The Jayhawks never seemed in danger of losing to Fairfield, but the game was much closer than the final 26-point margin until late in the second half. KU led by only five points five minutes into the game and didn’t manage a double-digit lead until the 11:30 mark, when the Jayhawks used a 10-point run to open a 14-point lead.

The Jayhawks momentum stalled at that point, though, and the Stags played the Jayhawks even the rest of the half. The Jayhawks went into the break leading 46-32. KU was led in the first half by a duo of freshmen. Drew Gooden had 7 points and Nick Collison scored 8 to pace the team. The Jayhawks shot a sizzling 58% in the first half, but were hobbled by 13 first-half turnovers, which kept the team from building momentum and putting the game firmly out of reach before the break.

The second half unfolded much like the first. Fairfield continued to play with a lot of intensity and made the Jayhawks work hard for their points. Over the first 8 minutes of the half, the Jayhawks were unable to increase their margin, leading only 62-47 at 11:46. Then Luke Axtell hit his first three-pointer as a Jayhawk and ignited a 9-2 KU run. KU slowly extended the lead over the last 10 minutes of the game, and the final 26-point margin was the team’s biggest lead of the game.

Coach Williams ended speculation about the Jayhawks’ starting lineup, at least for the moment, going with Boschee, Gregory, Bradford, Collison and Chenowith. In his pre-game comments Williams suggested that this lineup will be open for revision as the season progresses.

Kenny Gregory led the way for the Jayhawks with 19 points and 8 rebounds. He further stood out by not committing a turnover. Few other Jayhawks could make that claim. As a team the Jayhawks fumbled, mishandled and threw away the ball 22 times. Nick Bradford scored 13 and led the team with 6 assists. Both of KU’s freshman forwards scored in double figures. Nick Collison started, led the team in minutes played and scored 10 points. He also grabbed a team-high nine rebounds. Gooden scored 11 and pulled down 5 rebounds. Luke Axtell also hit double-figures in his debut as a Jayhawk with 12 points. Hinrich debuted with eight points and five assists.

Thoughts and Analysis
One should never discount a 26-point win, but the Jayhawks did not look particularly sharp against the Stages, who to their credit played a very scrappy game. The thing is, the tallest Fairfield starter was only 6-7 and they didn’t have KU’s depth. When one looks down the box score and sees that the Jayhawks out-rebounded the Stags 53-32, forced 30 turnovers and shot 53% from the field, you expect a 40- or 50-point blowout. It wasn’t that type of shellacking, though, because Fairfield hit 8 of 18 three-pointers, KU gave back 22 of those turnovers and played only spotty defense, giving the visitors far too many easy shots.

This game will probably serve as a useful wake-up call for the team heading into the Great Alaska Shoot-out Thursday. The Jayhawks had an easy time of it in their exhibition games and undoubtedly were feeling pretty good about themselves. Playing a real team is different, though, and Fairfield while small and not very deep, is a well-coached team that took advantage of the Jayhawks' defensive lapses. This game pointed out a lot of things the team needs to work on and should focus them heading into a series of more challenging games this weekend. The Jayhawks will find themselves in some very close games next weekend in they continue to make the kinds of mistakes they made tonight.

The Jayhawks are trying to integrate four new players and a new offense, so it isn’t realistic to expect them to begin the season in mid-season form. This game is best viewed as a first step toward better play; a game that will yield lots of opportunities for coaching.

The Good and the Bad:
Nick and Drew: Nick Collison and Drew Gooden both looked impressive for freshmen, although both had defensive lapses and combined for five turnovers. Both exhibited their versatility. Gooden hit a nifty jump-hook from 10 feet on the baseline while getting fouled, and drained a jumper from just inside the three-point line. Collison hit several jumpers from beyond the free-throw line. Both passed the ball well, and Collison finished with three assists. Both were active on defense. Sometimes that was a good thing—they were an asset in the press and in the trapping defense because of their quickness. Sometimes, though, they over-played in the half-court defense and got out of position.

Injuries: Lester was in street clothes because of a reoccurrence of knee troubles. Apparently he is having swelling again and his availability will be a game-to-game thing. With Lester out, Williams used a three-man rotation of Chenowith, Gooden and Collison in the paint. Johnson saw some minutes at power forward, but not enough to suggest that Williams is yet comfortable using him as part of the regular rotation. Collison played 25 minutes, the most minutes by any Jayhawk, Chenowith played 22 and Gooden 20. Johnson played only 9, with a third of those coming during mop-up time.

Boschee played only 12 minutes after turning an ankle while taking a charge mid-way through the first half. He started the second half, but was pulled from the lineup after only a few minutes and didn’t return because he was unable to effectively plant on it. It didn’t look like a serious sprain. Kirk Hinrich and Marlon London split point-guard duties the rest of the way.

Guard Play: KU’s guard play was spotty tonight. Kirk looked terrific at time. He has an ability to drive the lane that Jeff Boschee doesn’t, and generally played strong defense, especially in the trap and full-court press. But he committed four turnovers against five assists. Boschee had only two assists against four turnovers. London struggled at times trying to bring the ball up court and managed only one assist. For this team to reach its potential Kirk and Jeff need to combine for a two-to-one assist to turnover ratio. I like the idea of Marlon being available to play the point, but tonight at least he looked much less comfortable bringing the ball up than do either Jeff or Kirk.

Chenowith: With 7 rebounds tonight Eric is only one shy of 500 for his career. He had a surprisingly quiet night tonight, though, with only 7 points. Against Fairfield’s small front line he had a chance to dominate, but was relatively passive. At one point he grabbed an offensive rebound a foot from the hoop and missed an unguarded put-back because he attempted to lay it in rather than stuffing it through the rim. Several time he got the ball stripped because he brought the ball down to his waste where shorter players could get at it. That's a freshman mistake. He blocked 5 shots, but was only 2-of-6 from the field. Williams surprised folks last week when he said that Eric wasn't a lock to be in the starting lineup.Tonight, though, he didn't clearly out-play either Gooden or Collison, both of whom lack his height but are playing better in other ways.

Nick and Kenny: Williams said early this week that Nick and Kenny were the two guys who were locks to be in the starting linup and they both played that way. If someone can name a player who has improved more from his freshman to senior season than Nick I’m all ears. I can’t. He was a little sloppy the first five minutes, but after that was terrific in all facets of the game. He was 6 of 7 from the field, led the team with 6 assists, led the team in steals and grabbed 4 rebounds.

Kenny was the player of the game for the Jayhawks. Most of his points game in transition or on the secondary break and he hit only one jumper from more than five feet, but he was very active and played a terrific game.

Luke: Luke is still not in game shape and nearly air-balled his first three-point attempt. As well, or perhaps as a result, his defense was spotty. He overplayed the passing lanes on several occasions and left his man open for easy buckets as a result. But he added a lot to the offense. Twice he seemed to be caught out of position with the ball only to wriggle open and drain tough jumpers. And the enthusiasm he showed pumping his fist when he drained his first three-pointer was just plain fun to watch. Luke's long-range shooting will come around when he gets his leg-stamina back. Playing the small forward spot at 6-10 he's going to give defenses fits, though, and provide a nice change of pace when he subs for Nick Bradford.

Half-Court Offense: KU didn’t look particularly crisp in the half-court offense. Williams took responsibility for part of that. Fairfield played a lot of zone, and Williams noted after the game that he hadn’t spent much time in practice installing the zone offense. But when Fairfield did play man-to-man KU looked a bit lethargic running the new man-to-man offense. One would guess that will be a point of emphasis in practice this week.

Great Alaska Shootout: KU will begin to see some real competition this weekend at the Great Alaska Shootout. The other teams in the eight-team field include Georgia, Louisville, Georgia Tech, Xavier, Washington, Grambling, and University of Alaska, Anchorage. KU opens against Georgia. They will play either Xavier or Louisville in the second round. While none of these teams are top 25 teams, both Georgia Tech and Xavier received votes in the AP poll and Georgia and Washington each play in major conferences. KU will be favored in any game they play in the tournament, but except perhaps against UAA will have to play solid basketball to win. This weekend should provide a good test of how good the team can eventually become and how long it will take them to get there.

Walk-ons: Terry Nooner remains the only walk-on on the roster. Approximately 30 people tried out to be a walk-on but nobody was selected. This was pretty much expected since the Jayhawks have a full complement of 14 players.

Fighting Irish: I’ve never been a big Notre Dame fan, but with former KU assistant Matt Doherty now at the helm I think I’m going to be. If you missed watching Matt’s team go into No. 6 Ohio State’s gym and knock them off with a buzzer-beating shot in Matt’s debut as head coach you missed a whale of a game. My son and I were off our chairs high-fiving as the game wound down and the Irish continued to fend off furious charges by the Buckeyes. The reward for Notre Dame is a second-round game and then, with a win, a Thanksgiving trip to New York. The reward for KU fans is that we now have another team along with Jerry Green’s Tennessee, Steve Robinson’s Florida State, Kevin Stalling’s Vanderbilt and Mark Turgeon’s Jacksonville State to root for as part of the KU extended family.