Related pages Coach Williams' comments Box score Season stats Possession analysis

Summary The Kansas Jayhawks clinched at least a share for the Big 12 championship tonight with a dominating performance and a 102-66 win over the Iowa State Cyclones. The Jayhawks started fast, racing out to a 16-2 lead, and never trailed in this game behind an outstanding defensive effort. Drew Gooden, looking very close to 100% after a bout with the flu, led Kansas on 12-16 shooting for 26 points and grabbed 9 rebounds. Nick Collison scored 16 and Wayne Simien added 15 as the Jayhawks had their way in the interior of the Cyclone defense. Kirk Hinrich was the only other Jayhawk in double figures with 10 points. Kansas, who earlier in the day ascended to #1 in both the ESPN/USA Today and AP polls, ran their record to 24-2 (13-0 in the Big 12). Next up, the Jayhawks travel to Lincoln to take on the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Sunday. Analysis This was a nice way to rebound from a sluggish performance against Baylor on Saturday. The Jayhawks dominated in virtually every phase of the game, as they simply ran the Cyclones out of the gym and coasted to victory. Some telling stats: the Hawks only turned the ball over 10 times, a season low. Kansas snatched 14 offensive rebounds vs. 16 DEFENSIVE rebounds for ISU. That means when KU would miss (which wasn't often in a 63% performance, they were just as likely as the defense to get the rebound. This stat and KU individual scoring numbers tell the entire story tonight... Iowa State could not contain the Jayhawk big men. Keith Langford, struggling lately, probably due to the freshman "wall," had a nice game. Keith scored 8 points (4-8 from the floor), grabbed a couple rebounds, dished out 3 assists, had two steals, and only turned the ball over once... playing 24 minutes. Langford was a huge factor off the bench early in the season but had faded a bit through the middle of conference play. He seemed back to his old self last night... slashing to the basket, running the floor, playing tough defense, etc. Langford will be very important in the NCAA tournament, because he provides a little size and slashing ability off the bench. Hopefully, this game was a breakthrough back to the early-season version of the freshman. Probably the biggest bright spot for the Kansas team was the defensive intensity they brought to the table. You always wonder how a team will respond to being #1 ranked, and the Hawks gave an early and resounding answer that it would not hinder their effort. When the second media timeout hit (8 minutes into the game), Iowa State had scored 4 points. I still contend that the ability to run the floor and get easy baskets is driven by hard-nosed defense. And if you play good team defense, you can overcome nights when you don't shoot the ball particularly well. This team has grown as the season has gone along, and I think they have bought in to that philosophy. I often say that it's hard to analyze blow out games like this one. That was true again tonight, making this a pretty short one. This game was the most difficult of the year to find anything to criticize about the team's play. They shot the ball well, defended well, protected the ball, and made smart decisions... as close to a complete game as you will see.

Email the author

Rock Chalk.... Robert