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Summary The University of Kansas' 13 game winning streak came to a screeching halt today when the UCLA Bruins handed them a 87-77 loss at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles. Matt Barnes led all scorers with 27 points, while Billy Knight added 20 to pace the home team. Drew Gooden led the Jayhawks with 22 points and 10 rebounds, but it wasn't enough, as UCLA held off a late charge by the Hawks to secure the victory. Kansas will fall from the #1 national ranking after just one week in the top spot, and they don't have much time to recover as they travel to Stillwater to take on the Oklahoma State Cowboys on Tuesday. Analysis Well, let's start with the good things we saw today. Kirk Hinrich played very well in a hostlie environment. He had 17 points on 6-10 shooting, including 5-6 from behind the arc. The only drawback: he fouled out with over 3 minutes to play and had to leave the game while the Jayhawks were making their last real run at pulling this one out. More good...Kansas played about as poorly as they have all year and were still in the game near the end on a pretty good opponent's home floor. This speaks volumes in separating this year's squad from the last couple. Last year, a team starting hot like UCLA did, while KU struggles to score, would lead to a game like the one against Wake Forest in Winston-Salem. Two years ago, same deal...except the opponent was Oklahoma State. UCLA had a definite opportunity to blow Kansas out today, but they couldn't. That shows a toughness from this team that is promising. Finally, let's avoid getting too down on our Jayhawks and not take anything away from an awfully good effort by the UCLA kids. That's a talented team they have, though they battle severe inconsistency. Kansas caught them on a day that they were playing pretty good basketball (was the USC loss caused by looking ahead to Kansas?). UCLA forced their will upon the Jayhawks, and it took the good guys too long to figure out an answer. This was a well played game by the Bruins. Now, on to the bad stuff. Coming into the game, the apparent advantage Kansas had over the Bruins was in forward play. Instead, Kansas's frontcourt was dominated at both ends of the floor. Don't let the stats at the end of the game fool you. no Kansas big man played well. Collison will shoulder most of the blame from fans, but Wayne Simien looked very freshman-like and Drew Gooden (outside of a flurry in the last 3 minutes) played probably his worst game of the year. At one point, our potential national player of the year candidate had three consecutive shots tossed into the crowd. That comment is not meant to single out Drew (or anyone else) as costing the Jayhawks the game--just to give the reader context that the stats might be a bit misleading in this one. I'm sure we will hear from many people calling this a classic case of Roy Williams being outcoached. I challenge these people to watch the film. First, Kansas players had every opportunity to succeed in this game. They just didn't execute. That happens sometimes when a group of 18-22 year-old kids go weeks without being beaten. It seemed that the Jayhawks weren't as focused as they needed to be, and it cost them today. On the bright side, this game doesn't hinder the near-term goal of winning the Big 12 conference championship at all. The sole output of this game is a drop in the national rankings, some fuel to opinions that KU isn't as good as advertised, and...with a little luck, a valuable learning experience for a team that relies on 3 true freshman in their 7-deep rotation. Simply put, missed shots and a lack of defensive intensity (at times) were the story here. Kansas shot just 41%, while allowing UCLA to shoot 53%. Another point some folks will make is the apparent effectiveness of the zone defense. Again, look at the tape. UCLA was getting plenty of good looks against the zone. They just weren't falling. That doesn't mean the defense was effective. The Jayhawks didn't take away what UCLA was trying to accomplish by playing zone. They were just lucky that the Bruins happened to miss some shots against it. In addition to that, Kansas had difficulty in finding bodies to block out while in the zone (the most commonly noted problem of that defense) and couldn't secure rebounds. The zone defense did a good job of forcing the Bruins to take longer shots than they would have liked at a time when they weren't hitting them (second half). In the first half, the zone was futile: the first two possessions KU ran it, UCLA hit a wide open 3. Honestly, even if the zone was/had been more effective...I think Kansas has the players this year to play man-to-man any time Roy wants to (which should be most of the time). Man-to-man is simply harder to play against. The constant motion it forces the offense to employ wears them down physically. The fact that there is always a hand in the passing lanes wears them down mentally. I'm not saying this should be like the NBA and everyone should play man-to-man on every possession. Zone defense is important and has its place. I think Kansas caused UCLA's freshman some problems when they'd show the zone. But I'm fairly certain that the bread and butter of this team will be uptempo basketball, which can only be accomplished by pressuring the ball and the passing lanes and trying to force turnovers. To fall back and play zone exclusively would be to allow the other team to dictate the pace of the basketball game. I think that goes completely against what KU tries (and has the personnel) to do. The middle of January is no time to scrap a defensive philosophy because you're having trouble in ONE non-conference game. I hope I have some support out there among Jayhawkers, but it seems to me that throwing in the towel after a hard-fought game on the road might be a bit premature. The sky is not falling. This team WILL learn from this loss. They SHOULD be better because of it. But at the very least, Coach has their attention for a couple of days before they travel to Stillwater to battle the Cowboys. This is probably my most controversial analysis. What can I say, I don't like losses any more than the next guy. Feel free to email me or post to the message board if your opinions are different. I'll do my best to respond.

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Rock Chalk.... Robert