A coach’s gag order silenced Colorado freshman David Harrison after Kansas’ 100-73 annihilation of the Buffaloes on Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse.

Earlier, it was the second-ranked Jayhawks who shut up the outspoken 7-foot, 240-pounder, running and gunning their way past a winded Harrison during a lopsided Big 12 basketball game.

“He didn’t say too much. He’s probably too tired to say anything,” KU junior forward Nick Collison said after scoring 20 points against Harrison 14 the first half as the Jayhawks blazed to an insurmountable 58-31 halftime lead.

KU led by as many as 42 points late before the Buffs’ starters outscored KU’s reserves, 15-0, to close the game.

“He struggled running up and down,” Collison said of Harrison, who made headlines by saying the Jayhawks would “get theirs” in Lawrence as revenge for KU’s 97-85 win in Boulder on Jan. 5.

Harrison who cussed after scoring a bucket and was called for a technical foul with three minutes left said various things in the press this week, most notably that he’d have to watch himself so he didn’t pull a ‘Shaq’ on the Jayhawks, meaning losing his temper and punching somebody like Lakers center Shaquille O’Neal did in a game against the Bulls last month.

“It was a little extra incentive, not a big deal. It was kind of funny to everybody. To read what they say is funny,” Collison said. “Those comments are made by a young guy who I don’t think knows the ropes yet, may be a little immature. It was probably a mistake on his part. He’ll probably learn.”

Collison took Harrison’s pregame comments to heart because he drew the defensive assignment on Harrison, who scored four points the first half while taking just three shots.

Harrison finished with 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting.

“I really wanted to take advantage of what I have, which is speed,” said Collison, who hit 10 of 17 shots on a day KU hit 49.4 percent to CU’s 38.4. “He is supposed to be the strongest man ever. I was going to try to go around him.”

Oh, yes, Harrison also said earlier he’s the strongest player in the Big 12 and could only be slowed the the refs’ whistles.

“There’s a lot stronger guys,” Collison said. “He IS the biggest center in the Big 12.”

Collison was one of three Jayhawks to score 20 points. Drew Gooden scored 20 on 8-of-18 shooting with 11 rebounds, while Jeff Boschee hit eight of 13 shots four of eight threes en route to 20.

“The game is to be sold, not told,” Gooden said of the Buffs’ penchant to talk. “It’s an old school saying. My dad always used to tell me you can show somebody better than you can tell ’em. Our focus was to let our play speak for ourselves, not our mouths.”

Gooden was happy to win decisively as the Jayhawks improved to 19-2 overall and 8-0 in the league. CU fell to 12-7, 3-5.

“We only beat ’em by 27? Man I wanted to get ’em worse,” Gooden said. “We had a 47-point lead with five or six minutes to go.”

Boschee was deadly from outside, hitting four of six shots the first half en route to 10 points.

“Anyone Joe Blow can sit there and trash-talk. It takes a man to step up and show it on the court,” Boschee said. “It’s stupid for us to mouth off back. Personally, I didn’t really read the paper. Not many of the guys read the paper. We get ourselves up for games. We don’t need to use trash-talking to get ready.

“Today we were able to get the ball inside and also shoot well from the perimeter.”

KU coach Roy Williams didn’t think the Buffs’ pre-game banter was a big deal. During the game, KU survived a couple of hard fouls a David Harrison foul of Kirk Hinrich early and a D.J. Harrison hack of Aaron Miles late.

“There were some things said. Personally, I don’t think our kids focused on that,” Williams said. “I can’t answer for every kid. I think we want to be ready to play every game. They focused on trying to get better as a team today.”

KU hit six of 15 threes and 14 of 23 free throws and held the Buffs to 6-of-21 three-point shooting in winning its 26th straight game against Colorado.

That’s right 26 straight and 19 straight in Lawrence over the Buffs.

“With all the stuff in the papers, you didn’t want to go out today and get outplayed,” Collison said.

KU will meet Kansas State at 8:05 p.m. Monday at Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan.