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Whew! That's the first word (or is it a sound?) that comes to mind after the Kansas Jayhawks slipped past the UCLA Bruins 99-98 in the first game of the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic. The Jayhawks came out on fire in the first half, nailing 7 of their first 8 shots. Eric Chenowith hit a short jumper for the first points of the game. Kirk Hinrich zipped a sweet passes to Drew Gooden for two and then dished another nice pass in transition to Kenny Gregory for a dunk. The Jayhawks were running up and down the court, scoring almost at will against a UCLA team that looked lost and confused. The Bruins failed to get back defensively on numerous occasions and the score showed it as KU bolted out to a 16-2 early lead. The Jayhawks looked great in the early going, with crisp passes into the low post, good spacing, good shot selection, smooth ball movement, and strong rebounding. KU seemed to be hitting on all cylinders, looking in midseason form as they built an impressive sixteen point lead at 24-8. Hinrich, Gregory and Boschee all dropped in three-pointers. Kenny Gregory was in a groove offensively, hitting 7 of 11 field goals in the first half on his way to 15 points. Eric Chenowith took the ball strong to the basket and continued to rebound aggressively. Nick Collison continued to be the consistent low post player we've come to know and love. Drew Gooden was typically active on both ends of the court. Mario Kinsey saw extra minutes (with Luke Axtell out due to an ankle injury) and made the most of it by handling the ball well and running the point with confidence. The Bruins started the game an embarrassing 2 for 11 from the field. And then, slowly but surely, UCLA woke up and hit 7 of their next 10 field goals. Earl Watson had back to back 3-pointers. Jason Kapono tossed in a couple of his own. At one point, UCLA was 6 for 13 from three-point range. In addition, the Bruins began getting more baskets in transition and in the paint. By the end of the half, UCLA had trimmed KU’s lead in "points in the paint" from 18-0 to 26-14. The Jayhawks went into halftime up only 57-51 after shooting 65% from the field. The second half got off to a sloppy start, with several "touch" fouls and several turnovers. The game see-sawed back and forth with various spurts for each team. While watching the second half, I noted various points in the game to see how the scoring was flip-flopping: -From the 13:46 mark to 11:49 left in the second half, UCLA went on a 10-3 run. -From 11:49 to 10:22, KU went on a 5-0 run. -From 10:22 to 9:43, KU went on a 7-1 run. -From 9:43 to 7:45, UCLA went on a 6-0 run. -From 7:45 to 3:56, UCLA went on an 11-6 run and tied the score. During those spurts, Kenny Gregory continued to dominate, grabbing an offensive board, while seemingly floating in the air, and putting it back in for two. Boschee nailed a 3-pointer. Hinrich nailed a couple of 3-pointers. Chenowith continued to rebound strong and made a nice move to the hoop for two. However, the Jayhawks also continued to foul, with Collison, Hinrich, Boschee and Chenowith all flirting with foul trouble in the second half. So here the Jayhawks were, having blown a sixteen point lead and facing a tie game with under four minutes to go. I kept asking myself, "How did this happen?" There was a lot of tension in the last four minutes as the game took on the look and feel of an NCAA Tournament game. Drew Gooden followed a miss with a strong rebound and putback for two…..and the foul. This got Eric and Kenny fired up as they high-fived and bumped chests. Kenny Gregory took an ill-advised 3-pointer with 1 minute left in the game. Eric Chenowith committed his fifth foul while pushing off trying to establish offensive position. And then, thankfully, Kirk Hinrich and Jeff Boschee finished the Bruins off with 6 clutch free throws to secure the win. This KU team definitely had flashes tonight of a much more mature, experienced team. They also had flashes of KU teams of the past that let large leads slip away. They pulled it out tonight, but they are going to need to develop a "killer instinct" when they get a team down like they did tonight. UCLA responded and fought off the adversity of the deficit and the Jayhawks let them. It’s early in the season and it’s still a win, but we definitely want to keep our eyes on that aspect of this year’s team. Regardless, this was a solid win against a quality opponent in the first official game of the season. We’ll take it. Nice job, Hawks!

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Keep Rockin’ and Chalkin’... MJ