Kenny Gregory led the way offensively with 17 points, right at his season average, and KU’s freshmen twin towers, Drew Gooden and Nick Collison, also scored in double figures with 12 points each. But those three were the only Jayhawks to score in double figures as the Jayhawks fell 19 points below their season scoring average of 95 points.

The Jayhawks didn’t take their first lead of the game until the seven-minute mark of the first half on a Jeff Boschee three-pointer. Pepperdine hit four straight shots to open the game, including a three-pointer on their first possession, to open a six-point lead on the Jayhawks, 14-8, five minutes into the game. Pepperdine controlled the first 10 minutes of the game thanks to 11 turnovers by the Jayhawks during that span. The visitors were also effective at controlling the tempo, keeping the Jayhawks from getting out and running.

Coach Williams was evidently disgusted enough with the Jayhawks' play that he decided to send a message by inserting little-used walk-on Terry Nooner at the 10:45 mark with the Jayhawks trailing by 4 points, 16-12.

Even after the Jayhawks took their first lead with seven minutes to play in the half, they didn’t seize control of the game. The teams traded the lead for the next three minutes, and the Jayhawks ended the half with a scant 33-30 three-point lead.

Pepperdine managed to erase that lead four minutes into the second half with a three-pointer that put the Jayhawks on the down-side of a 42-41 score. Then Nick Bradford, who had been scoreless in the first half, took charge and scored the first two points of a 12-0 Jayhawk run. The Jayhawks leveraged that spurt into a 15-point lead at the nine-minute mark on a Luke Axtell three-pointer, his only basket of the game.

Pepperdine didn’t fold, though, and two minutes converted back-to-back three pointers to close the gap to single digits. With four minutes left Pepperdine had closed the game to eight points, 69-61 and had a player at the line shooting two free throws. With the prospect of the game soon being reduced to six points, the Allen Fieldhouse crowd was distinctly restless, perhaps recalling last years' late-game fold against Iowa at home. However, the visitors were unable to convert either of the charities, and the Jayhawks finished the game with a 7-0 run to push the lead to the final 15-point, 76-61 margin.

The Jayhawks were much steadier the second half, committing only 6 turnovers. Although only Gooden, Collison and Gregory cracked double figures, Jeff Boschee, Nick Bradford and Eric Chenowith each finished with 8 points. Ashante Johnson scored 4 points, Axtell scored 3 and London and Hinrich each scored 2 points.

Thoughts:
The Jayhawks certainly weren’t the running, scoring juggernaut they were in Alaska, but they did do something they weren’t able to do much in Alaska—work on the half-court offense. Pepperdine was effective at dictating the tempo, and the Jayhawks had very few fast-break opportunities. Even with the Waves turning the ball over 22 times, most of those turnovers were balls thrown out of bounds, which didn’t allow the Jayhawks to turn them into easy points. Consequently, most of the Jayhawks’ possessions required them to work for points going five on five.

You would have to give the Jayhawks first sustained efforts in the half-court offense only mixed reviews. The 14 first-half turnovers came mostly on efforts to pass the ball into the post. Gooden and Chenowith accounted for a third of the Jayhawks 20 turnovers by themselves. It seemed that they were working so hard to make the half-court offense work that they were forcing passes that just weren’t there. In the second half, they settled down and the half-court game worked well. Collison was especially effective in the half-court set, scoring all but two of his 12 points in the second half.

The player whose half-court game was the most impressive was Gregory. The knock on Gregory has been that he gets lost when the tempo slows down. Tonight, though, he scored 17 points and as far as I can recall didn’t have a single dunk. What he did get was four or five mid-range jumpers, the very shot that he’s seemed so reluctant to take but that he has to hit to make his game go in a half-court game. He also had some really pretty spin moves into the lane that yielded six-foot jumpers. In addition to leading the team in scoring, he tied Collison and Chenowith for rebounding honors with seven. Three of his rebounds were offensive, and my recollection is that he scored off of all three of them.

Boschee played a very nice game, as well, although it wasn’t translated into points. In 26 minutes he didn’t commit a turnover and dished four assists, upping his assist-to-turnover ratio for the season to a stellar 3-1. I also thought he played very solid defense on the ball. He didn’t score because he simply didn’t shoot very much. He attempted only two three-pointers, making one to extend to 27 his streak of games with at least one made three-pointer. He shot only four times overall.

Despite scoring only 8 points, Chenowith also played a better game tonight. He was much more aggressive in taking the ball to the basket, which makes a world of difference. He missed a couple of shots from point-blank range, but those are a lot easier to watch when he is otherwise attacking the basket.

Gooden attacks the basket instinctively and twice converted traditional three-point plays. Unfortunately, his 12-point game was almost overshadowed by his four turnovers. He’s actually lucky that number wasn’t higher. There were at least two occasions when he escaped committing another only because of great plays by KU players to save the ball. Drew is still learning that guys of his height should not be handling the ball for very long against a pressure defense. He’s actually a great ball-handler for a guy his size, and I’m sure in high school he was able to grab rebounds and dribble through traffic like a point guard leading a break. It doesn’t work as well for him at this level. He also has to learn that a flashy pass isn’t always a good pass. The thing is, when his judgment matures, both his passing and his dribbling will make him extraordinarily dangerous. Because he can dribble, he will be a great weapon in breaking down the full-court press and on the break, and because he can pass he will be able to set up his teammates for some easy buckets. Right now, though, he’s still learning when and wear to utilize those skills.

Collison wasn’t as flashy, but played a very solid game, with 12 points, 2 assists, 2 steals and 7 rebounds. For the first game this season he played markedly more minutes than Gooden, logging 25 to Gooden’s 16. < In fact, for the first game all season all five starters played at least 25 minutes. KU’s first four of the bench each logged minutes in the mid teens. In addition to Gooden with 16 minutes, Axtell played 15, Hinrich played 13 and London played 14 minutes. Lester Earl didn’t play because of a recurrence of knee swelling. That didn’t translate into more minutes for Ashante Johnson, though, despite his very strong play in limited minutes so far this season. He played 7 minutes, his season average, scored four points and grabbed two rebounds. I’d love to see Johnson get a chance to play more minutes, especially when Lester isn’t able to go, because he just seems to have a knack for putting the ball in the basket. With his injury last season and his his hisory bouncing to three different teams as a collegian it’s easy to root for him to have a memorable senior season. I suspect that the minutes played in this game will be close to what we see in most games that aren’t blow-outs at half-time. As important as is depth, it is hard to play 9 players roughly equal minutes and develop much of a rhythm. All-in-all this wasn't a particularly memorable game, but served to teach the Jayhawks a bit more about themselves. Hopefully those lessons will pay dividends on Sunday when they play their first true road game against Middle Tennessee St., which will be dedicating a new gym and should be quite eager to punctuate the event with a win over a top-ten team.

Notes:

• Kansas completed the decade with 29 consecutive victories in November games. KU lost its first November game of the 1990s -- 70-68 to Arizona State on Nov. 23, 1990 -- and never lost again in that month the entire decade.
• The Jayhawks re-entered the AP top 10 for first time since December of last season. The Jayhawks are currently ranked No. 6.
• Either Collison or Gooden has led Kansas in rebounding in every game this season.
• Kansas scored more than 95 points just once last season. KU has scored more than 95 twice already this year.
• Kansas has held opponents to less than 100 points in 321 consecutive games.
• KU has begun the season 5-0 for the fifth time in the last six seasons. The Jayhawks were 4-1 through five games last year.
• The Jayhawks have been ranked in the Associated Press poll 150 of the last 154 weeks.
• KU has made at least one three-point field goal in 81 consecutive games.
• The Jayhawks have out-rebounded all five opponents this season.
• Kansas has held all five opponents to less than 50 percent shooting in 1999-00. Pepperdine shot 45% tonight.
• The three Jayhawk freshmen have combined to average over 24 points per game. That's the most by a freshman class since the 1982-83 season when KU's four-man freshman class of Jeff Guiot, Kerry Boagni, Calvin Thompson and Ron Kellogg averaged 29.6 points per contest.
• Even more impressive are the 17.1 rebounds per game the triplets have combined for in 1999-00. No freshman class in Kansas history has combined to average more rebounds per game.