The Jayhawks faced a tough ballgame in front of a loud and hostile crowd for the first 30 minutes of this game. Once again the Jayhawks brought out a rare sell-out in a league opponents' arena, and the home fans were rabid for an upset. Playing somewhat frenetically in front of those frantic fans, the Jayhawks led by only nine at the half, and that was only due to a 12-3 surge in the closing five minutes that opened slightly what had been a dead even game the first 15 minutes.

In the second half, the Jayhawks were unable to expand upon that margin for the first nine and a half minutes. Texas A&M came out of the locker room with hot shooting, hitting three early three-pointers to cut the Jayhawks' lead back down to six points. The Jayhawks were able to open that lead back to 11 points. Then at the 10:30 mark the Aggies' gas tanks seemed to run out. Over the next six minutes the Jayhawks held them scoreless and clicked off a 14-point run that ended the game. The Aggies had nothing left. The last four minutes had the flavor of a ragged pick-up game as the Aggies jacked up poor shots and struggled to get back on defense.

It looked like Coach Williams' strategy was to run the Aggies into the ground. The Jayhawks forced the tempo at every opportunity to the point that they looked a tad impatient at times and a bit antsy. The Jayhawks missed a number of fast-break opportunities because of forced passes and forced shots, and the Jayhawks turned the ball over 17 times, higher by a fair margin than in recent games. But despite the slightly forced nature of the upped tempo, the strategy did force the Aggies to run and run and run.

The left hook set up by the jabbing nature of the forced tempo was KU's tremendous depth. Williams substituted early and even more often than he usually does. Often, Williams subbed four or five players at a time, running a fresh squad at the Aggies every five minutes. Beyond that, it was 80 degrees in Texas today, and Bob and Max commented several times how hot it was in the arena. It all seemed to take its toll mid-way through the second half. The Aggies jump shots all started falling short, they stopped trying to pound the ball inside and they became a step slower on defense. Once the Jayhawks got eight points into their 14-0 run and had the home team down 16, the Aggies seemed to sag and give in to the inevitability that they weren't going to beat the 8th-ranked Jayhawks.

One of the key statistics of the game was the rebounding numbers. The Jayhawks out-rebounded the Aggies 55-30, and 21 of the Jayhawks' rebounds came on the offensive end where they were often converted into scores. The Jayhawks did not shoot particularly well much of the game. They finished at a respectable 47% from the floor, but that number was inflated by a number of easy buckets the final 10 minutes. At the half the Jayhawks had converted only 41% of their shots and that percentage dropped early in the second half. But the Jayhawks' rebounding dominance gave them so many second chances that the Jayhawks were able to forge a double-digit lead mid-way through the second half, which set them up to make a knock-out run.

As always, the Jayhawks got balanced scoring. Gregory led the team with 15 points, followed closely by Collison with 14. Drew Gooden and Nick Bradford each scored 10 and Luke Axtell scored 9. Jeff Boschee had a rare off night. He snapped his streak of 53 games with at least one three-pointer, missing on all five attempts, and was uncharacteristically unsteady with the ball, committing three turnovers against only two assists. Hinrich, though, stepped up nicely with five assists in 15 minutes.

A couple of players deserve a special mention. First, Nick Collison. In two years we are going to look back on tape of Nick this year and marvel that he was ever so skinny. And, really, he isn't skinny now. But he has very big bones and is going to fill them out with a lot of muscle in the next two off-seasons and become an incredible force. With his shooting touch and already solid fundamentals, with a true power game to go with it he is going to be a joy to watch. As it is, he played a superb game tonight. He hit 6 of 8 shots, and they weren't easy shots. They were the 10-foot, turn-around shots that Raef made famous at KU. They were the kind of shots that make defenders shake their head knowing there wasn't anything they could do. And, he stayed out foul trouble, his Achilles heel as a freshman. It was great to see. Nick has been inconsistent, as all freshman are, but he has become less consistently inconsistent since the Christmas break.

Second, Luke Axtell. Luke scored only nine points, but he was very, very active all night. He hit two three-pointers in the first half, and both came at key times. Both times the Aggies had just taken a three point lead and both shots deflated the crowd like pin pricks in a birthday balloon. He got a number of steals and pulled down five rebounds. Luke is one of the wild cards for the Jayhawks. When he is good, he is very, very good. When he is pressing, be disrupts the offense. Tonight his play was a huge plus and put some of the steel into the KU's depth by coming off the bench and taking it to the Aggies.

Freshman of the Year: Bernard King, Texas A&M frosh is probably the leading candidate for Big 12 freshman of the year right now. He's put up big numbers, averaging 16.9 point a game. But he's had to put up a lot of shots to get those numbers. I'd take either Collison or Gooden over King, but the voters who simply look at scoring average may not see it that way. Tonight, though, Gooden and Collison out-played King by miles. Gooden had a double-double and shot 50% from the field. Collison not only had 14 points and 5 boards, but shot 6-for-8 from the field. King by contrast had only 8 points, hit only one of 10 shots from behind the arc and only three of 15 overall. On a mediocre team and allowed to shoot all night long, King will likely continue to put up big numbers, but he's not the best freshman in the league right now.

Tough stretch: The next couple of weeks could make or break the Jayhawks' season in terms of the conference race. The game tonight against Texas A&M is the start of a stretch in which the Jayhawks play six of eight games on the road. Included in the stretch are games at Missouri, Iowa St., Oklahoma St., Kansas St. and a non-conference game against Iowa. None of those games will be easy. Missouri has been off and on all season, but always, always play the Jayhawks tough in Columbia. Iowa St. has played well of late and will be no push over, and Kansas State, after their second-half comeback against the Jayhawks in Lawrence should be brimming with confidence. If the Jayhawks can get through that stretch with only one loss, the Jayhawks will be in great shape in the conference race. More than two losses and the Jayhawks will be playing catch-up through the second half of the conference race.

Lone Star Jayhawks: Since the first Big 12 season in 1996-97, Kansas has dominated the conference teams from Texas. Entering today's game the Aggies had lost by an average of 28.3 points to the Jayhawks. Overall, the Jayhawks have beating the Texas schools by an average margin of 21.7 points. The Jayhawks' only loss to a Texas school was the loss last season to Texas Tech.

Kansas is 53-7 against all Big 12 opponents. That figure includes a 9-0 mark in the Big 12 Tournament.

Notes:

The Jayhawks are shooting 48.5 percent from the floor and are holding opponents to just 39.6 percent. KU's rebound margin (+10.6) is the largest in the Big 12.

KU has made at least one three-point field goal in 92 consecutive games.