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If Texas was looking to exact revenge for last year’s 25-point KU win in Allen Fieldhouse, the revenge has been exacted, right down to the final margin. In a game where the Longhorns did virtually everything right and Kansas never did anything to slow UT down, Texas whipped the Jayhawks 80-55 at the Erwin Center in Austin Saturday night. Julian Wright had 18 points for KU, while Mario Chalmers added 10. The loss ends KU’s 10-game winning streak, and is KU’s worst loss this season. Texas freshman LaMarcus Aldridge was the big man on campus, hitting all six of his first half shots and nine of 10 for the game, finishing with 18 points. P.J. Tucker was game high scorer, getting 17 of his 19 points after halftime. With the win UT takes sole possession of first place in the Big 12 and is virtually assured the number one seed in the post-season conference tournament. Texas finishes with games at Texas A&M and a home game with Oklahoma. For KU to get a number one seed and an outright title they have to win twice and Texas would have to lose both their remaining games. The game started well enough for KU, with Wright getting the first four points of the game. Brad Buckman’s three-point shot gave UT their first lead at 5-4, and the lead changed hands three times over the next ten minutes. Wright’s alley-oop dunk with seven and a half minutes left in the first half brought KU within two, 21-19. That was as close as KU would be the rest of the way. "We got beat handily," said KU coach Bill Self. "We lost tonight to a team that can win it all. They were awesome." Another Longhorn freshman, reserve guard A.J. Abrams, averaging 5.5 points per game coming in, hit four shots from TreyLand, all in the first half. Aldridge, who finished with three offensive and 11 overall rebounds, couldn’t miss from mid-range. Abrams and Aldridge went 10-10 from the field, but the rest of the Longhorns went 3-16 in the first half en route to a 36-27 advantage at halftime. Tucker, Buckman and Daniel Gibson came alive after halftime, igniting a 21-8 run over seven minutes expanding the Longhorn lead to 57-35. From there, it was all over except for the ESPN programming promos. KU’s came in leading the nation in defensive field goal percentage, giving up a mere 36.7 percent. Texas hit 55 percent of their shots, 61 percent in the second half. Forcing turnovers and blocking shots have fueled Jayhawk runs all year, but Texas turned the ball over but 16 times, and KU blocked only one shot. Aldridge blocked four shots for UT. While Wright lead KU in scoring, he had no rebounds. None. Nada. Zilch. C.J. Giles, who helped keep KU relatively close by hitting his first three shots off the bench in the first half, tied with Brandon Rush for KU’s leading rebounder with four each. Rush had more rebounds than points; his only made basket was a three with about 11 minutes left and the game all but out of reach. Rush finished one for eight from the field. "I was getting the shots I wanted, they just weren’t going down," said Rush. Giles and Rush accounted for nearly half of the Jayhawk rebounds. The four post players KU employs combined for (Giles, Sasha Kaun, Christian Moody, Darnell Jackson and Wright) had seven total rebounds, while Rush, Chalmers and Russell Robinson combined for nine. Texas doubled KU’s rebounds, 34-17. Take away Chalmers’ two-for-four effort from beyond the arc and the Jayhawks went a mere two-of-11 from three-point land. One of those came on Jeremy Case’s shot with less than 15 seconds remaining in the game. Led by Abrams, Texas went 10-20 from distance. It’s debatable if KU was or was not ready to play, while Texas’ preparedness cannot be questioned. Texas was flat in a 21-point loss at Oklahoma State and a narrow victory at Kansas State. Perhaps UT fans wonder if their team was looking ahead to tonight. Certainly Texas established themselves as the class of the conference. Meanwhile, KU players and coaches admitted they were looking ahead after looking flat in the victory over Baylor. The team came out of the box stronger than they did against Oklahoma, but on this night there was no recovery form a big deficit. For Kansas, the best thing about this game: it’s over. With a drop to the number two seed, a potential semifinal match up with Oklahoma looms. OU would certainly love an opportunity for redemption. Chalmers indicated the team would like a rematch with Texas in Dallas. As it sits, the game would be for the tournament championship, and KU would have earned the rematch. But on this night, Kansas got whipped. Bad. "It was kind of embarrassing, getting manhandled out there," said Rush. 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.