on a night where every Jayhawk played as Kansas defeated a winless Northern Colorado team 85-62 Thursday night in Allen Field House. Coach Bill Self continued to look for combinations of players that would follow his instructions as the Jayhawk offense sputtered as often as not, especially in the first half. Many times the game appeared to be more like a scrimmage. There was a point in the first half where I truly, honestly wondered to myself “will this team win a conference road game?” After scoring the first 14 points of the game before the first television timeout, the Jayhawks outscored the visitors from Greeley, Col. by only three the rest of the half. Eleven different players took the floor for the Jayhawks before halftime and yet Stephen Vinson, arguably KU’s best guard of late, didn’t play until the second half. Northern Colorado isn’t in Pepperdine’s league, and should have been blown out of the gym early in the contest. Instead a winless team got a couple of glimmers of hope in the first half, actually outscoring KU between the third and fourth TV timeouts. The second half saw marked improvement in the second half. Darnell Jackson, making his first regular season appearance after sitting out, played well enough off the bench in the first half to earn a second half start. Jackson played hungry, like a man who’d had something taken from him and he was out to get it back. If Jackson plays with that type of intensity every game, the minutes will be there. Kansas had good ball movement for most of the second half, except for a short stretch leading into the third media timeout. On three consecutive trips down the floor perimeter shots were taken with 28 seconds or more on the shot clock, and none of them dropped. The Jayhawks did shoot a decent percentage from TreyLand, going 9-20 for 45 percent. Rush hit all three of his treys, Jeremy Case hit three of five and Jeff Hawkins hit two of three. Jackson and the other relative newcomer, Roderick Stewart, combined to go 8-8 from the free throw stripe. Only four other Jayhawks shot free throws; Wright, Vinson, Russell Robinson and Micah Downs each went 1 of 2 from the line. In spite of a height and depth advantage, KU inside men Sasha Kaun, C.J. Giles and Christian Moody did not go to the line at all. Point guard play was once again by committee; the job is wide open for somebody to step up and take it. KU turned the ball over but 14 times, but at least nine of those were before intermission. Only Vinson really handles himself as though he wants the job; if not for the questions regarding health the job should be his. Downs seems to be in a funk, and shooters such as he need to shoot themselves out of it. That’s hard to do in nine minutes, but he has to earn his time, just like everyone else. Defensively the Jayhawks really weren’t poor but not all that great either. They grabbed four more rebounds than Northern Colorado, but still gathered only 34. KU got beat on the same inbounds play twice in the second half and there were stretches, especially in the first half, where the Bears seemed to out-hustle Kansas. As KU began to click offensively, their defense seemed to wane as KU won the second half by only six, 45-39. To date this KU team has been so inconsistent that each trip up the floor on offense and down the floor on defense has to be evaluated individually. What makes it so frustrating for Coach Self and his staff is there are times when KU has five, six or more possessions where the team really looks good. Other times, maybe leading into timeouts when they are slightly overdue, it’s hard to watch. At this point in the season there are many things that brighten the future. For instance, we are far more likely to get to see all four freshmen play as sophomores; none are lottery picks at this point. I haven’t watched enough game tape to statistically verify it, but the stretches of bad basketball seems to be fading some. Kansas has two more games before returning to ‘big time’ competition, and an opportunity to gain still more confidence. To answer my own rhetorical question: KU won’t win many conference road games if the first half is repeated. They’d struggle at home to win, too. The second half was better but still not there. I think some time away for the holiday may do everyone some good, giving individuals time to regroup and self-evaluate. Everyone knows this team is a work in progress; personally I underestimated that amount of work that needed to be done. 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.